Freaks Out!: Weirdos, Misfits and Deviants – The Rise and Fall of Righteous Rock ’n’ Roll

by Luke Haines

The followers - this book is not for you.
The salt of the earth - this book is not for you.
The worthy - this book is not for you.
The ideologists - this book is not for you.
Hedonists and bohemians - this book is not for you.
The middlebrow - this book is not for you.
The highbrow - this book is not for you.
Dilettantes - this book is not for you.
1970s middle school RE teachers - this book is not for you.
The England football team (women's and men's) - this book is not for you.
The litanists - this book is not for you.
Gatekeepers - this book is not for you.
Gamekeepers - this book is not for you. (Not even for the poachers...)
The curators - this book is not for you.
The left, the right - this book is not for you.
The list-makers - lists are for shoppers not rockers, and this book is not for you.

This is not a list - this is a manifesto, and this book is for ... the Freaks.

Musician and author Luke Haines embarks on an odyssey through the ages, exploring how the 'freaks' infiltrated modern culture - and almost won the rock 'n' roll wars - only to lose to the rise of Cool Britannia and TV 'talent' shows that turned the strange and the outsiders into fodder for laughter.

In this ultimate celebration of freakdom, Haines tells the story of pivotal freaks - including Johnnie Ray, Gene Vincent, Hank Marvin, Syd Barrett, the Incredible String Band and Big Youth - through the prism of rock 'n' roll and explains how freaks infiltrated wider culture through history in the form of the Cathars, the Ranters, Hells Angels and the Yippies.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Freaks Out! is a righteous alternate history of rock 'n' roll.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published March 28, 2024

About the author

Luke Haines is an English musician, songwriter and author, who has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.

Reviews

[Alan Burrows · Rating 1 out of 5]

A "Freak" wouldn't call himself a "Freak".
A "Freak" wouldn't write a book about "Freaks".
A wannabe "Freak" would labour his rehearsed points/stories like a sixth former keen to know off his wackiness by talking about the Scoville scale and his limited knowledge of The Seeds in a kitchen at a party - the same stories to a new bored audience every week - as an adult!

Old clothes don't make a tortured artist.

Ps The "original" Velvet Underground included Angus MacLise, who left the band as they were about to play a paid gig. He died of malnutrition in Nepal. He wouldn't have even thought about being a "Freak".

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just too much sneering. Too much pretentiousness. Falls into the Lenny Bruce trap. Bruce was nowhere near as important to comedy, nowhere near as entertaining or even as funny as many people would have him regarded. A great many pretend to like him to avoid the social suicide of declaring to their peers they don't like him.More importantly Lenny Bruce was nowhere near as important, valuable or useful to society as Lenny Bruce believed he should be, simply because Lenny Bruce thought he was above it, or as this author states in the book,"unlike most rockstars, I was intelligent" when trying to explain his incredulity that he and his band were not famous. Lenny Bruce is of course name checked in one of the authors most well known songs, "Junk Shop Clothes" Yes. The pretentiousness was always strong in this one.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few interesting thoughts on music but overall this felt like grand self-mythologising from that really annoying dude at your local record shop. Had a real air of insufferable middle age man.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not for me.
I loved parts of this book, cleverly revealing lots of snippets of rock history that I wasn’t aware of.
I’m not a freak though I have created my own music.
If you can get past the sometime sneeriness there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Having said that, as with facts & witty prose on finishing the book I’ve forgotten 95% of it.

[Mr K Hutchings · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked Lukes last 2 books then this will make you happy. Sneering, opinionated and doesn't take it too seriously (although some may take it that way). I love the way he writes and the anecdotes he has to tell. Volume 2?

[Rog Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

As expected, hilarious & opinionated - not for anyone who's a Prince or Britpop fan. Loved it.

[Lars B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luke Haines spasser ud og elaborerer syret og sygt indforstået om dét at være Freak eller ikke Freak. Det er bedst, når forfatteren vikler egne erindringsspor ind i lydbilledet. Her fornemmer man bedst projektets præmis, og som bogen skrider frem, er der steder hvor skriften går i rablende tomgang. Det rokker dog ikke ved, at Haines kender rockhistoriens glemmesteder og kan føre dig inspireret på sporet af fabelagtigt fede freakoramaer.