[Why do] they love him, this over-40 veteran of the strip circuit and the sleazy clubs, who had become more or less famous without ever making it big?

What, in short, had—has—Lenny Bruce to do with [the] counter culture?… Lenny never, rigorously never, said "look away" or "look higher" or "deeper." Lenny always said "look squarely at." [J.R.R.] Tolkien, sure. [Hermann] Hesse, sure. [Robert] Heinlein, fascist implications and all, sure; you remember about that, too. But Lenny.

Was it because Lenny had had a drug bust? Identification? Hell, Robert Mitchum had a drug bust. Why not Bill Graham Presents In Concert GENE KRUPA? And anyway Lenny never talked about "the psychedelic experience," or any of the rest of that mid-'60s Learyesque Huxterism that made such good songs for Hair.

Was it some prophetic quality? Ralph J. Gleason has suggested that. But he is...