Frank Zappa
Thou Shalt Not Kill
FZ:
You always see the future by looking backwards, okay? Let's look backwards (ROCK 'N ROLL!). 1950. Rock 'n roll was born. It's an awkward youth with a sense of humor, a lot of raw emotion and a terrible reputation because it's a juvenile delinquent.
Ten years later it grows a conscience, and it's getting the bad rap because, "Hey, look what you're doing with the war, you mongoloids with the long hair and all this stuff, you know."
In the 70s it goes suburban, corporate rock comes in. It blands out. The 80s arrive. Everybody bends over, you know? Falwell pulls a string, the enema comes out, the entire industry goes, "Hey! Thanks a lot! We needed that!" Okay?
Broadcasters have bent over, the record companies bent over, the songwriters either out of ignorance—they weren't informed of what was happening or they just wanted to keep their mouth shut to protect their interest. Nobody said anything.
And meanwhile these women with the collars up to here who sit there like that, and with husbands in high places, are going around doing the most outrageous things with your rights. You know, they chose the record industry because it's very easy to make fun of people who look and act different than you.
They love it that somebody from Mötley Crüe has got hair out like this and make-up and this stuff, you know, and they show pictures and, "Look at this! Do you want your child to . . . ?", you know. That. They've been doing that since the beginning—They did it with Elvis Presley. You know before that they did it with the fact that a lot of the performers were black. "Do you want your children listening to music by negroes?"
You know it took years before they could even get that kind of music on white people's radio stations. And then white people suddenly say, "Hey, big money here." Boom. Rock 'n roll.
But, what they're doing now is very— it's critical at this point now because unless somebody stands up and says, "This has gotta stop now," the 90s are not going to be bent over, they're gonna be lying down. They're either gonna be lying down or they're gonna be walking like this, just like the people in Red China.