When my wife opened the package from Amazon.com and noticed this book, she barely … but distincntly … raised an eyebrow and said … in that smart-ass way I’ve grown to dread and love … “Oh .. what a ‘wonderful’ purchase you made.” My wife forgets that GG Allin, the notorious poop-eating self-mutilator from New Hampshire played a pivotal role in an internship she had prior to when we got married. You see, I had a videocassette of one of GG’s legendary “performances” that magically shot out of a toilet somewhere … sanitized, by the way … and landed mysteriously in my VHS collection (I swear). Anyway, when the mentor in charge of my then fiance’s internship learned I had a videotape of GG’s shenanigans, he desperately begged to see it. I loaned him my tape … for educational purposes … and my wife got high marks on her internship. Granted, much of that was due to my wife’s talent, but I imagine some of that had to do with the madman from New Hampshire.

But I must start at an earlier date. Let’s start 29 years ago in the year 1985.  I was reading the punk zine “Maximum Rock N’ Roll” and there was a letter in the letters section that caught my eye.  It was from a performer who called himself “GG Allin” who bragged about pooping on stage and eating said poop, in addition to beating the snot out of audience members and causing other mayhem to himself and others.  Being all of 15-years old, I laughed hysterically.  In fact, I hadn’t laughed this hard since I read a synopsis of the John Waters’ film “Pink Flamingos” three years earlier in Danny Peary’s seminal alt-cinema book “Cult Movies.”  Here … I thought … was a real-life version of a John Waters-film character. 

I kept tabs on GG over the years, eventually scoring a bootleg cassette my first semester of college in 1988 of a live performance GG did from Texas in 1985 when he performed with a band called “The Texas Nazis.”  The quality of the tape was terrible, but while I heard GG perform many “songs,” the highlight was GG baiting the audience with violent sexual taunts and threatening to throw his poop on them. This odd cassette, which also contained some answering machine messages for GG, as well as some tracks from Nico’s first solo album “Chelsea Girls,” was a prized selection in my tape library during my college years.

During this time, GG threatened to commit suicide live on stage … and to take some audience members with him, but always seemed to find himself in jail when said moment arrived. While I don’t doubt his sincerity in his mission, the execution of his plan always seemed to be hindered by his drug abuse and penchant for always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. Which of course, led to his death by drug overdose in 1993.

Dan Moxham’s book “GG Allin – Son of Evil” may not be the definitive biography GG fans have been waiting for, but it is a worthy document nonetheless. The book is not a straight biography, per se, but it is a chronicle of GG’s misadventures over the years, along with song lyrics, rants, and poetry. It’s more of a compilation than straight biography. But considering the fact that no major publisher … or even minor publisher of note … is announcing any GG biography in the near future, Moxham’s book will have to do. Trust me, there’s more than enough bile to send shivers up the most jaded masochist’s spine. And credit is due to Moxham putting pen to ink to memorialize the most notorious rock and roll performer of all-time. As much as I admire Marilyn Manson, he doesn’t even come close.