“Thanks, Malc”*: Malcom McLaren, 64, Made Cash From Chaos
Courtesy of, yes, IGN.COM
Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren – dead today of mesothelioma.
This is a shocker – we didn’t even know he was sick. Malcolm McLaren was a true legend. And, of course, he was a lot more than the manager of the Sex Pistols – hell, he was a hip-hop pioneer – but first, let’s go back a few decades and clear up some popular misconceptions regarding the most luminous aspect of his legacy.
Despite what The Great Rock N’ Roll Swindle would have you believe, Malcolm McLaren did not ‘create’ the Sex Pistols. Nor did he dress them, write their songs, or control them in any way. Here’s what happened in a nutshell:
After spending time amid the Situationist movement in late ’60s Paris, Malcom and wife Vivienne Westwood opened a shop on London’s Kings Road called Let It Rock (and later Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die) which specialized in the rockabilly/biker fashions favored by teddy boys and rockers. A couple of years later, after a short stint managing the final days of the New York Dolls, McLaren & Westwood renamed the shop SEX and started selling bondage gear instead of leather jackets. A logical progression, really.
Meanwhile, a couple of fledgling teenaged musicians named Steve Jones and Paul Cook were hanging around the shop and hooked up with cashier/bass player Glen Matlock. They recruited the weird-looking green-haired kid who hung out on Kings Road to sing (a certain John Lydon), and the Sex Pistols were born (not named by Malcom, by the way).
OK – so we’ve established that the Pistols were formed organically and were not manufactured or – gasp – A FUCKING BOY BAND. Who believes that shit? Are people really that stupid? Jesus Christ. Carrying on…
On to songwriting. Generally speaking, Matlock wrote the melodies and Lydon wrote the lyrics. McLaren did not write the songs. Or tell them what to write (in Malc’s defense, what would he say – “Can you write the most God-awful rhyme in the history of rock & roll?” That would, of course be “I am an anti-Christ/I am an anarchist”). Now, at one point, M.M. did ask John and Glen to write a song about “submission” – in the behavioral/sexual sense, apropos since he ran a bondage shop. Well, the savage young Pistols wrote a song called “Submission” about – yes – a submarine mission. Ha ha. Next…
Malcom had nothing to do with the band’s sound. Glen Matlock told me (that’s right – me. Not the royal “we”, but yo) that the entire Pistols sound was based around the Faces’ “Borstal Boys”. So there you go – Ronnie Wood, take a bow.
McLaren and Westwood did not create the “punk” look. Richard Hell was the first to do the safety pin thing, and Lydon often held his clothes together with safety pins because they were literally falling apart. The SEX fashions soon followed, based on what a few kids in New York and London were wearing. Not the other way around.
What essentially gave the Pistols their initial blast of incandescent notoriety was a very, very drunk Steve Jones calling talk show host Bill Grundy a “fucking rotter” on live, dinner-time television (and, according to Jones, had Malc pissing himself in panic). Not bondage pants or “Destroy” t-shirts. Remember that.
We could go on about how Malcolm ripped off the band, fostered divisions in the ranks, and merchandised the hell out of Sid Vicious before Nancy’s (and eventually Sid’s) body was cold… but we won’t.
Because Malcom McLaren was a born raconteur, a world-class bullshit artist, a master of media manipulation, and the kind of character that makes rock & roll so goddamn interesting.
Hell, today even John Lydon issued the following statement:
“For me Malc was always entertaining, and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you.”
And we do. It’s only fitting that there’s even the tiniest chance that Malcolm could have watched the following on his last night on this mortal coil:
*”Thanks, Malc” was what drummer Pete Thomas wrote on his shirt when Elvis Costello & the Attractions appeared on Saturday Night Live on December 17, 1977. The original musical guest was scheduled to be the Pistols, who were detained in the U.K. due to visa issues. A little piece of trivia for you. Hold your head high because you’re now a better, wiser person.
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