Malcolm McLaren
 
Upon Malcolm McLaren’s death, there were equal voices proclaiming him shaman and shyster.  What cannot be denied are his contributions to modern pop culture, as a great driver of the fashion and form of the music movements of the 70s and 80s.  He will be best remembered as the manager of the Sex Pistols, as he positioned himself as the great manipulator of both the artists and the music industry who sought to exploit their notoriety.  In the end, he was an intuitive collaborator and creator, whose experimentations produced some brilliant musical and wearable designs.

In the early 70s, Malcolm and designer Vivienne Westwood opened a London clothing store, Let It Rock, on the Kings Road in London, which also became a hangout for those in the rock and roll scene.  To change the image from retro to contemporary, he re-named the shop Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die.  By the mid seventies, he was into artist management, working with the New York Dolls and designing their hallmark red leather costumes.  He quickly tuned into the provocative nature of the New York Dolls and the new trends in music, and to stay ahead of the curve, he re-named the Kings Road boutique SEX which created the “bondage” look found in malls today.
 
Malcolm will probably be best remembered as the mastermind behind “The Great Rock ‘N Roll Swindle,” and The Sex Pistols.  He was working with musician Glen Matlock, who also worked at SEX. He found John Lydon, renamed him Johnny Rotten, and the band was named The Sex Pistols.  To be even more provocative, they released "God Save the Queen" during Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebration, with the trademark artwork defacing the portrait of Her Highness.  McLaren also rented a boat so the Sex Pistols could play outside Houses of Parliament.  Malcolm was arrested for this stunt, but it kicked off a fury of publicity that would lead to bidding wars, label firings and controversy that made the band famous, and Malcolm rich.  In the band’s short two-year career, they managed to become rock and roll legends, and released the album that defined the decade as well as the punk movement.
 
The Sex Pistols were his most famous act, but Malcolm also managed commercially successful bands such as Adam & The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, where the blend of music and cutting-edge fashion went hand in hand, as well as the blending of musical styles  - pop, rock, African and Latin music.  McLaren also delved into his own musical endeavors in Hip Hop and music that combined Pop and Opera, “Madame Butterfly.”  In 1983, his influential Hip Hop album, Duck Rock, produced the ‘Double Dutch’ and ‘Buffalo Gals’ singles.  In the ‘Buffalo Gals’ video, you can see both Malcolm’s influence on both clothing design and music in that genre.

 
His music was used for the popular club tune “Hey DJ”, and was later sampled by more modern R&B artists such as Mariah Carey and Eminem. His role more recently has been behind the scenes, as a film producer on Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation", and a songwriter for film soundtrack songs, such as KILL BILL 2.
 
We can hear Malcolm’s influence in music with his unique combinations of styles, and his fashion, which is still popular today.  For him, the two were inescapably intertwined – one could not exist without the other.  While most of the attention was drawn to the finely tuned “images” he created for his bands, he proved that you could have both style and substance.
 
After the split of The Sex Pistols, John Lydon and McLaren were locked in a bitter legal feud until the late 80s when Lydon got the rights and restitution owed to him.  While the two never fully reconciled, Lydon had this to offer upon Malcolm’s death:  "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."
 
Photo of Kitty Kowalski, Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols, and Cinder Block of Tilt, courtesy of Kitty Kowalski.