Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies
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Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies is the fourth studio album by transgressive punk rock musician GG Allin. A collaboration with backing band Bulge, the LP was first released by Homestead Records in 1988.
Critic Steve Huey said about the album: "Allin's entire output ranks as perhaps the worst music ever recorded; this is its clearest expression". [1]
Album history
Allin returned to his home area of New England sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, settling somewhere in New Hampshire only because, according to his self-penned liner notes for the album, "it's cheap". At the time, Allin had been prohibited from performing as a musician in Boston since around the time his first backing band, The Jabbers, were coming to the end of their run. Since the rushed recording and release of You Give Love a Bad Name the previous year, Allin had been in the recording studio only one other time, recording four songs with himself playing all of the instruments, aided only by a few people who happened to be at the recording session adding backing vocals. These recordings almost immediately were released - without Allin's consent or immediate knowledge - under the false band name "GG Allin & His Illegitimate Kids".
Preferring to have a trustworthy live band helping him in the studio, Allin contacted Johnny X and Charlie Infection, co-founders of Boston independent punk label Ax/ction Records and the guitarist and drummer, respectively, of area punk/metal legends Psycho. X and Infection had befriended and dealt with Allin in the past, most notably getting an unreleased GG & The Cedar Street Sluts track, "I Wanna Suck Your Cunt", contributed to a 7" compilation EP, Welcome To Ax/ction Island, as well as selling some Allin records and tapes through their mail order business. With Psycho's bassist Ed Lynch in tow, Allin and the band—using the name of their side project Bulge for the album—rehearsed and recorded thirteen new songs for Allin's next album. Another former member of Psycho, Bill Normal, also became involved with the album, pinch-hitting for Lynch on four of the tracks and playing some deliberately atonal synthesiser on the cut "Crash and Burn".
When the "Illegitimate Kids" tape suddenly came to light, Allin decided to "steal back" the recordings (which he owned to begin with) and append the four recordings to the album. For some unknown reason, however, Bulge, along with sometime Allin friend and collaborator Mark Sheehan (best known for working with Allin on The Suicide Sessions, The Troubled Troubador, and the 1991 sessions that became bonus tracks on the CD version of You Give Love a Bad Name) would be credited with playing the instruments on the four tracks in question: "Wild Riding", "Family", "Young Little Meat", and "I Wanna Kill You". Also for reasons unknown, Normal's contributions as bassist weren't listed on the album, while his keyboard work on "Crash and Burn" was credited to him under the pseudonym "Dork." It's possible that Allin forgot his name as it was the only time the two met.
Allin was starting to get into poetry and spoken word performances - albeit in his own style - and decided to frame the opening and closing of the album with two pieces.
Impact and aftermath
Allin would later consider Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies to be one of the most definitive pieces in his discography, so much so that six of its songs would be heard - one in a live version - on the soundtrack to the 1993 documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. Two of those - "Die When You Die" and "Cunt Sucking Cannibal" - would remain in GG's live set for the rest of his life. Three featured tracks, "Outlaw Scumfuc", "Die When You Die" and "I Wanna Kill You", are actually rewrites/parody by Allin, of the David Allen Coe song "Longhaired Redneck", of the Destroy All Monsters song "You're Gonna Die" and of former mentor David Peel's "I Want to Kill You" respectively, although no mention of this is made on any edition of Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies released to date.
Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies would also become notable for its infamous liner notes by Allin, part of which make the outrageous claim, "I don't fuckin' care if people know I had sex with my brother or my dog", although it's not known if Allin is actually claiming to have done these acts; many speculate that he either just said he did to come off as obnoxious, or to state in his own way that he was wholly unconcerned with people's opinions about him. (The latter may be true considering the last lines of his liner notes: "If parts of this record sound fucked up, it's because we were. If you want perfection, go buy someone else's record.")
Track listing
- My Revenge
- Dope Money
- Be My Fuckin' Whore
- Suck My Ass It Smells
- Dog Shit
- Wild Riding (GG Allin)
- Sleeping in My Piss
- Anti-Social Masturbator
- Last In Line For The Gang Bang
- Die When You Die ("You're Gonna Die" by Destroy All Monsters, new lyrics by GG Allin)
- Commit Suicide
- Crash & Burn
- Outlaw Scumfuc (David Allen Coe, new lyrics by GG Allin)
- Caroline and Sue
- Cunt Sucking Cannibal (GG Allin, Scott Rag)
- Family (GG Allin)
- Young Little Meat (GG Allin)
- I Wanna Kill You (David Peel, new lyrics by GG Allin)
- My Bloody Mutilation
- All songs written and arranged by GG Allin, Johnny X, Charlie Infection and Ed Lynch except where noted.
Musical personnel
On all tracks except 6, 16, 17 and 18:
- GG Allin - vocals (credited as playing "microphone and whiskey")
- Johnny X - guitar and backing vocals
- Charlie Infection - drums and backing vocals
- Ed Lynch - bass and backing vocals
- Bill Normal (credited as "Dork") - keyboards on "Crash & Burn", uncredited bass on tracks 7, 9, 14 and 15
On tracks 6, 16, 17 and 18:
- GG Allin - lead vocals and all instruments
- Mark Sheehan, Erik Mercier, Greg Gonorea and Beth Burrow - backing vocals sup