Dear Sound Choice:
Even if GG Allin didn't go out in a trumpeting bloodspill of glory like he'd apparently foreseen, his arrest does in a way signify the end of an era. In a sense, GG was the only true "eighties rock" performer. I[t] was certainly the circumstance of that era that molded him into what he was, that made his brand of rebellion viable. His whole attitude is a reaction against the superficial vanities of the eighties where status symbols like spiked hair-dos and leather jackets told more about a person than what he or she was actually thinking.
With GG, one never had to guess what he was thinking, what he believed in, which is just another way of saying that he has conviction. And since conviction is the result of desire and desire is the over-ruling force of art, then GG's music, in the end, is a lot more valid than much of the other so called "rock and roll" released during the previous decade.
For all his faults, GG at least realized his own potential, which most people never do. He accepted the range of his limitations and set his sights no much further beyond them. Within that framework, however, he has been able to invent his own private revolution which, if not as dramatic in terms of impact, really wasn't that far off from what Elvis or James Dean or Iggy did in their own less-confused, less-jaded, less-weary times. Meaning, I guess, that to be controversial anymore a performer really must kill himself, shit himself, etc. There you have it - the history of rock 'n' roll in a nutshell: Elvis moved his hips, GG moved his bowels.
What [t]his really says something about is the culture that supports it. I think it's been well-known since the days of Alice Cooper, that some day, someone would sell tickets to his own suicide. Did you ever doubt for a moment that folks would line up to watch?
The sad thing is, GG doesn't have to do this. A few of his early records are quite good, and considering the bulk of his output - a dozen albums and twice as many singles - plus the fact that he was constantly touring, rock 'n' roll was clearly the only thing he lives for. There's an enthusiasm to a song like the anthem "New York City tonight" that is very real, of a wide-eyed hick kid from New Hampshire unleashed in the big city for the first time, marveling the skyline and feeling his oats, realizing that at that moment in life all he ever wanted was attainable: "Come on baby lets get goin'/We've got lotsa things to do/There's one thing that I know'n/We're gonna raise hell in New York City tonight..."
It's pure innocence when it comes down to it and of course innocence was the one thing the hipper-than-thou hordes of the post-punk eighties were at constant war against.
The real GG was the kind who can be heard on one of his many albums pleading to an audience in Texas: "Look, I'm a 20 year old guy who just wants to get high or drunk before the night's over."
Although I'm not condoning what he did, considering some of the horror pulled by our own government or the ignorance of people towards the plight of the less-privileged or the way some people treat their kids, etc., I don't think GG was all that much worse than the rest of us.
Now that GG's in jail, the cult will start. I saw GG's homemade first album in a record store near the Berkelee School of Music. It was selling for twenty-five bunks and I almost bought it myself. But I just couldn't. Now, after his arrest, I bet if I went back there it would be gone.
If people are smart they'll get onto the records before they're all gone. The "Public Animal No. 1" EP, for example, is an excellent artifact, made in cahoots with three-fifths of the MC5 (Thompson, Kramer, Davis) and contains "New York City Tonight" among other equally ferocious musings. The secret of a good GG record anyway is the band behind him (and where GG is concerned, it's better to be behind him than have him behind you), but since no-one could stand to work with him for any length of time, this inevitably varies.
These days, we create heroes seemingly to destroy them. That's why the eighties will be remembered as the era of fallen idols. But you got to hand it to GG - he didn't need the culture or social climate to bring him down. He was quite capable of doing it on his own.
Joe S. Harrington
Boston, MA
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