Wiki
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Release Date
1 January 1988
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Length
19 tracks
Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies is the fifth studio album by American punk rock musician GG Allin. A collaboration with backing band Bulge, the LP was first released by Homestead Records in 1988. Allin returned to his home area of New England sometime in late 1987 or early 1988, settling somewhere in New Hampshire only because, according to his self-penned liner notes for the album, "it's cheap". At the time, Allin had been prohibited from performing as a musician in Boston since around the time his first backing band, The Jabbers, were coming to the end of their run. Since the rushed recording and release of You Give Love a Bad Name the previous year, Allin had been in the recording studio only one other time, recording four songs with himself playing all of the instruments, aided by only two people who provided backing vocals. These recordings almost immediately were released – without Allin's consent or immediate knowledge – under the false band name "GG Allin & His Illegitimate Kids". Preferring to have a trustworthy live band helping him in the studio, Allin contacted Johnny X and Charlie Infection, co-founders of Boston independent punk label Ax/ction Records and the guitarist and drummer, respectively, of area punk/metal band Psycho. X and Infection had befriended and dealt with Allin in the past, most notably getting an unreleased GG & The Cedar Street Sluts track, "I Wanna Suck Your Cunt", contributed to a 7" compilation EP, Welcome To Ax/ction Island, as well as selling some Allin records and tapes through their mail order business. With Psycho's bassist Ed Lynch in tow, Allin and the band—using the name of their side project Bulge for the album—rehearsed and recorded 13 new songs for Allin's next album. Another former member of Psycho, Bill Normal, also became involved with the album, pinch-hitting for Lynch on four of the tracks and playing some deliberately atonal synthesizer on the cut "Crash and Burn". When the "Illegitimate Kids" tape suddenly came to light, Allin decided to "steal back" the recordings (which he owned to begin with) and append the four recordings to the album. For some unknown reason, however, Bulge, along with sometime Allin friend and collaborator Mark Sheehan (best known for working with Allin on The Suicide Sessions, The Troubled Troubadour, and the 1991 sessions that became bonus tracks on the CD version of You Give Love a Bad Name) would be credited with playing the instruments on the four tracks in question: "Wild Riding", "Family", "Young Little Meat", and "I Wanna Kill You". Also for reasons unknown, Normal's contributions as bassist were not listed on the album, while his keyboard work on "Crash and Burn" was credited to him under the pseudonym "Dork". It is possible that Allin forgot his name, as it was the only time the two met. Allin was starting to get into poetry and spoken word performances – albeit in his own style – and decided to frame the opening and closing of the album with two pieces. Critic Steve Huey said about the album: "Allin's entire output ranks as perhaps the worst music ever recorded; this is its clearest expression".
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