RIP Malcolm McLaren
2:34PM ON
04/08/2010
BY
Matthew Lawrence
Malcolm McLaren, perhaps the only person to have ever worked with both KRS-One and Yanni, has died. Primarily known in America as the manager of the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols, McLaren was also responsible for the success of Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow, and he also released several hit singles in the UK under his own name.
A clothing designer and boutique owner, McLaren worked closely with his partner Vivienne Westwood to style musicians in provocative, attention-grabbing ways. The Sex Pistols, managed by McLaren and styled by Westwood, were his first big success, causing all sorts of havoc in the British media and livening up a rather dull few years in British music. The group’s success lay in publicity stunts, which the press happily ate up. (Julien Temple’s The Filth and the Fury is a really great telling of the Sex Pistols story, if you’re interested.)
Though McLaren’s relationship with the Sex Pistols ended in lawsuits, he went on to manufacture other bands, including Adam and the Ants. He dressed them up in historical garb it’s generally believed that McLaren’s the one responsible for the group’s shift towards African drums.
After a disagreement with Ant, however, McLaren took the rest of the Ants and started a new band. Bow Wow Wow was fronted by Anabella Lwin, a fourteen-year old Cambodian immigrant who was to become the West’s first South Asian rock star. Lwin was used to get press attention–she’s topless on one album cover, and on their debut EP, 1980’s Your Cassette Pet, she sang lustily to “Louis Quatorze” and also raptured orgasmically about “Sexy Eiffel Towers.”
Later, McLaren embarked on a frankly crazy solo career, which ran the gamut from early sample-based hip-hop to opera to a concept album featuring Catherine Deneuve and Fracnoise Hardy. “Buffalo Gals,” his debut solo single, was a top 10 hit in the US and later provided the basis for Neneh Cherry’s completely perfect “Buffalo Stance.”
Here’s some classic McLaren:
McLaren was 64. Coincidentally, Westwood turns 60 today.
April 9th, 2010 at 10:29AM
Beth Comery Says:
‘The Filth and the Fury’ is a great documentary. For anyone, even if you don’t think you are interested in these people.
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