Banned in Boston (album)
Encyclopedia
Banned In Boston is a compilation CD (and later, vinyl LP) from punk rock
singer/songwriter GG Allin
, released in 1989 (although it was compiled and sent to the manufacturing plant in the winter of 1988 and gives a copyright date of that year). It was also the first ever GG Allin title to be released on compact disc
but the release on CD included additional material not on the vinyl version Black and Blue released.
The CD was compiled by Black and Blue Records owner Peter Yarmouth with cooperation from GG Allin, since the two previous 7" releases had started to garner interest after the infamous Cat Club show in NYC and all the press in Village Voice, Flipside and other punk rock fanzines. The other version of the album is a compilation of all of GG Allin
recordings with The Jabbers
and Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies
and the cassette album on ROIR Hated In The Nation
(which has the three live songs played at the abbreviated set in New York City's infamous Cat Club show). Allin never stopped speaking or working with Yarmouth, despite telling interviewers that Yarmouth had not paid him a cent in royalties on the video GG Eats His Own/Live & Pissed (a charge refuted by Yarmouth when he said he "paid" GG by the terms of GG's contract giving GG a percentage of the units pressed instead of on retail sales after expenses). Yarmouth had rights to the sound recordings master tapes from Allin's pre-Homestead releases; GG approached Yarmouth in 1983 to bankroll his recordings and begin a national advertising campaign that included ads in Option
, Flipside
, Ben Is Dead
, RIP, Maximum RockNRoll
, Real Life In A Big City, Boston Rock, and many more publications that also paved the way to GG's infamy. Black & Blue's first release was an Allin recording, the Live Fast Die Fast EP, and Black and Blue had since been reissuing Allin material in various analog formats that GG assisted in putting together. Allin told Yarmouth that trashing his label was something he would always do, and would do with other labels so he should not take it personal. Allin and Yarmouth were good friends and in touch with each other up to a week before his death. Allin took pride in the fact that he urinated in Homestead Records president Gerald Cosley's hair (according to GG) and on Yarmouth's leg (at the Populus Pudding show that was filmed when GG was under contract to Homestead). The whole GG and Yarmouth not speaking to each other is a myth. GG was always in touch with Yarmouth even when incarcerated via collect calls to Yarmouth and letters sent via postal mail. Black & Blue Records' phone bills and letters prove this where the whole not working together is a fabrication that has no justification. Allin even stayed at Yarmouth's home in the late 80s prior to the show at The Rocket in Providence RI.
Looking to both stretch out the material he had for the first-ever GG Allin CD (due to the CD format holding 70 minutes of material Yarmouth wanted to give fans a good bang for the buck) and attract collectors of Allin's work to a compilation of previously released material, Yarmouth took the initiative and came up with a professional-sounding recording of Allin and his first band, The Jabbers
, playing what was a "full set" of material at the Boston nightclub The Channel. The last time they played The Channel the set lasted three songs with one of the "Goon Squad", Mick Horgun, dragging GG off the stage and kicking him in the head till security pulled him off Allin. Yarmouth cleared things up with security pointing out that the perpetrator was on the guest list and part of the show (the bouncers were not amused). The Channel never booked Allin again after that show.
The show featured on the CD along with the interview pre and post show were all from the same night in the early 80s (probably 1981 or 82). Rather than add track marks to the beginning of every song Yarmouth incorporated all seven live recordings as one 15-minute-plus track on the CD (excluding two cover songs, The Stooges
' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the New York Dolls
' arrangement of Bo Diddley
's "Pills", both of which remain unreleased), and framed this track with pre-and-post-show interviews with GG and the band. The interviewer (creepy fact) was DJ Uncle Pete Davis, who committed suicide a few years later. Another interview note is that one of the people answering questions was a fan/roadie, not a member of The Jabbers.
For the previously released material on the CD, Yarmouth presented most of Allin's first album Always Was, Is And Always Shall Be
(with the exception of "1980's Rock and Roll", which Allin insisted not be included on the CD because he hated the song and felt it was his worst song ever), as well as the single "Gimme Some Head" and the EPs Live Fast Die Fast, No Rules" and You Hate Me And I Hate You. Of these recordings, only Always Is... "No Rules" and You Hate Me... are actually by GG and the Jabbers. Live Fast Die Fast was done by Allin and a few of the now defunct Jabbers along with the drummer from a local hair-metal band called the Flying 69, while "Gimme Some Head" was Allin's already legendary collaboration with former MC5 members Wayne Kramer
and Dennis Thompson
along with members of The Jabbers.
