GG Allin

GG Allin
File:GgAllin.jpg GG Allin, 1993
Background information
Origin	New Hampshire/Boston, MA
Years active	1978—1993

GG Allin (29 August 1956 – 28 June 1993) was a punk rock singer and bandleader who performed and recorded with many groups during his career.

He is best remembered for his notorious live performances that typically featured wildly transgressive acts such as Allin defecating onstage, committing self harm, and violent actions towards the audience. Although more notorious for his stage antics than for his wide body of music, he recorded prolifically, not only in the punk rock genre, but also in spoken word, country and western and Rolling Stones-influenced rock.

Childhood

He was born Jesus Christ Allin at Weeks' Memorial Hospital, in Lancaster, New Hampshire.[1] He was given this messianic name because his father, Merle Allin, Sr. (a religious and antisocial man), then 32 years old, had told his wife, Arleta Gunther, then 21 years old, that an angel had visited him and told him that his newborn son would be a great man in the vein of the Messiah. [2] [3] As a young child, his older brother, Merle Allin, Jr., was unable to pronounce "Jesus" properly and kept calling him "Jeje", which became "GG". The family lived in a log cabin with no water or electricity. Allin's father, who forbade all conversation in the home after dark, was reportedly physically abusive and mentally unstable, though GG himself never used this as an excuse for any of his own eccentricities.

Shortly before Allin started school, his mother changed his legal name to Kevin Michael Allin (on March 2, 1962 by his birth certificate). Arleta had allowed his birth name to stand until this point. However, with her husband's deteriorating mental health, his mother changed his name in order to give Allin a chance at a normal, mockery-free childhood.

GG was considered a misfit from junior high on, and was placed in special ed classes and left back a year. He was known to rebel by showing up to school dressed in drag (his 11th grade school picture depicts him this way). When asked about his childhood, GG has been quoted as saying "Very chaotic. Full of chances and dangers. We sold drugs, stole, broke into houses, cars, etc. Did whatever we wanted to for the most part - including all the bands we played in. People even hated us back then." [4]

Early career

Some of his earliest recorded musical endeavors were as a drummer. At high school, he had a penchant for provocative theatrics early on. At one early gig (a high school dance), he pulled down the decorations and everyone cheered. One early gig even started a riot. He wrote two songs with the band Malpractice in 1977 and also played drums on the single ("Galileo"/"Jesus Over New York") for the band Stripsearch in 1981.

His first years as a frontman were with the Jabbers (1977 – April of 1984). The Jabbers recorded a number of tracks for which Allin played drums and performed vocals. Out of these years came Allin's debut release, Always Was, Is, And Always Shall Be. At the time, Allin was a standard punk rock frontman in the vein of Iggy Pop and Stiv Bators. He was even managed at one point by industry veteran (and Dead Boys producer) Genya Ravan. Tensions within The Jabbers began to mount as Allin became increasingly uncontrollable, vicious, and uncompromising. The Jabbers discontinued, and the members parted ways. Allin's drug use started during this period.

Between the early to the late 1980s, Allin fronted many acts. These included early albums varying from The Cedar Street Sluts to The Scumfucs in 1982, and The Texas Nazis in 1985. However, Allin remained in the underground punk scene and was not yet a viable punk icon of the east coast punk scene. On March 13, 1986, a daughter was born to Allin and Tracy Deneault. Little is known about the child, Nicoann Deneault. It has been speculated that the small picture in GG's left hand at his funeral may be of Nicoann, though it most likely a picture of a very young GG Allin [5] [6]. Tracey Deneault and GG never married. Tracey was a teenage girl Allin took up with when his wife, Sandra Farrow - his childhood sweetheart and a model, divorced him. Allin retreated to a cabin in New Hampshire where he wrote what he considered to be his first "masterpiece", Eat My Fuc.

Though still a marginal figure, Allin first came to wider attention with the release by Reachout International Records (ROIR) of Hated In The Nation (1987), a cassette-only release at the time, which contained several tracks from Allin's then-out-of-print back catalogue with The Jabbers, The Scumfucs and Cedar Street Sluts. The tape also featured several new recordings, both in-studio and in-concert, with an all-star band assembled by producer, Maximum RocknRoll columnist, and early Allin patron Mykel Board. This band featured J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on lead guitar, and Bongwater producer/musician Mark Kramer on bass.

