The impulse for artists & musicians to form their own record labels are many. But often these endeavours are little more than vanity projects for which enthusiasm wanes when the first rush of releases fail to take off
- leaving charity stores & flea markets awash with the unsold booty of such initially ambitious enterprises. But on occasion, proceedings in a sideline of this nature can prove not just sustainable but fascinating, profitable & wholly worthwhile; a task made a little easier when the boss is a bit smarter that the average guitar hero! So it was with Frank Zappa. Desperate to remove himself from his original deal with Verve Records, in 1968 he set up the Bizarre & Straight labels in league with manger Herb Cohen, & so began a string of releases by notorious paranoid schizophrenic & part time songwriter, Wild Man Fischer, ex-groupies the all female GTOs, acapella gospel collective The Persuasions, the first clutch of Alice Cooper records, Tim Buckleys.. .