



GG Allin and Prince are two artists rarely mentioned in the same breath, but both are responsible for strangely similar, arguably-talented, female protégé off-shoot trio acts. In the case of Prince, we have Vanity 6 (and Appollonia 6, if you count characters from Purple Rain). In the case of GG Allin, we have the Cedar Street Sluts.

Deceased, shit-flinging, “Rock and Roll Terrorist,” GG Allin, is, for better or worse, a punk icon, known for his transgressively messy live shows which blurred the lines between music and off-the-rails performance art—and more often than not, crossing the line into criminal behavior. RJ Smith wrote of Allin in a 1986 issue of The Village Voice:

“GG Allin, this New Hampshire loser, appeared at the Cat Club, wearing only a jockstrap and cowboy boots. He started shouting the moment he came out, after shitting in his hands and wiping it on his chest. Then he bashed the microphone into his mouth, nose and eye sockets, a shiny red mask spreading across his face. He stretched his jock aside and pulled hard on his little dick. He broke bottles on the ground and rolled in them. Back up on stage now, there was other stuff on the floor (vomit?), and his butt and legs, besides his face, were bleeding. On his back, sometimes doggy style, Allin would shove the microphone into his anus. Then he went into the second number.”





Punk impresario, GG Allin



Allin’s life and death are chronicled in the excellent 1994 Todd Phillips documentary Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. If you need to know more, start there—on an empty stomach. One particular chapter of Allin’s career not explored in that film is the Cedar Street Sluts.

The original “Cedar Street Sluts” were a backing band of supposed prostitutes on a 1986 cassette release: The Sleaziest, Loosest Sluts. The band members named on that release were “Connie Clit”, “Tammy Tits”, “Poline Pussy”, and “Sally Sleaze.” This tape featured call and response vocals between GG and the female vocalists.





photo: Terminal Boredom



An interview reprinted at Terminal Boredom recounts how Nancy Sinatra, of all people, led Allin to the idea of an all-girl group:

I’d like Nancy Sinatra to come see me play. She’s great. I’m totally into Nancy Sinatra. I’d marry her in a second. She’s the queen of whores. You know that song on the Cedar St. Sluts EP, “Tough Fuckin’ Shit”? That’s a Nancy Sinatra song, really. I just changed the words around a little. I got the idea for the all-girl band from listening to Nancy Sinatra.

—Conflict #43, Jan/Feb 1987

Sometime after that cassette release, Allin was jailed. While incarcerated, he and Black and Blue Records label chief, Peter Yarmouth (AKA “Dick Urine”), decided to put together a new lineup of Cedar Street Sluts to record an album.





All photographic evidence of the group is very tiny.



The result of Allin and Yarmouth’s idea was a bizarre release titled Songs By Working Girls, which is musically all over the map, mixing punk, new wave, and straight-ahead pop. Three female singers, not necessarily blessed with top shelf vocal talent, perform thirteen sleazy anthems—three of which were written by GG himself. Unfortunately, Allin and Yarmouth forgot the key rule to insuring the success of their female trio: adding “6” to the end of their name!







From Black and Blue Records hyperbolic press materials:

Lena Luna, Ginger Lee, and Holly Would, together with a bunch of musicians known as The Johns, recorded and released *Songs By Working Girls in 1989. Ginger Lee, originally from South Fairfield, CT, took the Mayflower route to the upper Manhattan’s madam and finally left ship and increased her “fan male” to orgasmic proportions! Holly Would, more than a play on words, from Sunset Boulevard, CA, which is better known as the “Street Of Sin”. This is where Holly put new meaning to the word WOULD. What she would do is really entirely up to you and your wallet. Lena Luna enjoyed the fruits of the tourist trade in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. She has many ties to state and federal tax revenues and is commonly seen at most political functions as someone’s house guest. Her name has been mentioned in some political morals investigations for sure. Together they formed the ‘Menage a Trois’ called THE CEDAR STREET SLUTS.





Holly Would, singer and writer of “Boys”, “No One Comes For Free”, “UH-OH”, and “Boyfriend Blues” from the “Songs By Working Girls” album.



The Black and Blue Records website chronicles several line-up changes over a very short period of time - such is “pop life.”





One of the many incarnations of the CSS.



A couple of videos were produced for the group, both GG Allin covers, which feature the line up of Lena Luna, Ginger Lee, and Ellie Might (lip-syncing for Holly Would). Remarkably, these clips produced in either ‘89 or ‘90 have the fashion sense and production values of videos made much earlier—we’re guessing this is purely unintentional.





Hype sheet released by “world renowned music producer,” Peter Yarmouth.



In another world, perhaps the Cedar Street Sluts would have stayed together, GG wouldn’t have died, and we could have seen the fulfilment of his destiny as the punk rock Prince, with Bloody Mess and the Skabs as his Morris Day and the Time and a Yellow Rain feature film. Holly Would, purifying herself in the waters of Lake Minnetokna, and GG flinging poop on his abusive father… if only.







Here’s the Cedar Street Sluts doing the GG Allin numbers “Sluts In The City” and “Darkness And A Bottle To Hold”:



Previously on Dangerous Minds:

An exclusive peek at some of GG Allin’s prison drawings: NSFW

