[Pen-l] Wildman Larry Fischer

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We just watched a documentary about Wild Man Larry Fischer, whom I used to 
know a bit in Berkeley in 1965.  He used to come to our house on Thursday 
evenings, when we had open house.  All sorts of characters used to come, 
including, for a while some other people from the Sexual Freedom League, 
although nothing sexual ever happened.  Saul Landau filmed part of a 
documentary about Jerry Rubin one of the occasions, but he said he never 
finished the project because he was not very positive about Rubin.

Wild Man Larry Fischer never sang at our house. At the time, he billed 
himself as a human jukebox, playing music by slapping, hitting, and pushing 
various body parts.  Neither I nor my roommates ever engaged in any serious 
conversation with him.

We did not see him for a while.  When he returned he told us that Frank 
Zappa had held him as a prisoner in his basement several months.

The documentary showed him as a very talented, paranoid schizophrenic, 
admired by many people in the music business.  But nobody ever got close to 
him.

I watched the film with a sense of shame.  If others who shared his talent 
and interests never got close, of course, I wouldn't	have.  Even so, I 
was more taken with his strangeness than his humanity.  I never had a clue 
about the demons were torturing him, but maybe some signal of sympathy 
might have been a appreciated.
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l