Monday, December 11, 2006

As time goes on.


Mid era
By the mid to late
1980s, Allin was a heroin user, alcoholic, a heavy smoker and generally abused all intoxicants given to him. He was poorly groomed and rarely cleaned himself. At this point, Allin also began eating laxatives before performances as defecation was becoming a regular stage act for him. Allin 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 what he saw as its roots.
Allin idolized country music legend
Hank Williams, Sr, and saw himself as a kindred spirit. 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. Later GG Allin also released another country album Carnival of Excess.
During this period, Allin collaborated 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). Allin also began performing many spoken word pieces. Video footage of these are available but rare. It was during this period that Allin recorded his Murder Junkies album released by New Rose Records and featuring the band ANTiSEEN. This album contained 10 musical tracks and 10 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 to music.
Unwilling to seek steady employment, Allin supported himself by selling his own records. He also claimed to have committed criminal acts such as
breaking and entering, robbery and mugging. Allin was also fascinated with serial killers. He wrote and visited John Wayne Gacy in jail a number of times and Gacy painted a portrait of Allin (see American Serial Killer Art).
By this point, Allin's performances, which often resulted in considerable damage to venues and sound equipment, were regularly stopped after only a few songs by police or venue owners. Allin was charged with
assault and battery or indecent exposure a number of times. His constant touring was only stopped by jail time or by long hospital stays for broken bones, blood poisoning, and other trauma.
Another attraction to Allin performances was his continual threats of suicide. In 1988, Allin wrote to
Maximum RocknRoll stating that he would commit suicide on stage on Halloween 1989. However, he was in jail when that day came. He continued his threat each following year but ended up imprisoned each following Halloween. When asked why he doesn't follow through with his threats, or sometimes his on-stage defecations, Allin stated, "With GG, you don't get what you expect—you get what you deserve." [7] 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. [8]
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Allin's imprisonments became longer in duration. He served a particularly long sentence from (December 22, 1989 to March 26, 1991) after being charged with raping and torturing a woman in Ann Arbor, Michigan (he ultimately plead no contest to assault charges).
In a psychological evaluation made as part of the trial (see "clinical transcript" in external links), Allin was judged to be of at least average intelligence, and was described as "courteous, cooperative and candid." The unnamed evaluator noted that Allin did not appear
psychotic, and appeared comfortable with his unorthodox lifestyle, but that he did have symptoms and behavior consistent with borderline personality disorder, masochism and narcissism.
In the trial, Allin asserted his innocence, claiming that the woman had participated of her own free will. There was were also some facts in the case which might seem to support Allin's claim that the woman was an admiring fan who threw herself at him for publicity. As noted in the clinical report, the witness offered contradictory testimony to police, first claiming that she was attacked by three men. Only later did she accuse Allin.
It was during this confinement that Allin felt energized about his life and "mission" as he put it. He wrote the GG Allin Manifesto (1990) during this period. Meanwhile, Allin's growing notoriety led to appearances on
Morton Downey, Jr., 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.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Now that's a history lesson. I like it. Keep up the good work and interesting non-cycling related pieces.

the MICHIGANSCENE said...

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