Born on January 22, 1946, he opened a clothing store in London called Let It Rock with his then partner, the designer Vivienne Westwood in the 1970's. They renamed the store SEX, and the S&M-inspired clothing they sold at the revamped emporium would play a large part in the creation of the punk “look.” McLaren managed proto-punkers, the New York Dolls, for a while but it was his masterminding of the Sex Pistols’ career from 1975 made his rise in status within the industry. He was crucial in getting the band together and marketing them as extreme musicians and artists in and out of the punk scene. He was labeled as the "extra" Pistol as a 1980 film about the band was told in his perspective. McLaren self proclaimed himself as an artist – but without the portfolio. He stated during an interview - "If you say an artist, then at least it means you’re a dreamer. That element of being able to dream has to stay with you for you, to be able to do anything that breaks convention.”
Following the Pistols break up, McLaren went on to manage Bow Wow Wow, a new wave act. The group tried to be as controversial as McLaren's first band, with an E.P. cover that depicted singer Annabella Lwin, then just 14, naked. The photo was a typical McLaren styled stunt as it was inspired by a Manet painting. In 1983, after helping out Johnny Rotten, McLaren tried his hand at actually making an album that was a mix of world music and hip-hop. His album's title was Duck Rock and included the UK charting hits "Double Dutch" and "Buffalo Gals", a track later sampled by Eminem. McLaren then released a follow up with his 1984 opera-inspired Fans. In 1989 he put out Waltz Darling, a collaboration with Bootsy Collins that was disco driven.
McLaren spent the rest of his working on various projects like writing a film for the U.K.’s Channel 4 network called the Ghosts of Oxford Street featuring songs by Tom Jones and the Happy Mondays, among others. He also helped produce Fast Food Nation, a 2006 film. During the summer of 2009, a video installation by McLaren called Shallow was shown in Times Square.
McLaren saved a lot of his great works for the artists and musicians he worked with and kept his profile low enough to not outshine the acts he was helping. Not all of his endeavors were major success, but he attributes his many flamboyant projects to his philosophy of wanting to be noticed MORE for edginess, controversy and being outrageous than being quiet in your success. To McLaren and a few others, that's the definition of being punk rock.
No comments:
Post a Comment