Kim Fowley may have well invented the swear word, because he elevated scum-sucking perversion to an entirely new level. Anyone familiar with his entries in  Please Kill Me and/or tangentially aware of his involvement with the Runaways and early-70s Sunset Strip arcana is well informed of Fowley’s foul spiritual-Tourette’s epistemology, but this one-off near-hit single is classic Fowley in his unabashed, eternally horny approach to life. And, Fowley’s hamfisted performance here aside, perhaps the best part of the song is the obviously hired (or otherwise coerced) girl singer’s half-assed coo, "ooh animal man, you’re so big… and so rough" that sums up Fowley’s, ahem, penetration into the pop culture schism between Hollywood and the Valley of the late 70’s — N’er the twain shall meet. Punk rock in 1968. Today, it’s called Hot Topic, and at your local mall. Regardless, this song is fucking hilarious on many levels. And, if you’re dying for a current dose of Fowley hipsterism, hop on down to Hollywood on nearly any given night and dig the corporate sponsorship and corporate rock on the ironic DJ decks for hours unlimited. It’s not lame enough that rock shows like the Pringles/Depend Undergarments/Coco-Puffs Summer Fun Jam have become one overly-ballyhooed marketing fest. Now, corporate sponsors are buying up DJ nights at bars, in order to reach young, actively consuming "markets" like yourself. But, the funniest thing is, no contemporary Mayor of Sunset Strip would ever dare touch material like Kim Fowley’s "Animal Man." Which not only proves how entirely dead the concept of "punk" may be, but even its glam-rock precursors, corporate shills they may be, are no match for today’s Chevrolet.

(Download - "Animal Man")