I have no problem with being classified as a Music Freak. I think it’s a reasonably cool thing to be.
Over the years various friends and acquaintances have classified me, mostly but not always fairly under various other categories of Freak.
The Gralton, for example, claimed I turned the kids in my class into little hughsoids - strange creatures with a warped sense of humour and a tendency to walk around saying things like why did Captain Cook?
Looking at my class one day and asking where I’d found this motley crew produced a wonderful reaction from eleven-year-old Bugs. Drawing himself up to his full four foot nothing he fixed the Big Red Man with a steely gaze.
We copied off you.
If you travel back to that era around the late sixties, freak was the term used to label someone with an almost overwhelming affinity for something-or-other. For example, there were dope freaks, booze freaks, sports freaks and whips-and-leather freaks.
And, of course, music freaks.
You don’t need a formal background in music to be a music freak.
In fact I should point out at this stage that I don’t even have an informal background when it comes to the theory and structure of music, but I do have an affinity for listening to different stuff and a desire to unearth different stuff to listen to.