Freakshow: Misadventures in the Counterculture, 1959-1971

by Albert Goldman

The pop-music critic for Life, Albert Goldman also wrote for the New York Times , Commentary , and several other magazines. Freakshow collects over 50 pieces that examine entertainment and pop culture of the sixties, written with a fan's adoration and a cynic's eye for self-indulgence and willing exploitation. His subjects include rock stars (Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Elvis, and many more), jazz musicians (John Coltrane and others), blues legends (such as B. B. King), comedians (e.g. Lenny Bruce and Rodney Dangerfield), novelists (Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe), and topics that defy categorization—Tiny Tim, the Rockettes, and psychedelics. Writing in flamboyant, idiosyncratic prose, Goldman's account of pop's most explosive ten years is as provocative and alarming as ever.

Genres: Music

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2001

Reviews

[Ross Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this in the mid 90s and it opened my eyes to the idea that rock music could be looked at in a scholarly way. Goldman left the academic scene to check out all matters of popular culture. His books on Elvis and Lennon are controversial due to some of his more extreme conclusions. However, it's still an interesting collection of essays and important for anyone who wants to add to the Marcus, Bangs, Christgau perspective of the scene.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

To quote a song by a band from somewhere in the Great NW (90's gold rush): "No-one sings like that any more."

There's a LOT of Goldman here, an outpouring, an open hydrant of sometimes-indulgent but almost always worth-it pop (mostly)-cultural critique from perhaps the last age when pop music was truly deserving of and could hold it's own against an educated and open-minded older critic seeking to find connection between the culture he grew up on and What Do These Young People Think They Are Doing?

[Grindy Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldman's Lennon and Elvis rock bios are the best of the genre, and some of these essays are top-shelf ("Tommy: Rock's First Opera," "SuperSpade Raises Atlantis"). But some essays are cringey ("Polymorphous Eroica: Jim Morrison"), dated (the long essay on Jewish humor), or just wrong ("Why do Whites Sing Black?").