Freaks Out!: Tarados, raros e inadaptados: Ascensión y caída del rock and roll como Dios manda

by Luke Haines, David Paradela (Translator), Carles Murillo (Cover Art)

Este es un libro sobre freaks y para freaks pergeñado por un freak mayúsculo. En su última locura, Luke Haines traza una historia secreta y subterránea del rock a partir de sus más eminentes tarados. Con un humor desquiciante y acidísimo y una lucidez prodigiosa, el otrora líder de The Auteurs y Black Box Recorder —entre otras muchas encarnaciones— ha escrito un manifiesto para enmarcar y probablemente uno de los volúmenes más divertidos de la literatura musical. Por estas páginas reptan bichos raros de la talla de Gene Vincent, los Shadows, la Incredible String Band, Jim Morrison, T. Rex, Gary Glitter, Lou Reed, Morrissey, The Fall, los Go-Betweens, las chicas Manson y un hatajo de villanos de lucha libre ataviados con leotardos, amén de otras criaturas espeluznantes. Freaks Out! es una reivindicación maravillosa de la otredad y la anomalía que sin duda alguna es lectura no apta para la gente normal.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2025

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.

[WhimsyBetweenThePages · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Luke Haines only added that only stupid people use the word pretentious because he knew he was, in fact, being pretentious throughout this entire, absolute bore and somewhat informative essay of a book.

[Pablo Herraiz · Rating 1 out of 5]

No soy tan freak. Me pierdo en un galimatías de nombres y referencias que mi desconocimiento transforma en tedio. Acabo odiando un poco al autor por listillo aunque es cierto que nada como un inglés listillo para echarte unas risas.
43 notas a pie de página en las primeras 85 páginas y al final no deja de ser un anecdotario de grupos que jamás me gustaron. Una decepción.

[Javier Bollain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Todo el sarcasmo Britanico, y la verdad que esta muy bien si llevas mucho tiempo tendon musica, di no te pierces con los nombres