In a bit of revisionist history, Yarmouth and Allin credited production on all of the recordings to "Dick Urine
", the fictitious production credit from GG's early post-Jabbers cassette self-releases that later became the collective pseudonym for Allin and Yarmouth when Eat My Fuc
was recorded and released, and claimed on the back cover of the CD, in a parody of standard early compact disc technical notes, "We haven't tried very hard to improve the sound." In reality, the sound was improved when the compiled CD was mastered at Bernie Grundman
's mastering facilities, but it sounded punk to say that it wasn't. While many might question Yarmouth spending money on such poor source material, the audio quality of the CD was optimized.
This compilation would see re-release in a couple of different variations over the years. In 1993, the entire CD was released with a different front cover (from photos Yarmouth took in 1983 and later of Allin) under the extended title Insult & Injury Volume 1 - 1977-1982 Banned In Boston, and the contents of same would also be split into two different CDs in 1998 as Banned In Boston, Volume 1 and Volume 2, with Volume 1 containing the studio recordings and Volume 2 featuring the live tracks and interviews. These versions are still available from Black & Blue Records today. in 1990 a new version was made with The Jabbers
and has very different rrack Listing and is only 37:18.
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
singer/songwriter GG Allin
GG Allin
Kevin Michael "GG" Allin was an American punk rock singer-songwriter, who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. GG Allin is perhaps best remembered for his notorious live performances, which often featured transgressive acts, including coprophagia, self-mutilation, and...
, released in 1989 (although it was compiled and sent to the manufacturing plant in the winter of 1988 and gives a copyright date of that year). It was also the first ever GG Allin title to be released on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
but the release on CD included additional material not on the vinyl version Black and Blue released.
The CD was compiled by Black and Blue Records owner Peter Yarmouth with cooperation from GG Allin, since the two previous 7" releases had started to garner interest after the infamous Cat Club show in NYC and all the press in Village Voice, Flipside and other punk rock fanzines. The other version of the album is a compilation of all of GG Allin
GG Allin
Kevin Michael "GG" Allin was an American punk rock singer-songwriter, who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. GG Allin is perhaps best remembered for his notorious live performances, which often featured transgressive acts, including coprophagia, self-mutilation, and...
recordings with The Jabbers
The Jabbers
The Jabbers are an American punk rock band. Once fronted by a young GG Allin at the beginning of his career in the late-'70s to mid-'80s, many of his most well known songs were recorded with this band, such as "Assface", "Don't Talk to Me" and "Bored to Death".Most notable, Allin's singing voice...
Recording
At the time, Allin's notoriety was already established at a fast pace due to his continued outrageous stage antics throughout the United States along with his Black and Blue releases, the two album releases for Homestead Records, You Give Love a Bad NameYou Give Love a Bad Name (album)
You Give Love a Bad Name is the third studio album by the transgressive American punk rock musician GG Allin, and is jointly credited to Allin and a one-time studio band named The Holy Men...
and Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies
Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies
Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies is the fourth studio album by transgressive punk rock musician GG Allin. A collaboration with backing band Bulge, the LP was first released by Homestead Records in 1988....
and the cassette album on ROIR Hated In The Nation
Hated in the Nation
Hated in the Nation is a compilation album, initially released exclusively on cassette format on ROIR, by transgressive punk rock musician GG Allin. Consisting mainly of then-out-of-print recordings by Allin with his early-era backing groups The Jabbers, The Scumfucs, and the Cedar Street Sluts,...
