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

Luke Haines - the outsider artist par excellence - turns his caustic eye to the rise and fall of alternative rock 'n' roll heroes.

<p>The followers - this book is not for you.<br>The salt of the earth - this book is not for you.<br>The worthy - this book is not for you.<br>The ideologists - this book is not for you.<br>Hedonists and bohemians - this book is not for you.<br>The middlebrow - this book is not for you.<br>The highbrow - this book is not for you.<br>Dilettantes - this book is not for you.<br>1970s middle school RE teachers - this book is not for you.<br>The England football team (women's and men's) - this book is not for you.<br>The litanists - this book is not for you.<br>Gatekeepers - this book is not for you.<br>Gamekeepers - this book is not for you. (Not even for the poachers...)<br>The curators - this book is not for you.<br>The left, the right - this book is not for you.<br>The list-makers - lists are for shoppers not rockers, and this book is not for you.<br><br><b>This is not a list - this is a manifesto, and this book is for ... the Freaks.</b><br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br>Part memoir, part manifesto, <i>Freaks Out!</i> is a righteous alternate history of rock 'n' roll.</p>