April 8, 2010, 2:29 pm
Malcolm McLaren, Impresario and Rock Music Manager, Is Dead
By DAVE ITZKOFF

Pascal Guyot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Malcolm McLaren in 2006.2:45 p.m. | Updated
Malcolm McLaren, the impresario, promoter and self-promoter who once claimed to have invented punk rock, and who assembled and managed the youthful, unruly members of the Sex Pistols, the breakthrough British punk band, has died. He was 64. His companion of many years, Young Kim, confirmed that Mr. McLaren died on Thursday, and said that he died of mesothelioma at a hospital in Switzerland.

In the 1970s, Mr. McLaren returned to his native London from New York, where he had briefly managed the New York Dolls in the waning days of that band’s career. With his business partner and girlfriend at the time, Vivienne Westwood, they renamed their clothing shop Sex, and Mr. McLaren set about putting together his own rock act of untested British youth, which became the Sex Pistols.

Fronted by John Lydon — whose repugnant appearance and Irish background earned him the stage name Johnny Rotten — with Steve Jones (guitar), Paul Cook (drums) and Sid Vicious (a bassist who replaced original member Glen Matlock), the Sex Pistols terrified traditional music sensibilities with songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen,” and fueled Mr. McLaren’s flair for over-the-top spectacle: he arranged for the band to sign its contract with A&M Records outside Buckingham Palace, and organized a private boat performance of their “God Save the Queen” on the Thames that was quickly shut down by the police, cementing the group’s rebellious reputation.

As a solo artist, Mr. McLaren released genre-defying albums like “Duck Rock” in 1983 and “Waltz Darling” in 1989, and remained a perennial presence in the worlds of art and fashion.

A full obituary will follow.


http://artsbeat.blogs.nyt...r-is-dead/

Peace Mr Mclaren.

I can't believe it!



(I just posted a thread too- in the wrong place )

RIP.

I used 2 really dig his material. He was very creative.

Wow....far to young."shame"

Didn't know he was ill. Just saw him on Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack a little while back. As Fran Lebowitz said of Warhol, "(He was a) bit of a huckster", but more power to 'im. RIP.

Such a strong character. What a shame he died so young.

GirlBrother said:

Interesting. I would not consider 64 as young. It is past retirement age.

RIP



loved this song

...RIP

Damn.

Sex Pistols. Adam And The Ants. Bow Wow Wow. The sounds of my youth.

RIP Malcolm.

i was a long time fan and admirer or malcolm mclaren, i was inspired by his influence in music and fashion, with groups such as the sex pistols, adam and the ants and bow wow wow, and his own solo music. adam and the ants were the first band i was a fan of, and adam took the ants and created bow wow wow. malcolm had some amazing solo records such as buffalo girls, double dutch, waltz darling, somethings jumping in my shirt, deep in vogue etc. some very influential work

he also helped his partner vivienne westwood change career from being a teacher to being one of the most well known fashion designers in the world

i was very fortunate to see malcolm in august last year at a 90+ min talk about his life, an incredibly interesting experience of him talking about his early life from being born to how he came to run the famous sex shop and get involved with the sex pistols. even more incredibly, after being front row at an intimate talk, we ended up meeting him at the bar afterwards where he hung out with us for about half an hour to an hour (it could have been longer, it seemed to jump from 3pm to 8pm in 20 mins due to the great weather and beer). i got to shake hands and drink beer with one of the most influential people in musical history. i had no idea he was battling cancer, so this was a big shock to hear the news. i found my ticket to his show just the other week, one of his, if not the last, and certainly a very rare, personal appearance. i'm glad i had the opportunity to tell him how much he influenced my life

I'm usually first to shrug my shoulders when someone I didn't know dies, but Malcolm McLaren was a guy who, like many of us, was born with a certainty that they were destined to change the world in some way - make it 'better', however they define the word. But 'better' isn't just a word, a collection of syllables and vowels arranged to transmit a frequency which can be intercepted on a mass scale yet was borne into existence due to its nature of infinite bandwidth of definition and perception. we need to simplify. It's how we cope and slip out from the duvet in the mornings. 'Better' is both a badge and a belief - and when these are worn and held by charasmatic people with the dangerous power to manipulate the actions and notions of others, stars can crape together and create new realities from the friction.
Malcolm's paradigm is now instilled in every 12-year-old girl who posts her tits on Facebook, as well as every no-one with untangical ideas who knows they can be a someone with just a little hard work...and a lot of luck. Was Chicken a morally pungent idea? Were the Sex Pistols a force for good or a lightening rod for a nation's post WW2 insecurities?
Some people, many of them his closest friends, say Malcolm McLaren was a cunt of the highest order. Like 'better', we all define 'cunt' differently, which - like all true reality - makes a mockery of any generalistic definition of anything. Of course there's no black or white. How we perceive light from our closest star is but a thread tear on the fabric of that infinite spectrum. Malcolm was born to break our self-imposed boundaries, to rub the human race's collective face in its own vomit, to force us to face how ridiculous our petty belief systems and moral rationale really are. I believe the universe births conciousness to understand itself. Malcolm held a mirror up to creation and saw only himself reflected. He knew.
[Edited 4/8/10 12:36pm]

Duck Rock and Fans are brilliant albums that still get a spin now 'n' then.

Original, subversive and never boring... what a life the guy had. There's no way he's gonna rest in peace.

old chap.

unique said:

nice post uni

Graycap23 said:

Dunno where you are, but retirement age for males in the UK is 65.
[Edited 4/8/10 17:30pm]

NOOOOO FUUUUUTURE
NOOOOO FUUUUUTURE
NOOOOO FUUUUUTURE
FOR YOU!

Sorry, I just had to say it.

Nooooo

Graycap23 said:

It's not young, but I wouldn't call 64 old.




I didn't even know he was sick. RIP Malcolm.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...t6Co7EMNCU

This was '83 - way before Paul Simon's Graceland.

He also discovered the whole Vogue scene ('Deep In Vogue' and it's parent album 'Waltz Darling', which is a wonder) before Madge jumped on that wagon too.

Brought hip-hop to the UK with Buffalo Gals, and the punk goes without saying.

He was a dude and a half. I've been playing him all day.
[Edited 4/9/10 7:59am]

The death of a legend

Indeed about the Vogue thing , he was years ahead of the old hag and did it like a gazillion times better

64 is so not old, in the Western World at least.

70 is senior. 80 is elderly. 90 is old. Sixty-something is just older - not old.

vivid said:

I used to play the hell out of Buffalo Gals.

RIP
Mesothelioma is a terribly hard way to go.