There is a moral dilemma in giving publicity of any kind to someone like G.G. Allin.
"The guy is a scumbag," says Tom Jean, former leader of rock 'n' roll band Yessireebob and a veteran of the Manchester music scene. There are few people, even among those who consider themselves Allin's friends, who will dispute such an assertion. Still, Allin is known nationally and internationally for his on-stage antics. He has built up a cult following that is small but fanatical, has certain influence on rock's lunatic fringe, and in his spare time has managed to land himself in a Michigan jail on an assault-and-battery charge.
The many people to whom the name G.G. Allin means nothing are probably better off that way. Biographical information about him is sketchy, but most agree that he came to Manchester from his home in Vermont around 1978, and shortly thereafter formed his first group, The Jabbers. That was when punk music was just beginning to gain exposure to the mainstream American public, and the kind of liberation offered by bands like The Sex Pistols and The Ramones must have impressed Allin, as it did countless other people of his generation who felt straightjacketed by a conformity-oriented society. Punk bands sprung up like the proverbial maggots on a dead carcass, but most of them never made it out of the garage.
The Jabbers made it about as big on the New England circuit as a band could, but never went much beyond that. Chris Lamy, one of the original Jabbers, recalls those years, and the G.G. of those years, with fondness. "It was fun...back then he wasn't the G.G. of today." Which is to say that he didn't sexually abuse himself and defecate on stage, among other things. The craziest thing Lamy can remember G.G. doing is a stage-dive at The Channel in Boston with the front of his body smeared with Crisco, which, while not something that one would have seen on the Ed Sullivan Show, was still a far cry from promising to kill himself on stage (an event scheduled for Halloween of 1990 that was preempted by G.G.'s engagement in a Michigan state penitentiary).
Around 1983 or so, according to Lamy, G.G. started to move away from straight punk, and the band, more or less left him. "After the Jabbers broke up, G.G. became a man possessed," explains Lamy, who thinks that Allin "snapped."
"It could have been drugs or alcohol, or whatever. He was starting to believe his own publicity, so he started acting it out," continues Lamy. From that time until the present, publicity of any kind appears to have been Allin's goal, although he claims inthe absurdly self-serving notes to a 1988 album that "I do not record for publicity. I do it for myself only. Because it is my life."
Many people speak of Allin "living his music," and according to Lamy he wants to "bring his world to other people." This may or may not be true, but if it is, one would be hard-pressed to see the appeal of a world described in some of his few printable song titles as, "I Hate You and You Hate Me," and "Abuse Me (I Want To Die)." Lamy describes his appeal as, "This is what I'm not supposed to be." In other words, people, mostly teenagers, go to his shows to see a part of life that they will never live. One would hope.
Of course, many artists in all media have used their personal experiences as starting points for their work, but not until recently would someone like Allin have been seen as an artist and not as a borderline psychotic best kept under close scrutiny. "I'm not proud of it, but it's the way I live," Allin recently told Spin magazine. But such self-effacement ill-becomes him. He is more in his element when he proclaims that "those who talk the dogs--t about me really just want to be me. But they never f----n' will."
"It's all self promotion," says Dave Skinner, a longtime acquaintance of Allin and a member of Manchester's Incest Repellent, noting that Allin has "gone off the deep end. He wants to be the filthiest person alive."
One may not find Allin's ambitions particularly admirable, just as few people approve of 2 Live Crew's tuneless misogyny, but most people oppose censorship of the arts, no matter how dubious...
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...being an artist. Allin, in fact, feels that 2 Live Crew is tame. As he told Spin, "I'm actually doing what those guys talk about," leaving the reader to wonder if this is something worthy of admiration or pity. One thing that both acts share is a flair for inflating their own importance and marketing their "non-conformity." The big difference is that 2 Live Crew has parlayed the controversy around As Nasty As They Wanna Be into platinum sales, heavy airplay on MTV and a favorable verdict in their Florida obsenity trial. G.G. Allin, meanwhile, is known by few people, enjoys record sales tht are tepid at best and sits stewing in prison. Whether this is artistic integrity or poor marketing on Allin's part is subject to debate.
Allin's legal situation is not encouraging. Although virtually no one except Allin himself denies the validity of the charges, most people familiar with the situation feel that he was, as Lamy says, "pretty much set up. Of course, he did pretty much set his girlfriend on fire." Prior to his arrest in Michigan, it seems that the federal authorities had been monitoring Allin for his correspondence with, and encouragement of, convicted murderers John Hinckley, Charles Manson and others for some time. He is "just fascinated with mass murderers," say Lamy, who thinks Allin's boast that he would "take some of the members of the audience with him" when he finally terminates himself on stage did not help his case.
In Rob Reiner's hilarious heavy-metal parody "This Is Spinal Tap," one of the band members observes that "there's a fine line between clever and stupid." G.G. Allin not only redefines how stupid stupid can be, he creates a whole new maxim that could read, "There's a fine line between being an artist and being a menace to society." Or to look at it yet another way, sometimes believing in one's own myth can be a very effective way to wind up incarcerated. "He's a very smart guy," says Chris Lamy. "I just don't think he's applying himself...Maybe he's just out there doing his job." Whatever his "job" happens to be, there will be an opening at least until Allin gets out of jail. Aspiring "rock 'n' roll terrorist" should note that no experience is necessary, the pay is low and the benefits are non-existent. But if you want attention, it beats flipping burgers.
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