GG Allin vs the Law of Diminishing Returns

I don't know. I'm going to post these this morning. I just kind of want to get them over with. They've been done and are ready and apparently some folks find them rather interesting and will pay a bit of cash to have them when they pop up on eBay. I've probably got less than $3 total invested in them myself, but I've been dragging them around for a few decades yet. There's no denying a certain car crash rubbernecking cult following they speak to, but for me personally? Kind of meh.




1. No Rules
2. A Fuckup
3. Up Against the Wall
4. NYC Tonight

Yeah, so ummm... GG Allin. This is his fourth single and the last set of recordings before he started developing the schtick that would propel him to infamy. Four decent cuts of old school punk rock. A solid band. Reasonable recordings and a sound that by 1982 in the height of the rise of Hardcore was already starting to seem a little dated but still has a decent kick to it. I picked this one up for a quarter a few years later. He was already Person Non Grata pretty much everywhere in town by that point.



1. Hard Candy Cock
2. Out For Blood
3. I Don't Give a Shit
4. Drink, Fight & Fuck
5. Convulsions

And here is things start to shift. This one is still pretty listenable to me and GG still looks so young & fresh faced on the cover. But let's face it kids, there's a thin line between being "a total rock and roll rebel who lives completely by his own rules" & being a complete fucked up nihilistic asshole and attention whore who will do anything to get people to watch his freak show.
Personally, I'm not so very impressed. Somebody rolling around in their own shit onstage just makes me think less about the shocking display of total rebellion than about the poor underpaid schlub who's going to have to clean it up afterward. But that's just me. I'm generally pretty polite.
(And I know, blah blah blah..troubled soul. Crappy abused childhood...blah blah. It still doesn't give you license to be a dick for the rest of your life.)
It was also somewhere around this time I came close to auditioning for GG's band. I answered an ad in the local rag looking for a guitarist for GG for a proposed European tour. I talked with his brother Merle and arranged to meet up with him and the drummer for an audition at the band's practice space. (GG himself was unavailable) I had an idea of what I was in for, but was mostly looking at an opportunity to tour Europe on somebody else's dime. It was at this point that Fate intervened. Apparently GG and the boys had failed to pay their space rent on time and they'd been locked out of the room with all their equipment by management. I didn't get to audition that day. Merle never got back to me for a follow up and the European tour never materialized. I kind of have to imagine I dodged a bullet that day...



1. I Wanna Fuck Your Brains Out
2. Teacher's Pet
3. I'm Gonna Rape You
4. Devil's Prayer

Yeah, it's around here that I lose interest. (You can be kind of thankful that I didn't scan the inside of the sleeve here featuring GG & the boys posing & holding their erect penis'. It's definitely not very sexy and probably a lot more homo-erotic than intended.) Everything here is meant to be Shocking! There's copious use of the word "fuck" (how shocking!) Songs about fucking and rape (Shocking!) A song about Satan (Shocking!) Erect penis' on the sleeve (The scandal! think of the children) They thank drugs & booze on the sleeve! (I feel faint) etc, etc...
It personally makes me kind of yawn. It doesn't really horrify me so much as I just find it kind of mildly distasteful. I'm too jaded, I guess. It'd be kind of funny if it wasn't so seemingly in complete earnest.
There's certainly enough information to be found online about GG's life and death for the curious. (And if you're downloading these now, you probably already know enough already)
But I do have one final GG related story to tell that I heard just yesterday. It seems that at one point GG played at the venerable 7th St Entry while a certain renowned local legend was running sound there. As the story goes, if your band ever played the Entry and for some reason you had managed to piss off said local legend in his duties as soundman extraordinaire, he would you give you the unwashed mic that unbeknownst to you GG had shoved up his ass that night.
Remember kids, always be nice to the soundperson.