Learning The Game: How John Lennon Learned to Stop Worrying and Love His Inner Geek

LONG BEFORE "POST-MODERN" became pure jargon, Buddy Holly put quotes around his "normalcy" to disarm rock machismo. Holly, the "King of the Sixth Grade," hiccupped his hormones out loud, flipping everybody's high school jitters into metaphor. His futuristic Stratocaster guitar gave his horn-rimmed glasses sudden but certain panache, and in a style crowded with "hipsters," "Marlon Brando with a guitar" (as Jackie Gleason dismissed Elvis Presley, Holly pushed "normal" to extremes.