GG Allin-American Icon

Jason the Magnificent - 4-4-2008 at 09:49 AM

I know the general consensus is that he's a talentless scumbag, and everyone is entitled to their opinions even when they're wrong...but GG Allin is the undisputed king of rock 'n' roll. There isn't a single artist in the past 50 years that challeneged the cultural and musical boundaries of rock music like the outlaw scumfuc. From the pop punk/garage rock stylings of Jabbers era GG, through the pinnacle Murder Junkies/Antiseen era to the swan song of Brutality and Bloodshed for All you're looking at one of the truest, most talented individuals to ever grace American music.

clevohardcore - 4-4-2008 at 10:07 AM

He challenged nothing. Sorry but your not challenging anything when you use any drug handed to you and you work for nothing. Or when you whipe shit on yourself. Or for that matter can't even dare I say it music? That does not make you an icon. Its funny a used record store I frequnet has a couple of his cd's for $5 a piece and I still won't buy them. NOt even to check it out. Instead I bought Kenny Loggins greatest hits.

"HIGHWAY TO THE DANGERZONE"

gavin - 4-4-2008 at 10:17 AM

you either get GG or ya dont

BKT - 4-4-2008 at 10:44 AM

There is nothing to get. He has songs about raping children. I know there are a lot of you on here with kids, do think them being raped is something to poke fun at or take lightly?

Fuck GG and anyone who supports him.

MM.

gavin - 4-4-2008 at 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by metal mulisha
There is nothing to get. He has songs about raping children. I know there are a lot of you on here with kids, do think them being raped is something to poke fun at or take lightly?

Fuck GG and anyone who supports him.

MM.

point taken but.......................

do you honestly think that gg was raping kids?
how is this different from some lame metal stuff about raping women and cutting them up for satan or whatever the frig those fools sing about?
do you take that stuff seriously?

gg, like alot of those metal type bands, was about going to extremes to offend

im not really defending any of this stuff
but i understand what gg and certain metal bands with their satan shit and all that are trying to do

be as offensive as possible
i get it

it has its place in my opinion
and while i honestly dont listen to any of this type of stuff i still "get" it

Jason the Magnificent - 4-4-2008 at 11:05 AM

So I hope you 100% support every lyric of every artist you listen too.

People that believe a bands lyrics define the person who listens to them probably don't listen to very many bands. No Hip Hop, sXe, etc etc. Maybe those monk chant CD's are safe?

If you don't think GG's music is music, theres not much I can say. You either like good music or you don't. The man has been backed by MC5, The Jabbers, Bulge, Antiseen and countless others who could write riffs around just about any punk band going in any era.

Jason the Magnificent - 4-4-2008 at 11:10 AM

PS. while this is obviously posted to rile people up with an outlandish opinion and liven up things a bit...it's also 100% serious.

I have a GG tattoo, rock.

gavin - 4-4-2008 at 11:13 AM

jason, post a pic of yr gg tattoo

also, ive been around merle a few times and dude is nothing but a nice guy

and a really close friend of mine was tight with gg
this person in no way would have had anything to do with gg if his whole "thing" was serious

BKT - 4-4-2008 at 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrBadVibes

Quote:

Good point and very well put.

MM.

Jason the Magnificent - 4-4-2008 at 11:23 AM

I'll have to take a picture of it, I have an arm thats sleeved with all blackwork collage of music stuff, the inside of my fore arm is a graveyard scene with a tombstone that says 'live fast die' on it with a bottle of booze laying on the ground. The arm also contains elements of band art or custom stuff related to: Motorhead (a motorhead bulldozer and the bomber), Insult to Injury (hostile behavior7" cover), DRI (a portion of Dealing With It and the skanker done up light a spotlight/bat symbol type thing), Carnivore (retaliation cover), Neglect (guy blowing his brians out), Bad Brains (lightning bolt design) and Ringworm (chaos christ). Yes I have issues.

gavin - 4-4-2008 at 11:26 AM

fuckin sa-weet!
dude, you need to post a pic of that sleeve for real
i really wanna see it

the only music tattoo i have is some black flag related stuff
and the d.o.a. skull guy holding the gun

im getting my antiseen tattoo one of these days
been telling clayton for 10 years im gonna do it but just havent yet

BDx13 - 4-4-2008 at 12:46 PM

i never really cared for gg's music, but i get it. he was downright outlandish.

i never saw him live cause i was too afraid he'd make good on his promise of taking himself out by blowing up the club he was playing!

i used to work on the same block merle lived on in manhattan. we'd talk from time to time, and that really tripped people from my office out.

