Published back in 1999, ' I Was A Murder Junkie 'is a look into the chaotic and self-destructive life of rock & roll ' s most controversial anti-hero ' s " G.G. Allin. Written by Evan Cohen, this 125 page account of Allin ' s life delivers an interesting insight into his upbringing, his motivations, his onstage performances and unsurprisingly the extreme depravities that made Allin the legend he remains to this day.

The book starts off with a previously undocumented look into Allin ' s upbringing, detailing the small amounts of information that Cohen managed to obtain about the early family life of Allin and his brother (and fellow band member) Merle Allin.

Cohen, as he proudly highlights on numerous occasions within the book, was privileged to be within the circle of people who were very much involved in Allin ' s life during the years in which his notorious band rose to their underground cult status. This allowed Cohen to draw on many first hand experiences throughout the book as well as having access to those who knew Allin well, including the other member of the Murder Junkies.

The booked is interspersed with interviews of such individuals, each one casting their own experiences of the time they had with Allin and his band. With moments of sheer rock & roll excess detailed on almost every page, the reader is able to form a very vivid picture of the atmosphere that surrounded this group.

Cohen ' s writing is extremely basic, littered with numerous spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. However, this only seems to paint a more all encompassing picture of the 'don't care 'attitude that every single person mentioned in the book seems to hold.

The book very rarely tries to delve deep into the reasons behind Allin ' s attitude and his depraved nature. Instead, it chooses to let the reader form their own opinion of this, drawing their own conclusions from the accounts on offer. This was probably not a conscious decision by the writer, but regardless of this, the final result is a book that the reader can take whatever they want from.

Consequences from each band members actions seems of little concern throughout the books detailed accounts. When something comes back to affect them, Cohen writes of their reactions towards this. As you can no doubt guess, these consequences are often involving the police or some aspect of the law, attempting to catch up with Allin for whatever reason. However, for a man who really does not care what happens to him from day to day, these moments are surprisingly few and far between.

Obviously, drink, drugs, depraved sexual behaviour and an all out offensive attitude towards the general public is the main thrust of the book. The stories of rock & roll mayhem appear to be relentless. Each day brings a further excess for the band members to endure and another beating to their bodies and possibly even their individual sanity.

The book finishes with the early death of Allin in 1993 from an unsurprising drugs overdose. Cohen delivers an account of Allin ' s funeral which was typical of his lifestyle. It ' s not a sad or indeed an emotional end to the book as you may have thought Cohen might have delivered (especially considering the admiration and respect Cohen clearly has for GG). These final pages offer no time spent examining the reasons behind Allin ' s lifestyle that led him inevitably to his early death; although this would have been out of place within the general context of the book. The final message is a clear one. There ' s no thought to consequences; it ' s just live for the day, because you could well die tomorrow.

The book has a total of twenty-eight black and white photos interspersed throughout the text that documents the various moments Cohen has written about. Many of these photos have managed to capture something of the man that Allin was. His expression in each and every photo is so expressive of his state of mind at those particular moments, that each photo further brings to life the accounts detailed in the text.

The book also includes a twenty-five minute audio CD of various recordings that were predominately taped on a microcassette recorder, so the general quality is a little ropey.