(which has the three live songs played at the abbreviated set in New York City's infamous Cat Club show). Allin never stopped speaking or working with Yarmouth, despite telling interviewers that Yarmouth had not paid him a cent in royalties on the video GG Eats His Own/Live & Pissed (a charge refuted by Yarmouth when he said he "paid" GG by the terms of GG's contract giving GG a percentage of the units pressed instead of on retail sales after expenses). Yarmouth had rights to the sound recordings master tapes from Allin's pre-Homestead releases; GG approached Yarmouth in 1983 to bankroll his recordings and begin a national advertising campaign that included ads in Option
Option (music magazine)
Option was a music magazine based in Los Angeles, California.-History:Originally called OPtion, it, along with Sound Choice, were the dual successors to the earlier music magazine OP, published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network and known for its diverse scope and the role it played in...
, Flipside
Flipside (fanzine)
Flipside was a punk rock fanzine published in Los Angeles, California from 1977 to 2000.As one of the first and longest running US punk rock fanzines, this publication extensively chronicled the world of independent and underground music during this era. Known for its highly opinionated cast of...
, Ben Is Dead
Ben Is Dead
Ben Is Dead was a Los Angeles-based zine published from 1988 through 1999. Its creator, Deborah "Darby" Romeo, got its name from a dream she had about her husband Ben, a Frenchman she divorced not long into the magazine's run...
, RIP, Maximum RockNRoll
Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum rocknroll is a widely distributed, monthly not-for-profit fanzine based in San Francisco, USA. It features interviews, columns, and reviews from international contributors...
, Real Life In A Big City, Boston Rock, and many more publications that also paved the way to GG's infamy. Black & Blue's first release was an Allin recording, the Live Fast Die Fast EP, and Black and Blue had since been reissuing Allin material in various analog formats that GG assisted in putting together. Allin told Yarmouth that trashing his label was something he would always do, and would do with other labels so he should not take it personal. Allin and Yarmouth were good friends and in touch with each other up to a week before his death. Allin took pride in the fact that he urinated in Homestead Records president Gerald Cosley's hair (according to GG) and on Yarmouth's leg (at the Populus Pudding show that was filmed when GG was under contract to Homestead). The whole GG and Yarmouth not speaking to each other is a myth. GG was always in touch with Yarmouth even when incarcerated via collect calls to Yarmouth and letters sent via postal mail. Black & Blue Records' phone bills and letters prove this where the whole not working together is a fabrication that has no justification. Allin even stayed at Yarmouth's home in the late 80s prior to the show at The Rocket in Providence RI.
Looking to both stretch out the material he had for the first-ever GG Allin CD (due to the CD format holding 70 minutes of material Yarmouth wanted to give fans a good bang for the buck) and attract collectors of Allin's work to a compilation of previously released material, Yarmouth took the initiative and came up with a professional-sounding recording of Allin and his first band, The Jabbers
The Jabbers
The Jabbers are an American punk rock band. Once fronted by a young GG Allin at the beginning of his career in the late-'70s to mid-'80s, many of his most well known songs were recorded with this band, such as "Assface", "Don't Talk to Me" and "Bored to Death".Most notable, Allin's singing voice...
, playing what was a "full set" of material at the Boston nightclub The Channel. The last time they played The Channel the set lasted three songs with one of the "Goon Squad", Mick Horgun, dragging GG off the stage and kicking him in the head till security pulled him off Allin. Yarmouth cleared things up with security pointing out that the perpetrator was on the guest list and part of the show (the bouncers were not amused). The Channel never booked Allin again after that show.
The show featured on the CD along with the interview pre and post show were all from the same night in the early 80s (probably 1981 or 82). Rather than add track marks to the beginning of every song Yarmouth incorporated all seven live recordings as one 15-minute-plus track on the CD (excluding two cover songs, The Stooges
The Stooges
The Stooges are an American rock band from Ann Arbor, Michigan first active from 1967 to 1974, and later reformed in 2003...
' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and the New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
' arrangement of Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
's "Pills", both of which remain unreleased), and framed this track with pre-and-post-show interviews with GG and the band. The interviewer (creepy fact) was DJ Uncle Pete Davis, who committed suicide a few years later. Another interview note is that one of the people answering questions was a fan/roadie, not a member of The Jabbers.
For the previously released material on the CD, Yarmouth presented most of Allin's first album Always Was, Is And Always Shall Be
Always Was, Is and Always Shall Be
Always Was, Is And Always Shall Be is the debut studio album by American punk rock musician GG Allin, released in 1980 on Orange Records. Some of its songs were recorded over a period of several years in the late 1970s, from 1978 to 1980, when Allin was with the band The Jabbers...