Discipline - 4-4-2008 at 01:44 PM

I love GG. He had some great tunes with his different bands. The stuff that he did with Antiseen was beyond great. His finest work, and some of Antiseens best too. When I think of GG and his extreme behaviour I always remember an interview with Jeff Clayton. He said in private GG was a cool, quiet, polite guy and said he was the best houseguest he and his wife ever had.

JawnDiablo - 4-4-2008 at 02:04 PM

I have a bunch of his stuff in my PC at home.
Some of it is pretty damn good
I like the Antiseen stff best.
Yeah dude threw poop and cut himself.and showed everyone his microphallus ...swell.
Why get bent out of shape about his lyrics when Gwar was singing about fucking a quadruple amputee 15 year old with a frozen piece of shit.
Hey Geoff, when's Antiseen playing Philly again?

upyerbum - 4-4-2008 at 05:06 PM

I like GG. I really like the early Jabbers new wave shit.

Lucabrasi - 4-4-2008 at 05:07 PM

I live in a small town in Vermont (st.Johnsbury) about 15 minutes from Concord VT where GG used to live. I know a few people who were related to him and I have ran into countless people at the local bars who would come up to me because I had a GG sweatshirt on and 90% of the time people who tallk about him tell me how much of a good guy he used to be. My ex-councler was related to him through marrige and remebers his first band Malpractice and told me how GG used to dress up in a white robe and walk along the lake pretending to be god. I also worked with his ex-sister in law who brought in photos from her sisters and GG's wedding. It's weird to see him in a bow-tie. Anyways she would tell me how he used to pick her up from the YMCA after school and they would hangout and he was always nice to her. So this whole bad-ass image GG put out their is really nothing more then good acting. Im not saying he didnt do some really fucked up things but his mental evaluations did not show any severe abnormalities. Plus drugs will make you do fucked up things and I bet 99.9% of the times he did something fucked up, like eat his own shit or whatever he was completely fucked up and wouldnt have done it otherwise.

upyerbum - 4-4-2008 at 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucabrasi
GG used to dress up in a white robe and walk along the lake pretending to be god.

His old man was a Christian survivalist wack-job from what I've read, he grew up in a cabin with no electricity.

Spoiler - 4-4-2008 at 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by upyerbum

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucabrasi
GG used to dress up in a white robe and walk along the lake pretending to be god.

His old man was a Christian survivalist wack-job from what I've read, he grew up in a cabin with no electricity.

GG's real name is Jesus Christ

Lucabrasi - 4-4-2008 at 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by upyerbum

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucabrasi
GG used to dress up in a white robe and walk along the lake pretending to be god.

His old man was a Christian survivalist wack-job from what I've read, he grew up in a cabin with no electricity.

he did grow up in a log cabin with no electricity but I belive that was when he lived in NH. He was in his teenage years when he was up near me.

Spoiler - 4-5-2008 at 09:36 AM

He was born Jesus Christ Allin at Weeks' Memorial Hospital, in Lancaster, New Hampshire.

He was given this messianic name because his father, Merle Allin Sr., 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 new-born son would be a great man in the ilk of the Messiah.

As a young child, his older brother, Merle Allin Jr., was unable to pronounce his name, Jesus, properly. Hence, the origin of the 'GG' nickname.

Shortly before GG had 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 up till this point in case there was credence to her husband's claim. However, with her husband's deteriorating mental health, and the lack of any messianic qualities within the boy, Arleta emphatically insisted on giving the child a chance at a normal, mockery-free life, by changing his name.
[edit]

Early years

Some of his earliest recorded musical endeavors were as a drummer. With the band Malpractice he cut two tracks in 1977. He also played drums on a single ("Galileo"/"Jesus Over New York") for the band Stripsearch in 1981.

His first years as a front man were with the Jabbers (1977–April of 1984). They released many tracks, most of which had Allin playing drums as well as singing. The Jabbers were a productive band for a number of years. Out of these years came Allin's debut release, Always Was, Is And 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 swell as GG became increasingly uncontrollable, vicious, and uncompromising. The Jabbers discontinued, and the members parted ways. GG's drug use began during this period.

Between the early to the late 1980s, Allin had fronted many acts. These included early famous releases such as those with The Cedar Street Sluts and The Scumfucs in 1982, and The Texas Nazis in 1985). However, GG remained in relative obscurity outside of the upper east coast punk scene. On March 13, 1986, GG Allin and Tracy Deneault's daughter, Nicoann Deneault, was born. Little information is known about this child. After Nicoann's birth, GG and Tracy divorced. Allin retreated to a cabin in Vermont where he wrote what he considered his first "masterpiece", the infamous Eat My Fuc album.

Allin's first national notoriety came with the release by Reachout International Records (ROIR) of Hated In The Nation, a cassette-only release at the time, which contained several tracks from Allin's then-out-of-print back-catalogue with The Jabbers, 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 GG patron Mykel Board. This band featured J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. on lead guitar, and Bongwater producer/musician Mark Kramer on bass.
[edit]

Mid era

By the mid to late 1980s, Allin was a heroin user, alcoholic, and generally abused all intoxicants given to him. He was poorly groomed and rarely cleaned himself. At this point, GG began eating laxatives before performances, as defecation was becoming a regular stage act for him. GG 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 its roots.

Allin viewed himself as similar to country icon Hank Williams, Sr. He associated with him because of lifestyle similarities: 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.

Allin's musical output was drastically different from earlier attempts in this era. His work 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) are examples of this. In this era, Allin began performing many spoken word pieces. Video footage of these is available, but rare. It was during this period that Allin recorded his Murder Junkies album, released by New Rose Records and featuring the band Anti-Seen. This album contained 10 brutal punk rock tracks and 10 brutal 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 music to.

To sustain himself, Allin claimed to have committed criminal acts like breaking and entering, robbery, and mugging. He also sold, by hand, his own records, as he was unwilling to occupy a "normal" job and have a "normal" life. Allin was also fascinated with serial killers. He wrote and visited John Wayne Gacy in jail a number of times. Gacy also painted a portrait of GG - see American Serial Killer Art.

Allin, gaining publicity by this point, stated, "The police and the media are what made me." His performances were regularly stopped by police, and Allin charged with assault and battery or indecent exposure many times. The venue owners, or the sound technicians, frequently had to stop shows after only a few songs because Allin destroyed too much equipment. His constant touring was only stopped by long hospital stays (broken bones, blood poisoning, excessive trauma) or jail time.

Another attraction to Allin performances was his continual threats of suicide. In 1988, Allin had written to Maximum RocknRoll stating that he would commit suicide on stage on Halloween 1989. However, he was jailed during this time. He continued this threat each following year, but was imprisoned each following Halloween. When asked about his threats and when he would follow through with them, Allin stated, "With GG, you don't get what you expect—you get what you deserve." 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. He felt, therefore, that every passing year fueled his fire more, that he still had more to accomplish in his music and life.

During the late 80s and early 90s, Allin's imprisonments became longer in duration. He served a particularly long sentence from December 22, 1989 to March 26, 1991. It was during this confinement that GG had a renewal of strength within himself, and about his "mission", as he put it. He wrote the GG Allin Manifesto (1990) during this period. Meanwhile, Allin's growing notoriety led to appearances on 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. By this time, he was slightly overweight and dressed to his own unique fashion sense.
[edit]

Last years

Between the years of 1991, and his death in 1993, Allin had become a viable underground icon, getting paid sums of $1000 for one-night gigs, most of which consisted of half-hour sets. This was the most violent period in Allin's career. During this time, ex-The Ramones songwriter and bass player, Dee Dee Ramone joined the Murder Junkies for a week as a rhythm guitarist.

