Posted by: James St. James contact

Recently Dead

Malcolm McLaren died of cancer this morning. He was 64. Half of the World of Wonder office let out a groan. The other half said "Who's he?" HE WAS ONLY THE ARCHITECT OF PUNK ROCK, PEOPLE! He was a showman, a shaman, a charlatan, a visionary, a trend-spotter, and a profiteer. He was the embodiment of '70s era anarchy. He was the manager of both the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls. He created the band Bow Wow Wow and discovered Annabella Lwin (replacing former lead singer Adam Ant). He was partners with Vivienne Westwood in the iconic 1970s King's Road SEX store. In the early '80s he visited the Bronx and presumptuously announced that he had "discovered" rap music (much to the dismay of the people in the Bronx), and released the now-classic singles "Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch." He later tried to co-opt the Voguing craze as well, but, um, Madonna did it more successfully and SHUT HIS ASS DOWN. On a personal note, the first party I went to in New York was the release of his "hip-hopera" single "Madame Butterfly" at Area. It was the most unbelievably fabulous event I have ever been to, the manifestation of everything I came to New York to find, and hearing that song always makes me cry. Today, even more so. There was so much more to his life than I was able to write about here, but trust me, he was a seminal part of pop culture and this is a sad day. (via The Independent)



| E-Mail