Mid era

By the mid to late 1980s, Allin was a heroin user, alcoholic, a heavy smoker and generally abused all intoxicants given to him. He was poorly groomed and rarely cleaned himself. At this point, Allin also began eating laxatives before performances as defecation was becoming a regular stage act for him. Allin described himself as "the last true rock and roller." By this, he meant that rock and roll music itself had started as an embodiment of danger, anti-authoritarianism, rebelliousness but had become largely taken over by corporations and business concerns. Allin's music and performances were thus meant to return rock and roll to what he saw as its roots.

Allin idolized country music legend Hank Williams, Sr, and saw himself as a kindred spirit. Both were relative loners and outsiders, both were habitual users of intoxicants, both lived with few, if any, possessions and both travelled the country relentlessly. GG Allin's acoustic output, documented particularly on the EP The Troubled Troubador, was heavily influenced by Williams. He recorded his own rewrites of Hank Williams, Jr.'s "Family Tradition" and David Allan Coe's "Longhaired Redneck", calling his own versions "Scumfuc Tradition" and "Outlaw Scumfuc" respectively. Later GG Allin also released another country album Carnival of Excess.

During this period, Allin collaborated with Bulge (aka Boston hardcore punk trio Psycho under a different name, on the album Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies), The Aids Brigade (the infamous 7" EP Expose Yourself To Kids) and The Holymen (You Give Love A Bad Name). Allin also began performing many spoken word pieces. Video footage of these are available but rare. It was during this period that Allin recorded his Murder Junkies album released by New Rose Records and featuring the band ANTiSEEN. This album contained 10 musical tracks and 10 spoken-word pieces. Other than Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies, Allin considered this album to be his most polished professionally recorded album that explored his persona and stated his philosophy on life. It was also during this period that Allin recorded the War In My Head - I'm Your Enemy album released on Awareness Records and featuring the band Shrinkwrap. This particular album consists of one 45 minute track that is a collage of spoken-word pieces which Shrinkwrap put to music.

Unwilling to seek steady employment, Allin supported himself by selling his own records. He also claimed to have committed criminal acts such as breaking and entering, robbery and mugging. Allin was also fascinated with serial killers. He wrote and visited John Wayne Gacy in jail a number of times and Gacy painted a portrait of Allin (see American Serial Killer Art).

By this point, Allin's performances, which often resulted in considerable damage to venues and sound equipment, were regularly stopped after only a few songs by police or venue owners. Allin was charged with assault and battery or indecent exposure a number of times. His constant touring was only stopped by jail time or by long hospital stays for broken bones, blood poisoning, and other trauma.

Another attraction to Allin performances was his continual threats of suicide. In 1988, Allin wrote to Maximum RocknRoll stating that he would commit suicide on stage on Halloween 1989. However, he was in jail when that day came. He continued his threat each following year but ended up imprisoned each following Halloween. When asked why he doesn't follow through with his threats, or sometimes his on-stage defecations, Allin stated, "With GG, you don't get what you expect—you get what you deserve." [7] He also stated that suicide should only be done when one had reached their peak, meeting the afterlife at their strongest point and not at their weakest. [8]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Allin's imprisonments became longer in duration. He served a particularly long sentence from (December 22, 1989 to March 26, 1991) after being charged with raping and torturing a woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan (he ultimately plead no contest to assault charges).

In a psychological evaluation made as part of the trial (see "clinical transcript" in external links), Allin was judged to be of at least average intelligence, and was described as "courteous, cooperative and candid." The unnamed evaluator noted that Allin did not appear psychotic, and appeared comfortable with his unorthodox lifestyle, but that he did have symptoms and behavior consistent with borderline personality disorder, masochism and narcissism.

In the trial, Allin asserted his innocence, claiming that the woman had participated of her own free will. There was were also some facts in the case which might seem to support Allin's claim that the woman was an admiring fan who threw herself at him for publicity. As noted in the clinical report, the witness offered contradictory testimony to police, first claiming that she was attacked by three men. Only later did she accuse Allin.

It was during this confinement that Allin felt energized about his life and "mission" as he put it. He wrote the GG Allin Manifesto (1990) during this period. Meanwhile, Allin's growing notoriety led to appearances on Morton Downey, Jr., Geraldo, The Jerry Springer Show and a memorable episode of The Jane Whitney Show.

