The Duke Watches "Hated - GG Allin And The Murder Junkies"
Published May 30, 2004
The drummer, Dino, who performs naked on account of the drum stools hurt like fuck when they rub against fabric, he explains how he's got some psychic connection to The Lunachicks, and how GG is really a beautiful person and is a statement in himself about how awful this violent world really is. Because we should be loving, is what he suggests. That violence sucks, is Dino's assessment of it all.
Then we cut to GG running naked through the audience punching folks in the head with indiscriminate abandon.
Whilst Dino drums away, naked and no doubt pondering on the beauty of it all.
By presenting to us the non-performing GG, Hated manages to remove any shred of enjoyment one might feasibly gleam from the absurdity of his faeces-flinging frolics.
This is probably as disturbing a portrait of any motherfucker since that film about Henry The Serial Killer or whatever.
For example, there is footage from a spoken word performance GG gives in a tiny hall somewhere, way back in 1988. His hair is long, straggling, his face hidden both by the hat he wears most of the time, and a massive beard hanging from his jaws. He is a thin, raving spectre, someone you would see standing in Hyde Park on a Sunday morning talking about Communist Conspiracies. Except they don't tend to fling a handful of arse-paste at you when you walk past.
It's like in the final third of Nick Broomfield's Aileen - Life And Death Of A Serial Killer, when Aileen Wuornos addressed the camera with bug-eyed intensity, obviously out of her mind, and heartbreakingly oblivious to the fact.
Wuornos, however, seemed totally sympathetic. She was a woman who had definitely commited murder, although how many times or for what precise reasons no one will ever know. And yet The Duke was welling up watching her.
GG, however, ranting just as deliriously, doesn't come across as sympathetic, necessarily, but simply… sad. It's a sad fucking image. And he didn't even kill anyone.
Not that he didn't talk about it plenty.
At one point he states how he would definitely have murdered someone by now, if he hadn't gone the way of the Recording Artiste instead. Later, we hear of his visits to John Wayne Gacy in prison. A fan, who also went to visit Gacy, speculates on what the pair might have discussed. Tying women up and fucking them seems to be his thoughts with regards the subject matter of the conversation.
The Duke (Aaron McMullan to his parents and the clergy) is a Northern Irish writer, performer and insomniac currently residing in London. He is the creator of Mondo Irlando, wherein his scribblings and hollerings can be found. He is currently working towards the completion of his first novel, and his debut "punk / country / folk / whatever" album has recently been released by Ex Libris Records . You can also pop by His MySpace Page and maybe have a coffee and a biscuit.
- The Duke Watches "Hated - GG Allin And The Murder Junkies"
- Published: May 30, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Music: Alternative Rock, Music: Hard Rock, Music: Metal, Music: Punk Rock, Music: Rock, Video: Documentary, Video: Music
- Writer: Duke De Mondo
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- Duke De Mondo's personal site
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Tom, thank you for the kind words. You really aren't missing much with regards the fella's music. Really really poor derivitive punk rock.
Except for one by the name of Hanging Out With Jim which manages to be suprisingly catchy. I'm scared to even think about who Jim might be.
In Hated he also plays a couple of country numbers on an acoustic, believe it or not. Again, alarmingly tuneful.
I know exactly what you mean about that record cover. Whilst i haven't saw the item in question, there are plenty of things i've owned in my time, or got hold of, and later found out things about the origins that make one feel a bit dirty just having them in their possession, however rare they might be, as you say.
It's not really quite in the same league, but a similar example sort of, is Last House On The Left by Wes Craven, who in the accomponying documentary on the DVD reveals that one of the actresses in particular was genuinely terrified during one of the torture scenes. Makes it all the more unpleasant, and means its something you dont really want to spend a lot of time with again.
GG as disgusting as he usually was, happened to be one of the last of a dying breed of truly "dangerous" artists. Now the merits of being dangerous can be argued into infinity, however the courage to do so within the vacuum of a super-repressed, double - standard bearing culture that titilates and then closes it's legs coyly is not. Sure he was fucked-up most of the time, sure he didn't really stand for anything other than pissing off the upper, middle and lower classes, and most importantly (and I do not say this glibly), sure he hurt and violated some people which is inexcusable. Ultimately he left us with a sad portrait; a man lost and out of touch with the focus to excorsize his demons in an artful fashion. This much can be said however: he was never boring and he never sold out.
Brady, thanks for the comments! You pretty much voiced my own opinions there give or take a "motherfuck" or two. You're right - He never did sell out, and thereby retains his mystique and what not. Dying probably helped.
Hanging out with Jim. That'd be Jim Beam, GG's favourite tipple.
What's amazing is the fact that gg seems to be growing more popular the longer that he's been dead! I've met many fans who never had the opportunity to see him perform, but nevertheless are fascinated (in some cases obsessed) with this guy. Even more interesting, unlike the fans portrayed in the film, most of the ones I've met are reasonably functional, productive members of society. (Then there's the rest, who are cleary whack-jobs that can barely communicate in a coherent way. These types are the most amusing to meet, however.)
Bite it, you scum!
DogNose, thanks for the comments. It's true, GG has gained an even larger cult following in death than he did in life, a fact illustrated to some degree by my own fascination with the nutcase, as evidenced in this here article.
I guess it takes the whole dying malarky to make folks pay attention. All that shit flung and all he had to do was pop it.
Well, obviously if he hadn't flung the shit there'd be nothing for folks to get all fascinated by, but you know what i mean.
Thanks man
'bout ye Duke!
glad to see an objective and above all honest review.ol'GG may have been a disgusting mess of a man but he LIVED it.The music may be shit but its REAL and makes the flaccid punk rock of MTV seem all the more......Safe.GG was a kind of genius,but all truly deranged people have a twist of brilliance in them.
Keep up the good work...and check out City Knee Deep in Dead Spides if you havent already.....truly hilarious.
Lord Simian Astronaut,
Enniskillen
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Somehow, Mr. Duke, you bring a beauty to all of this disgusting nonsense surrounding this most sour of sour people. Allin is most definitely the most intriguing musical character I've ever heard of, and I've never even heard a note of his music (not that it seems I'm missing out on much - the spectacle of him and his fans is really the only thing of interest here.) However, I think I might be better off simply imagining the horrible displays this man is capable of, thanks to your stunning descriptions. Actually seeing him in action, like when I bought Naked City's Leng T'che without realizing what the man strapped to a stake on the cover was really going through, might destroy any "enjoyment," for lack of a more fitting term, I might get out of it.
With Leng T'che, if you're curious, it turns out the cover photo was 100% real, and it was of a very unlucky man who was being sacrificed - alive - for some ritual or another in Asia many decades ago. His torturers doped him up with some serious meds and then proceeded to hack away at his limbs, all while the unlucky fellow gazed into the distance with unfocused eyes, apparently so doped up he was completely unaware of the horrors being committed upon him. Some photographer captured a moment where, limbless, he remained alive, a numb stump tied to a pole, as a crowd watched with apparently no sense of discomfort as his life dripped out of his hacked up extremities. It's easily the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, and I'm not sure if it's solely because of the actions taken upon this guy, or because he apparently willingly offered himself up for this sacrifice. Either way, the end is the same, and the glassy, lost, clueless look in his eyes haunts me to this day - long after I simply had to get rid of it, regardless of how rare it was. I can only handle so many things like that in my head.