I Was A Teenage Malt Shop

Lyrics

I was a Teen-age Malt Shop! Ha ha!

Players On This Song

Don Van Vliet: vocals
Frank Zappa: guitar
"Motorhead" Sherwood: guitar
Vic Mortenson: drums

Records On Which This Song Has Appeared

Mystery Disc

Notes About This Song

• This song was recorded in 1963 at Studio Z. It was originally part of an opera, "I Was A Teenage Malt Shop", thought up by Zappa and with Don Van Vliet as the character Captain Beefheart. The opera was never performed or finished, but several songs that were written for the project would later turn up on Zappa's records, like Ned The Mumbler, Ned Has A Brainstorm, My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama and Status Back Baby.

"It was supposedly about a kid, Ned the Mumbler, who came into one of these small closed-up towns where they didn't allow rock 'n 'oll and so he wrote these songs. He was going to get the whole town singing and enjoying music." (Jim "Motorhead" Sherwood, cited in BARNES, Mike, "Captain Beefheart",Quartet Books, 2000, page 12.)

• Ned the Mumbler was based on the characters Ned & Nelda from the single, "Hey Nelda".

• Includes a quotation from Needles & Pins.