Freaks Anon, a Playlist

Freaks Anon is a supernatural superhero tale, a novel that’s as much urban fantasy and historical fiction as it is horror and sci-fi. It’s a nexus point between a host of passions, including music.

So much of Freaks Anon is inspired by music that I decided to replace the typical chapter format with “tracks,” essentially creating a mix tape within the novel. Each song speaks to events, a character, or theme...

Track 1. Ripple. The Church. “You’re a human sacrifice…”

Track 2. Apron Strings, by the fictional Nigel Crown. Imagine this as a Morrissey song.

She strangles you with apron strings

Clips the tips of your fledgling wings

You’ll never fly high and wild

No, mother and child

So run, run, run, run, run, run, run…

Run from you mum, son

Track 3. Making Plans for Nigel. XTC.

Track 4. Ugly American Girl. Panic Attack. Nigel Crown’s band before going solo. I like to think they sounded like The Adverts.

Track 5. Sensoria. Cabaret Voltaire. This worked on so many levels.

Track 6. Disguises. The Jam.

Track 7. Sound of Thunder. Duran Duran.

Track 8. They Said Tomorrow. Abecedarians.

Track 9. My Death. Scott Walker.

Track 10. Look Back in Anger. David Bowie.

Track 11. Tall Ships Go. Big Country.

Track 12. Louis Quatorze. Bow Wow Wow.

Track 13. Nite Flights. The Walker Brothers.

Track 14. A Means to an End. Joy Division. A chapter about murder, the most classic means to an end...

Track 15. Crazy Wisdom. Section 25.

Track 16. I Liked You Better When You Were Dead. The Names. “Cuts the blade…You are there…chest wide open. Cry cry lullaby. Rotten flesh. I don’t know why you came this way. You better leave again.”

Track 17. Confusion. New Order. “You cause me confusion…”

Track 18. Red Headed Stranger. Willie Nelson.

Track 19. Don’t Change. INXS. Don’t? Can’t.

Track 20. One Step Ahead. Split Enz.

Track 21. The Endless Sea. Iggy Pop. You’re a failure. “Go home, buddy.”

Track 22. What Goes On. The Velvet Underground. “What goes on in your mind? I think that I am falling down. What goes on in your mind? I think that I am upside down.”

Track 23. Naked Part. Panic Attack. Another Panic Attack song. This time, imagine Pulp. If I only could emulate Jarvis Cocker’s wordplay though...

I’m no history buff

Got no love for the past

Dates and all that stuff

Never built to last

But when you ring again

My heart skips a beat

You come like a boomerang

Cuz history…repeats

I find, I find

Conversation’s a lost art

So lose it and lose your clothes

And let’s get…to the naked part

I can’t, I can’t

Take all the stops and starts

So take off or take it off

And get to the naked part

You run your mouth

About all your foreign walks

A photo’s worth a thousand words

And it doesn’t need to talk

You’re as pretty

As a tropical postcard

So let me behold what I wanna hold

And get on to the naked part!

Track 24. Talk about the Past. The Wake.

Track 25. Show of Strength. Echo & the Bunnymen. “Guts and passion.”

Track 26. Hero. Neu!

Track 27. Both Ends Burning. Roxy Music.

Track 28. Of All the Things We’ve Made. OMD. “To want this. Of everything we made.”