At the end of this period, Allin's appearance became definitive. He shaved his head, removed the middle of the moustache a la Genghis Khan, dyed his beard red and shaved his entire body. In addition, he was increasingly covered in poorly done, cheap 'home-made' tattoos and scars from his violent stage performances.

Death

Despite threats of an onstage death, Allin died of a heroin overdose on 28 June 1993, in a friend's New York City apartment, at 29 Avenue B, Manhattan. He was 36 years old. His last show was at a small club called The Gas Station in New York City. Video footage of the soundcheck, concert, and aftermath is appended to the DVD release of Hated. In his last show he did a few songs before the power went out, after which he trashed the venue and walked the streets of New York naked and covered in blood and feces, surrounded by fans whom he openly embraced. On VH1's recent Freakiest Concert Moments, Allin's final show ranked at number four.

After arriving at his friend's apartment, Allin snorted heroin, eventually passing out. Some party-goers posed for photos with the unconscious Allin, not knowing that he was already dead. The next morning, some noticed that Allin still lay motionless in the same place where they had left him, and called for an ambulance, but Allin was pronounced dead at the scene.

At his funeral, Allin's bloated, discolored corpse was dressed in his black leather jacket and trademark jock strap. He had a bottle of Jim Beam beside him in his casket, as per his wishes (openly stated in his self-penned acoustic country ballad, "When I Die"). As part of his brother's request, the mortician was instructed not to wash the corpse, (which smelled strongly of feces), or apply any make up. The funeral became a wild party. Friends posed with the corpse, put drugs and whiskey into its mouth, and pulled down the jock strap to take pictures of Allin's penis. As the funeral ended, his brother put a pair of headphones on Allin. The headphones were plugged into a portable cassette player, in which was loaded a copy of The Suicide Sessions. The video of his funeral is widely available for purchase, and is an extra feature on the Hated DVD and some bootleg VHS tapes.

At the time of his death, Allin was making plans for a spoken word album, and a somewhat unlikely European tour. Ironically, he was enthusiastically talking about them to a friend in the hours before his death.

GG Allin was buried July 3, 1993 in the Saint Rose Cemetery in Littleton, NH. A reunion is held each year, and fans are encouraged to come [9].

Career Overview

While GG Allin had limited commercial success, he became notorious for his violent, confrontational performances, and his relentless, singular personality.

There has always been speculation that Allin was mentally ill. Steve Huey writes, "Few of Allin's associates denied that his erratic behavior was likely the result of mental problems worsened by substance abuse; many speculated about the possibility of a split personality, a man who would veer abruptly between politeness and violence, intelligence and incoherence, egomania and self-loathing. And if Allin wasn't a clinical sociopath -- as his public persona and interviews suggested -- he was likely pretty close."[10]

Critical opinion of Allin's recordings and music is almost universally low: Steve Huey declares that "Allin's entire output ranks as perhaps the worst music ever recorded"[11], while Ian McCaleb writes that Allin's discography "is a juggernaut of puerile mania, demented concupiscence and Hustler-level humor."[12]

Nonetheless, Allin's reputation has only grown since his death, and he has a small, devoted cult following. The likes of Philadelphia rock band CKY and outlaw country/punk artist Hank Williams III have mentioned GG Allin as a major influence on their music. CKY regularly perform a cover version of GG's song "Bite It You Scum" while on tour. Once on their "Out On The Noose Again" tour in 2003, GG's brother Merle played bass on the song with CKY. In the fourth installment of the CKY video series, CKY guitarist Chad Ginsburg visits Allin's grave while on tour and proceeds to drink a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon and urinate on the grave. Williams dedicated his 2006 album Straight To Hell, in part, to Allin.

Much like his life, GG Allin's discography is a large and confusing mess, with numerous reissues, compilations, gigs and countless circulating bootlegs. Some of them, particularly original pressings of the original albums, often command high prices from collectors. In one of the recorded phone conversations heard on the Troubled Troubador posthumous CD, Allin stated his amazement at the high prices his early records, including the "Malpractice" and "Stripsearch" singles (on which he only played drums), were going for. The scarcity of copies of his original releases with the Jabbers and Scumfucs are partially what led to the compilation and release of Hated In The Nation in 1987. Alongside his official releases, many bootleg videos and albums have been independently released with and without consent.

