Photosource: esquire.com
I’m getting sick of doing this. Last Thursday, April 8, 2010, Malcolm McLaren died due to complications with mesothelioma. He was 64.
Malcolm McLaren is most notable for being the manager of seminal punk rock bank The Sex Pistols, arguably the world’s most famous punk band. The Sex Pistols popularised the punk fashion of the late 1970s. Safety pins, ripped and torn clothing, spiky haircuts, leather jackets and bondage gear, and straight up negative attitudes toward anything mainstream – this all stems from The Sex Pistols. They also helped usher in a highly influential anti-political musical movement called anarchy punk, prominent today in mainstream music with bands such as The Casualties and The Exploited. However, The Sex Pistols were nothing without McLaren.
It all happened like this. In 1971, after giving up on formal education after a series of expulsions from various British arts colleges, Malcolm McLaren and then girlfriend, now renowned fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a fashion boutique in London called Let It Rock. The shop specialised in costumes for cinematic productions and saw some success, but McLaren grew a new itch. In 1972 he travelled to New York City and hung out with inspirational protopunk group The New York Dolls, who had a huge underground following at the time. McLaren was drawn to their provocative dragqueen stage personas which countered the egotistic, no-fun direction rock and roll was heading toward. McLaren renamed his London shop Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die and began outfitting the Dolls for all their shows. But, The New york Dolls split in 1975 after a gutsy move by McLaren: to draw attention, he dressed the band in red leather suits and used a hammer and sickle as their new logo. Dolls guitarist Johhny Thunders would go on to become the underworld face of punk, a foreshadowing fact in the later success of The Sex Pistols.
After The New York Dolls, McLaren set out to create a band with members from local London. After a scrounging period, at the newly renamed McLaren shop SEX, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cool, and bassist Glen Matlock started producing rough-edge rock similar to The New York Dolls, and with the new do it yourself anti-rockstar ethic conceptualised by NYC punk prototypes the Ramones. McLaren found what he needed most for the band in a young man sporting a t-shirt reading “I Hate Pink Floyd.” Oh, so punk rock. This Floyd-hater was John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the most recognisable voice in punk.
So, the band was complete. McLaren named them The Sex Pistols after his shop and another random controversial image. The Sex Pistols countered Top 40 music of the late 70s. They didn’t play ten minute guitar solos or have trained musical knowledge, which is the essence of punk: regular people playing rock and roll, instead of larger than life heroes who didn’t give a shit about their fans. Punks wanted to recreate the rock scene of the 50s and 60s by playing short, 3-chord rhythm and blues songs. No filler.
In 1977, the Sex Pistols blew up. New bassist Sid Vicious became the ultimate punk anti-hero complete with a nasty heroin addiction and total lack of personality on the surface. The band’s “Anarchy Tour” with up and coming London pals The Clash and The Damned, and headlined by infamous junkie-punk Johnny Thunders and his Heartbreakers, gave them a previously non-existent soapbox.
The rest is literally history. The band’s one and only studio album, Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, was released in fall 1977. Complete with now punk classics ”God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy in the UK,” Nevermind the Bollocks reached No. 1 on the UK rock charts. It is widely considered by music historians as one of the most, if not the most influential rock album of the twentieth century. If you’ve never listened to it, do so, and play it loud.
Then, as quickly as they appeared, the Pistols were gone. They broke up after their dismal first US tour in 1978. In February 1979, Sid Vicious was dead due to a heroin overdose. McLaren went on to manage British punk rock group Adam and the Ants, and create his own music with various backing bands.
So after this brief punk history, my message ends with remembering Malcolm McLaren, punk’s PR representative. Without the pop culture and fashion vision of this man, it is quite possible that punk never would have reached the heights it now floats upon. RIP Malcolm McLaren.
I’m getting sick of doing this. Last Thursday, April 8, 2010, Malcolm McLaren died due to complications with mesothelioma. He was 64.
Malcolm McLaren is most notable for being the manager of seminal punk rock bank The Sex Pistols, arguably the world’s most famous punk band. The Sex Pistols popularised the punk fashion of the late 1970s. Safety pins, ripped and torn clothing, spiky haircuts, leather jackets and bondage gear, and straight up negative attitudes toward anything mainstream – this all stems from The Sex Pistols. They also helped usher in a highly influential anti-political musical movement called anarchy punk, prominent today in mainstream music with bands such as The Casualties and The Exploited. However, The Sex Pistols were nothing without McLaren.
It all happened like this. In 1971, after giving up on formal education after a series of expulsions from various British arts colleges, Malcolm McLaren and then girlfriend, now renowned fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a fashion boutique in London called Let It Rock. The shop specialised in costumes for cinematic productions and saw some success, but McLaren grew a new itch. In 1972 he travelled to New York City and hung out with inspirational protopunk group The New York Dolls, who had a huge underground following at the time. McLaren was drawn to their provocative dragqueen stage personas which countered the egotistic, no-fun direction rock and roll was heading toward. McLaren renamed his London shop Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die and began outfitting the Dolls for all their shows. But, The New york Dolls split in 1975 after a gutsy move by McLaren: to draw attention, he dressed the band in red leather suits and used a hammer and sickle as their new logo. Dolls guitarist Johhny Thunders would go on to become the underworld face of punk, a foreshadowing fact in the later success of The Sex Pistols.
After The New York Dolls, McLaren set out to create a band with members from local London. After a scrounging period, at the newly renamed McLaren shop SEX, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cool, and bassist Glen Matlock started producing rough-edge rock similar to The New York Dolls, and with the new do it yourself anti-rockstar ethic conceptualised by NYC punk prototypes the Ramones. McLaren found what he needed most for the band in a young man sporting a t-shirt reading “I Hate Pink Floyd.” Oh, so punk rock. This Floyd-hater was John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, the most recognisable voice in punk.
So, the band was complete. McLaren named them The Sex Pistols after his shop and another random controversial image. The Sex Pistols countered Top 40 music of the late 70s. They didn’t play ten minute guitar solos or have trained musical knowledge, which is the essence of punk: regular people playing rock and roll, instead of larger than life heroes who didn’t give a shit about their fans. Punks wanted to recreate the rock scene of the 50s and 60s by playing short, 3-chord rhythm and blues songs. No filler.
In 1977, the Sex Pistols blew up. New bassist Sid Vicious became the ultimate punk anti-hero complete with a nasty heroin addiction and total lack of personality on the surface. The band’s “Anarchy Tour” with up and coming London pals The Clash and The Damned, and headlined by infamous junkie-punk Johnny Thunders and his Heartbreakers, gave them a previously non-existent soapbox.
The rest is literally history. The band’s one and only studio album, Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, was released in fall 1977. Complete with now punk classics ”God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy in the UK,” Nevermind the Bollocks reached No. 1 on the UK rock charts. It is widely considered by music historians as one of the most, if not the most influential rock album of the twentieth century. If you’ve never listened to it, do so, and play it loud.
Then, as quickly as they appeared, the Pistols were gone. They broke up after their dismal first US tour in 1978. In February 1979, Sid Vicious was dead due to a heroin overdose. McLaren went on to manage British punk rock group Adam and the Ants, and create his own music with various backing bands.
So after this brief punk history, my message ends with remembering Malcolm McLaren, punk’s PR representative. Without the pop culture and fashion vision of this man, it is quite possible that punk never would have reached the heights it now floats upon. RIP Malcolm McLaren.
Published by campusintel.com
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment