Melody Maker - December 1990

The Terminator

GG ALLIN
HATED IN THE NATION
(ROIR)

THIS man is scum.

If you're bothered by descriptions of gross human behaviour and body functions, don't bother reading any further. This man is f***ing insane. He takes the rock 'n' roll animal ideal of early Iggy to its logical extreme: cutting himself up on stage, eating shit, throwing shit, shitting on other people, jerking off, shooting up, starting fights, getting whiskey bottles smashed in his face, caving heads in.

Halloween of this year, he was meant to be committing suicide live on stage in NYC. Unfortunately he was jailed (for a couple of years) before this could happen. The charge had something to do with a week-long drunken party where he handcuffed the host to a bed and repeatedly inflicted cigarette burns to her hands and face, making several incisions to her breasts. GG claimed she was a willing party.

He has self-inflicted scars and crude tattoos all over his body, he is wanted in Connecticut for indecent exposure to a minor and endangering the lives of other people (GG claims nakedness is part of his act, and when there are three guys in front of the stage with a gun, a pistol and a crowbar, you don't bother checking on sides, and furthermore, if people turn up at his shows, they deserve what they get). His lyrics are mostly concerned with coprophilla. He is the dark side of rock 'n' roll made flesh incarnate.

Asked what he's trying to achieve, GG will reply, "We are trying to cause as much trouble round the country as we can and then get out of town." Asked about his sexual preferences, he'll say, "Being tied up, crapped on and pissed on by women." He says he enjoys self-mutilation on stage, "Because people suffer a lot in the world and this way I do it to myself and when I leave the stage I don't have to suffer anymore." This man is seriously f***ed-up. Serious scum. Don't, for God's sake, allow him to ever stay round your house.

And, of course, this is why he should be encouraged, as a catharsis for the rest of us, living out fantasies, living a rock 'n' roll lifestyle that nobody, but nobody else, comes close to. He is the rebel with a cause, and that cause is rebellion itself. As Gerard Cosloy wrote in the sleeve-notes to this cassette-only compilation, back when it was first released in '87, "GG Allin isn't being obscene as much as he's spouting the very same philosophy most people wish they had the guts to say themselves." Yeah, right. I always knew New Yorkers were seriously f***ed-up.

And, of course, the music is f***ing brutal, raw, kickin'. It's the hardest of hardcore, the scummiest of SCUM rock. It sounds pretty much as extreme as GG's image, masturbatory songs set to a beat which doesn't relent for an instant, aside from allowing GG to abuse his audience some more. One some of these tracks Kramer and J Mascis contribute, on others, Wayne Kramer and Denis Thompson (formerly of MC5). As is that matters. You need description? Try, "Some of the most primal, crude, badly-recorded attempts at putting rape on vinyl." Or, "Iggy may have started it, but he wasn't man enough to finish it. GG is the terminator."

This is a f***ing awesome compilation, as powerful, offensive and extreme as they come, a welcome and necessary antidote to the clean-living positivist scumboy rock 'n' rollers of the Nineties. Get some GG down your throat.

 
Everett True

Return to The GG Allin SuperSite Media Guide


The GG Allin SuperSite Media Guide - Melody Maker - December 1990; (updated 26-MAR-2004)
Layout, design & revisions © 2001-2004 EK
contact
 
home