After a 1992 tour was interrupted by Allin's arrest in Texas after a performance, he was extradited back to Michigan to serve out the remainder of his jail sentence, since he had skipped parole the year before to go to New York and take part in the filming of a documentary, Hated: GG Allin And The Murder Junkies, and to return to the concert stage. After finishing his sentence, he told interviewers that he was no longer considering committing suicide onstage. He explained that his prison stay had only made him realize that his being alive was both more beneficial to rock and roll and "more of a threat" to his enemies and critics - since those critics wanted him to kill himself anyway.

Allin's musical output in this era is considered to be his ultimate statement. With his most famous backing group, The Murder Junkies, he released his most ambitious and professional work of his career. Many of the tours from 1991–1993 were recorded and are available for purchase. Topics documented on these recordings include: pornography, scatology, drug use, extremely violent behavior, music, America, politics, and his deeper philosophy on life.

Despite his repeated threats of an onstage death, Kevin "GG" Allin died of a heroin overdose on 28 June 1993, in a friend's New York City apartment, at 29 Avenue B, Manhattan. His last show was at a small club called The Gas Station in New York City on the eve of his death; video footage of the soundcheck, concert, and subsequent escape was appended to the DVD release of Hated. In his last show he did a few songs and the power went out so he trashed the venue and walked the streets of New York naked and covered in blood and feces, surrounded by fans that he openly embraced (all in the documentary.) He was 36 years old. Recently on Vh1's Freakiest Concert Moments, Allin's final show ranked at number four. On the show, Anthrax front man Scott Ian claimed to have been among those "unfortunate" enough to have attended. Ian commented about how Allin defecated onstage, threw his feces at the crowd, and then started fighting with the audience; at that point, Ian said he "hightailed the fuck out of there."

At his funeral, his bloated, discolored corpse was dressed in a black leather jacket and a 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"). The video of his funeral is widely available for purchase and is an extra feature on the Hated DVD and some bootleg VHS tapes.

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. [1]

]

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

GG Allin has a large discography, the original pressings of which 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.

Audiences often attended Allin's performances less for the musical aspect 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, and self mutilation, among other distasteful (sic) acts. While many regarded these acts as mere performance art, shock rock, or vile entertainment, GG Allin regarded himself as someone who lived the life he sang about.

Most GG Allin albums are amateurishly recorded, (that's an opinion) even by punk rock standards - *Omitted for content* This was due largely to his recordings being self financed, or on an extremely low budget. 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 his prison sentence in Michigan. A magazine advertisement for this particular release exists even though the album was never manufactured in GG'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.

Currently, his 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 have 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 September 1993 posthumous release on Kim Fowley's Alive Records imprint.

GG's DIY attitude was an extension of his philosophy on life - in which 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, standard life of birth-school-job-materialism-marriage-mortgage-death. He often spoke out against the "American System" as he saw it: a pre-established order of how one was supposed to live their life according to the government and society at the time.

It has been attested by sources, such as bandmates and his brother, Merle, that GG Allin possessed extraordinary psychosomatic resistance considering the amount of times he had been shot, stabbed, poisoned, self-mutilated, and consumed large amounts of hard drugs. To this end, 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.

In a psychological examination, during an infamous trial of a supposed rape and torture of a woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Allin was seen to be largely intelligent, though somewhat of a megalomaniac, confessing even that a lot of his self-mutilation was due to his compassion for the suffering of the world.

Since his passing, 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.

Siczine.com - 4-10-2008 at 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Discipline
He said in private GG was a cool, quiet, polite guy and said he was the best houseguest he and his wife ever had.

I don't like or hate him but if thats true, than he was the ultimate "poser". I would've rather had him be a real life asshole than just an onstage asshole.

Jason the Magnificent - 4-10-2008 at 06:28 AM

I don't know if you can cut yourself open and eat your poop and still be a poser. I think thats like a free pass.

BDx13 - 4-10-2008 at 10:27 AM

HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Discipline - 4-10-2008 at 11:14 AM

I just watched Hated again the other night. GG was a crazy mofo.

Siczine.com - 4-15-2008 at 06:38 PM

This dude J.Melkman just sent me a GG Allin Comic and I just got done reading it...not bad.
Check some info out:
J.Melkman Blogspot