I Gave GG Allin His First Record Deal

David Peel — Street Corner Rant

Let me tell you about Orange Records. In 1974, I started my own label. No money, no office, no lawyers. Just a name and a post office box. You know why I called it Orange? Because they were squeezing us like oranges. The industry, the distributors, the whole machine. So I figured, if they're gonna squeeze me, at least I'll name the label after the fruit.

That's DIY. Before punk made it a movement, before indie made it a brand, before some kid with a laptop called himself independent because he uploads to Spotify. I was pressing vinyl in my apartment. Writing the liner notes by hand. Driving the boxes to the record stores myself. That's independence. That's what it actually looks like.

Now let me tell you about GG Allin. You know GG Allin? The most dangerous man in punk rock. Thrown out of every club in America. Banned from entire states. Did things on stage I can't even describe on the internet without getting flagged by somebody's algorithm. He was INSANE. Genuinely, certifiably insane.

And I'm the one who gave him his first record deal.

Nobody else would touch him. The major labels wouldn't return his calls. The indie labels were scared of him. The punk labels thought he was too much even for punk. Too much for PUNK. Think about that. The genre that gave you "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Damaged" said this guy was too much.

So he came to me. Because where do you go when nobody in the world will give you a chance? You go to the guy on the street corner. You go to the guy who's been too loud, too weird, too political, too stoned for every label in America. You go to David Peel. Because David Peel understands what it's like to be the guy that nobody wants to bet on.

I put out his record. On Orange Records. Because that's what a label is supposed to do. Not the safe thing. Not the profitable thing. The RIGHT thing. If an artist has something to say and nobody will let him say it, you give him a microphone. Even if what he says makes you want to leave the room. ESPECIALLY then.

Was GG difficult? He was impossible. Was he talented? In his own deranged way, absolutely. He had a commitment to being himself that most people can't even imagine. Most people put on a character when they get on stage. GG took everything off. Everything. Sometimes literally. That's authenticity taken to its most terrifying extreme.

Here's what people don't understand about Orange Records. It wasn't about making money. It was about making NOISE. I put out "Bring Back the Beatles." I put out "John Lennon for President." I was the first person to use "motherf-cker" in a song title. And I gave GG Allin his start. All from a post office box and a handshake.

The industry looks at that and calls it small time. I look at the industry and call it scared. Every artist they passed on because the numbers didn't work. Every record they shelved because it was too dangerous. Every voice they silenced because it didn't fit the format. That's not business. That's cowardice. Orange Records never had that problem. We were too broke to be scared.

See also: Have a Marijuana — the Elektra album that started it all. The Apple — from Elektra to Apple to Orange. The First Chord — where the noise began. CBGB Is a Clothing Store — they sold the room but they can't sell the noise. The Record — Sun Ra pressed El Saturn for the same reason. Nobody else would.

David Peel

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