My OperaSo farewell then Malcolm McClaren...
Thursday, April 8, 2010 11:52:16 PM
Malcolm McClaren invented punk. He said so, so it's gotta be true.
On Bizzaroworld.
He certainly gave it its taste in clothes and its general ethos, he told the movement they should hate everything, wear Nazi regalia, spit ('Gob' in his terminology) at people they liked, and he gave them punk's figurehead band, The Sex Pistols, so you can see how he could lay claim to the title of the man who invented punk, but he didn't give them the most important thing, and that was the music. The Clash, or more correctly at the time The 101ers (Or IOIers as they were frequently called on posters and in the press), had that sewn up already over here, and The Ramones were also well ahead of the game in the the U. S. of A.
No denying though, that for maybe the first year or more of punk, they simply did what McClaren told them was the right thing to do, even if all he was doing was telling them to imitate the teenagers of the early days of rock'n'roll, but all good things must come to an end. He decided that the next big thing was African music and tried to introduce it under the guide of The Double Dutch. It didn't catch on so he moved on to another band, Adam & the Ants, and persuaded them that the African Berundi beat was the way to go. Why he chose to drop Adam differs depending upon who's telling the story, but drop him he did, and he, with a new Ants, went on to be the face of the New Romantics, the trend which followed punk.
So McClaren tried the Burundi beat again with a semi-new group (Bow Wow Wow actually included three members of the Ants) and a trendy first single encouraging people to pirate their music onto cassette, not quite the same class of revolution as punk it must be said, and not nearly the success he wasn't having with Adam and his Ants. So he tried again with the 1st Bow Wow Wow album, persuading under-age vocalist Annabella Lwin to appear naked on the cover. Subsequent reports that Lwin hadn't wanted to take all her clothes off and left the photoshoot in tears afterwards have subsequently been denied by everyone involved except Lwin, who refuses to be drawn on the subject.
McClaren did eventually get his African music hit, with a band called Jimmy The Hoover and the song 'Tantalise (Wo Wo Ee Yeh Yeh)', but it wasn't the breakthrough that he hoped for, and the group went on to become one more of that ever expanding band of musicians whose only claim to fame is that they had one more hit than most of the rest of us did.
So farewell then, Malcolm McClaren, I shall always remember you for your greatest acheivement. Every artist you ever represented has walked off at least one TV show.
Coincidentally of course.
On Bizzaroworld.
He certainly gave it its taste in clothes and its general ethos, he told the movement they should hate everything, wear Nazi regalia, spit ('Gob' in his terminology) at people they liked, and he gave them punk's figurehead band, The Sex Pistols, so you can see how he could lay claim to the title of the man who invented punk, but he didn't give them the most important thing, and that was the music. The Clash, or more correctly at the time The 101ers (Or IOIers as they were frequently called on posters and in the press), had that sewn up already over here, and The Ramones were also well ahead of the game in the the U. S. of A.
No denying though, that for maybe the first year or more of punk, they simply did what McClaren told them was the right thing to do, even if all he was doing was telling them to imitate the teenagers of the early days of rock'n'roll, but all good things must come to an end. He decided that the next big thing was African music and tried to introduce it under the guide of The Double Dutch. It didn't catch on so he moved on to another band, Adam & the Ants, and persuaded them that the African Berundi beat was the way to go. Why he chose to drop Adam differs depending upon who's telling the story, but drop him he did, and he, with a new Ants, went on to be the face of the New Romantics, the trend which followed punk.
So McClaren tried the Burundi beat again with a semi-new group (Bow Wow Wow actually included three members of the Ants) and a trendy first single encouraging people to pirate their music onto cassette, not quite the same class of revolution as punk it must be said, and not nearly the success he wasn't having with Adam and his Ants. So he tried again with the 1st Bow Wow Wow album, persuading under-age vocalist Annabella Lwin to appear naked on the cover. Subsequent reports that Lwin hadn't wanted to take all her clothes off and left the photoshoot in tears afterwards have subsequently been denied by everyone involved except Lwin, who refuses to be drawn on the subject.
McClaren did eventually get his African music hit, with a band called Jimmy The Hoover and the song 'Tantalise (Wo Wo Ee Yeh Yeh)', but it wasn't the breakthrough that he hoped for, and the group went on to become one more of that ever expanding band of musicians whose only claim to fame is that they had one more hit than most of the rest of us did.
So farewell then, Malcolm McClaren, I shall always remember you for your greatest acheivement. Every artist you ever represented has walked off at least one TV show.
Coincidentally of course.
