Evergreen Review
1970 August
Vol. 14 No. 81
'50s Teenagers And '50s Rock
By Frank Zappa, as told to Richard Blackburn, pp 43-46
D.A.'s and peggers. Muddy Waters. Joe Houston. Hank Ballard. Elvis. "I Was A Teenage Werewolf." The Penguins. A guided tour by today's iconoclast of Rock who says; "Things look like they've changed more than they have."
All teenagers are fad-conscious and follow the leader. Because of this, a certain ideal image will usually come to pervade an entire school. During the '50s, I went to four separate high schools. Although each was in Southern California, their images were distinctly different. I went, in chronological order, to Claremont High School in Claremont, Grossmont High School in El Cajon near San Diego, Mission Bay High School in San Diego, and Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, where I graduated. (read more)