LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS WILD MEN

I hope Wild Man Fischer never has to grow up. I hope he can just go on doing his thing. Just exactly what that ‘thing’ is, I can’t say. Certainly it lives inside him, down in the heart of all things. His career began, I believe, at Sorrento Beach, a littered piece of beach in Santa Monica. Larry Fischer was trying to make it with the pretty, sun-bronzed high school kids. He was shy and he sang. It was what he did, and he grunted and groaned louder than anybody, and made everybody take notice of him. He was committed to a mental institution twice. He just wanted to sing. He sang for change on the streets of Hollywood and made a double album for Frank Zappa. The record (‘An Evening With Wild ' Man Fischer’) is a razor-edged, flipped-out, beautiful document of the times when rock music was the great dream, and when Larry Fischer -lived it. He wanted to make music and be liked by people. He’s taken a lot of shit. For his story, listen to the record. This is just to tell everybody that Wild Man’s still around and dreaming. Wild Man Fischer is one of the complete originals of rock ‘n ’ roll. He isn ’t just another pretty face.

At a little before noon, on a muddy January day, the door banged open without having been knocked on. There was a fiery, wiry, wild-eyed young man standing in the door. “What do you want?” he asked. “Why do you want to interview me?” He whirled around, on guard. HQ shook his head, blew a long sigh, until he was nearly breathless. “Come in, Larry,” I said. He smiled, and said, “All right.” Wild Man Fischer came in, sat down, and faced me sleepily.