By any standard, most GG Allin albums are amateurishly recorded, even by punk rock standards, which often sees amateurism as a virtue. This was due largely to his recordings being produced on extremely low budgets. He never received major label backing for distribution, although at one point Enigma Records had a deal with him for a release, which he signed while serving a prison sentence in Michigan. A magazine advertisement for this particular release exists even though the album was never manufactured in Allin's lifetime; the album, the live recording Anti-Social Personality Disorder, would later be released posthumously first by Ever Rat Records, then by Awareness Records. Much of his discography was either self-released on vinyl or cassette, or through small independent labels like David Peel's Orange Records and the New England-based Black And Blue Records.

Audiences often attended Allin's performances less for the music than to witness his regular stage antics which included Allin performing nude, attacking the audience and his own band members, defecating, urinating, throwing feces at the crowd, self-mutilation and other shocking acts. While many regarded these acts as performance art, shock rock or vile entertainment, GG Allin regarded himself as someone who lived the life he sang about. Similarly, McCabe writes that "All moral and artistic judgment aside, Allin is due some credit for managing to do what he did with so much conviction for so long."

Allin's do-it-yourself attitude was arguably an extension of his philosophy on life: he rejected conformity and what he saw as mental or emotional falseness. He travelled the USA non-stop in Greyhound buses, often with nothing more than the clothes on his back, living day-to-day, as a preferred lifestyle to what he perceived as a weak, soulless, life lived by many, who follow a birth-school-job-marriage-mortgage-death path. He often spoke out against the "American System" as he saw it: a pre-established order of how one was supposed to live one's life according to the conventions of the government and society of the time.

It has been attested by such sources, such as bandmates and his brother, Merle, that GG Allin possessed extraordinary mental and physical resistance considering the amount of times he had been shot, stabbed, poisoned, self-mutilated and had consumed large amounts of hard drugs. Allin inflicted an obscene amount of punishment on himself as a deliberate intent to toughen himself up - he welcomed pain and danger as much as pleasure. Onstage, he once clenched his teeth and bashed his front teeth in with a microphone. [13]

As of 2006, Allin recordings with the Jabbers, Cedar Street Sluts and Scumfucs are kept in print by Black And Blue Records while Awareness Records have the licensing rights to his recordings from 1987 to 1991. ROIR has continued to keep Hated In The Nation in print ever since its release, and Allin's final studio album Brutality And Bloodshed For All has remained in print since its posthumous September 1993 release on Kim Fowley's Alive Records imprint. G.G. Allin's legacy lives on through his fans.

GG Allin backing groups

• The Jabbers
• The Cedar Street Sluts
• The Scumfucs
• Bulge (better known as Boston hardcore punk band Psycho)
• Antiseen (aka The Carolina Shitkickers on one acoustic EP)
• The Murder Junkies
• The Criminal Quartet
• The AIDS Brigade
• The Disappointments
• The Holymen
• The Fuckin Shitbiscuits
• The Texas Nazis (members of which became the Killcreeps and then Ghoultown)
• The Toilet Rockers
• The Sewer Scum
• The NYC Sheiks
• The Drug Whores
• Afterbirth
• The Southern Baptists
• Shrinkwrap
• The Primates
• The Swankfucks
• His Illegitimate Kids
• Bloody Mess & The Skabs
• The New York Superscum
• David Peel
• MotorCity Badboys (Also known as MC2)

Media

• Court document - GG Allin's sentencing in Michigan case
• Court document - GG Allin's clinical transcript in Michigan case

Discography

• GG Allin discography

External links

• Chairs Missing, by Karrie Mofo, October 22, 1989
• You're Wrong, An Irregular Column by Mykel Board
• GG Allin: Portrait Of A Serial Singer by Doug Levy
• Roir-USA.com Review of "Hated In The Nation"
• The Texas Nazis [14]
• ggallin.com
• The G.G. Allin Supersite
• Allin's Obituary
• GG Allin Online Store
• Going, Going, Gone: The Death of GG Allin
• Hated at IMDb
• GG Allin at IMDb
• GG Allin's Gravesite

• Maximumrocknroll Interview - GG Allin interview from 1987
• 2004 Rolling Stone.com article