(with the exception of "1980's Rock and Roll", which Allin insisted not be included on the CD because he hated the song and felt it was his worst song ever), as well as the single "Gimme Some Head" and the EPs Live Fast Die Fast, No Rules" and You Hate Me And I Hate You. Of these recordings, only Always Is... "No Rules" and You Hate Me... are actually by GG and the Jabbers. Live Fast Die Fast was done by Allin and a few of the now defunct Jabbers along with the drummer from a local hair-metal band called the Flying 69, while "Gimme Some Head" was Allin's already legendary collaboration with former MC5 members Wayne Kramer
Wayne Kramer (guitarist)
Wayne Kramer is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and film and television scorer....
and Dennis Thompson
Dennis Thompson (drummer)
Dennis Thompson is the drummer with the 1960s/1970s Detroit proto-punk/hard rock group MC5, which had a #82 US single with "Kick Out The Jams" and a #30 US album with the same name....
along with members of The Jabbers.
In a bit of revisionist history, Yarmouth and Allin credited production on all of the recordings to "Dick Urine
Dick Urine
Dick Urine is a pseudonym associated with independent label owner/producer Peter Yarmouth. Dick Urine was Yarmouth's stage name and the name was created/invented by GG Allin....
", the fictitious production credit from GG's early post-Jabbers cassette self-releases that later became the collective pseudonym for Allin and Yarmouth when Eat My Fuc
E.M.F. (album)
Eat My Fuc is the second full-length studio album by controversial American punk rock musician GG Allin, released in 1986 on Black & Blue Records...
was recorded and released, and claimed on the back cover of the CD, in a parody of standard early compact disc technical notes, "We haven't tried very hard to improve the sound." In reality, the sound was improved when the compiled CD was mastered at Bernie Grundman
Bernie Grundman
-Biography:He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1983 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan and Brian Gardner, mastered 37 projects which received Grammy Award nominations in 2005.Grundman...
's mastering facilities, but it sounded punk to say that it wasn't. While many might question Yarmouth spending money on such poor source material, the audio quality of the CD was optimized.
This compilation would see re-release in a couple of different variations over the years. In 1993, the entire CD was released with a different front cover (from photos Yarmouth took in 1983 and later of Allin) under the extended title Insult & Injury Volume 1 - 1977-1982 Banned In Boston, and the contents of same would also be split into two different CDs in 1998 as Banned In Boston, Volume 1 and Volume 2, with Volume 1 containing the studio recordings and Volume 2 featuring the live tracks and interviews. These versions are still available from Black & Blue Records today. in 1990 a new version was made with The Jabbers
The Jabbers
The Jabbers are an American punk rock band. Once fronted by a young GG Allin at the beginning of his career in the late-'70s to mid-'80s, many of his most well known songs were recorded with this band, such as "Assface", "Don't Talk to Me" and "Bored to Death".Most notable, Allin's singing voice...
and has very different rrack Listing and is only 37:18.
Track listing
- Dead or Alive
- Interview
- Live Boston
- You Hate Me and I Hate You
- Gimme Some Head
- Don't Talk to Me
- Automatic
- Nuke Attack
- Bored to Death
- Assface
- Interview
- Live Fast Die Fast
- Livin' Like an Animal
- Loudenbomber
- I Need Adventure
- NYC Tonite
- No Rules
- A Fuckup
- Gimme Some Head
- You Hate Me and I Hate You
- Bored to Death
- Beat Beat Beat
- One Man Army
- Assface
- Cheri Love Affair
- Automatic
- I Need Adventure (1980 Version)
- Don't Talk to Me
- Unpredictable
- Radio Interview (unlisted on the CD tray liner)
Alternate Track listing
- You Hate Me and I Hate You
- Fuckup
- No Rules
- Bored To Death
- Beat Beat Beat
- One Man Army
- Assface
- Cherry Love Affair
- Automatic
- I Need Adventure
- Don't Talk To Me
- Unpredictable
- Up Agansit The Wall
- Gimmie Some Head
- NYC Tonight
- Dead Or Alive
- Living Like a Animal