The first time I watched the Todd Phillips’ directed movie “The Hangover”, I watched it on a bootlegged DVD. Before it had come out at the video store. Even before it had finished playing in the cinemas. I thought I was pretty cool. I thought I was pretty rock’n’roll, living on the edge of the law and all that. And then I watched an actual copy from the video store of Todd Phillips’ 1994 debut documentary “Hated” about notorious Murder Junkies lead singer GG Allin. And I soon realised how un-rock’n’roll I truly, and will most likely, always be unless something seriously screwed up happens in my life.
GG Allin, until his death on June the 28th 1993 of a drug overdose, was a rockstar that most other rockstars would be terrified of. He was violent and aggressive on stage and off, and if you didn’t hit get punched by him at one of his shows, then you would most likely get hit by some of the faeces, blood or urine that he showered all over his audience. His gutter poetry lyrics were filled with racism, hatred towards women and his fellow man and, I would have to say, the majority of his records were very poorly recorded. But then I don’t think he cared for recording quality. GG Allin lived in the moment and he was beyond punk rock. He was in some kind of sick, tortured class of his own. He was standing on the edge of everything and having a dump over the side. He is beyond comparison to any other rock musician and this film perfectly captures the chaotic legend that he left behind.
Even if Phillips, whose other films include the mainstream comedies “Old School”, “Road Trip” and “Starsky & Hutch”, seems an unlikely character to make a documentary about the worlds most terrifying rockstar, “Hated”, it has to be said, is a maybe somewhat unintentionally very funny film. From GG’s brother Merles overgrown Hitler moustache, to the whacked out ramblings of psycho drummer Dino, this film has a black comedy at it’s heart. When the film talks about how GG’s fans would do anything for him and it cuts sharply to a shot of a 30 year old man sucking GG’s penis it makes you laugh. An uneasy nervous laughter. And when a fan talks about learning quickly that the best place to stand at a GG Allin show was behind the stage you know exactly what he means.
Phillips interview footage with GG Allin proves that there was a brain somewhere behind that bloodied forehead and even the odd rationalisation behind his out of control behavior on stage. But as the final excrement covered live gig shows, GG was just too far out there to live for too long, and even with an underground society of so called punk rockers as his audience, when faced with a true 1 %er, most folks just duck for cover when the real shit starts flying. Not for the squeamish and
definitely not a date movie, watch “Hated” now... even if it’s a bootleg.
