Thursday 21st April 2011

OLD MONEY 6: GG ALLIN & THE JABBERS – “BORED TO DEATH” (1979)

“When Brecht, on the way from his home to the theatre in July 1953, passed the column of Soviet tanks rolling towards the Stallinaee to crush the worker’s rebellion, he waved to them and wrote in his diary later that day that, at that moment, he (never a party member) was tempted for the first time in his life to join the Communist Party. It was not that Brecht tolerated the cruelty of the struggle in the hope that it would bring a prosperous future; the harshness of the violence as such was perceived and endorsed as a sign of authenticity.” – Zizek, 2001.

You can’t make excuses for him. GG Allin was not a likable human being. And on the surface, it appeared that neither did he want to be. In fact, it was precisely his commitment to misanthropy that constituted his appeal for knuckleheads gawping in on his theatre of cruelty. And yet, for all his apparent lack of regard for others, this was a man who sought attention, who courted and reveled and rolled in it with every heinous act of self-immolation.

While GG Allin hated the human race, he also seemingly demanded its love; a love for his hate, perhaps to validate it, turn it transcendental. Or just to satisfy a crippling ego that tore at the edges of respectability and common-sense and human decency. From the offset, GG was pure in his intentions. With debut single “Bored To Death” he was from the start at the apex of his ever present paradox, where his hatred of humanity is borne of frustration at its rejection of him. This, afterall, was a man named after the son of God, as his father believed him to be the reincarnation of Jesus. With expectations that high, failure on those terms was guaranteed. Life for GG would not be normal from the start.

Difficult it may be to make a permissible argument in favour of GG’s behaviour, one thing hard to contest was his commitment to persona. And perhaps persona is the wrong word, because GG Allin never felt like an act. It may be mental illness or it could be the logical, ultimate embodiment of the rock and roll myth: to rebel to death. And that he did, in a pathetic Weekend At Bernie‘s style demise, fans posing with his blued corpse thinking he’d simply passed out from another exercise in over-indulgence. A fittingly depressing end.

Whether idiot savant or sheer brutalist, “Bored To Death” still stands as the awful authentic act, crushing the worker’s rebellion with its vile rejection of humanity. Belief need not always be rendered positive to convince.

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GG Allin and the Jabbers -”Bored To Death”

(Photo: It Wont Be Okay)