"let their gimmicks go rotten"

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From the song by Jim Carroll and featured in the movie Suicide Squad.

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan

What does this mean?




The song is about the important people in his life who died.

Allen Ginsberg was an influence to Jim Carroll. Ginsberg "G-berg" did die from hepatitis.

I don't know who Georgie is.



OK. That IDs some of the people. But I still don't get the line "let their gimmicks go rotten". Which is my main question. And I did not mark this as answered unless I hit the button by mistake. So I am setting back to unanswered for now.



1) I'd like to take back my conjecture that G-berg = Allen Ginsberg. He didn't die from hepatitis until 1997, and this song was produced in 1980.

2) Gimmicks = drug paraphernalia according to the https://slangdefine.org/g/gimmick-3fa3.html The sharing of dirty needles gave them hepatitis which killed them.

3) G-berg and Georgie were just friends of Jim Carroll.



2) Gimmicks = drug paraphernalia according to the https://slangdefine.org/g/gimmick-3fa3.html The sharing of dirty needles gave them hepatitis which killed them.

Ok. That makes sense. I did search but never saw that sites answer.



In my opinion, G-berg and Georgie could represent broader ideas or societal ills. Their rotting and subsequent death could be metaphors for the decline or destruction of these values or the consequences of a society focused on immediate gains rather than long-term well-being.
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