"Terrorize, threaten and insult your useless generation..."
As news travels so fast these days, I'm sure you will have already heard that Malcolm McLaren died of cancer today, aged 64.
I was a little too young to have seen the Sex Pistols. While it was possible that I could have watched them insult Grundy on evening TV, for whatever reason, I didn't. Maybe I was having my tea, or getting ready for bed. I don't know? Anyway, by the time I heard and saw the Sex Pistols on Top of The Pops, Johnny Rotten was no longer with them (I didn't of course know who Johnny Rotten was at that time). The Sex Pistols, as far as I was concerned, at least for a few further naive months, was fronted by one helmet-less, motorcycle-riding, Sid Vicious singing C'mon Everybody, and punching the air, and sticking two fingers up at those he sped past illegally. I thought he was pretty cool. I was 12, what did I know?
I had already, without success, tried to buy a copy of the first Eddie Cochran cover-version, Something Else, largely because it apparently contained a swear-word riddled song on it's B-Side, called Friggin' in the Riggin'. Its must-have quality was only re-inforced by the fact Woolworth's and WHSmiths in Godalming High Street wouldn't stock it, and the smaller record shops in town had sold out - or so they said. I didn't really like it when I eventually heard it.. It didn't sound like punk to me.
I remember my mother wasn't exactly pleased when I came home one afternoon from the Indoor Market in Guildford wearing a God Save The Queen T-Shirt. She was probably similarly unimpressed with the swastika bearing, bloody-mouthed Sid Vicious hand puppet I made in Art that year. I was 12, what did I know?
Well, I didn't really know about McLaren until later. I made it to the Kings Road early in the 80s; You could still buy bondage trousers there, though the SEX shop was long gone, I'm sure. I didn't see The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle until many years later. Now, of course, I'm 'with Johnny'.
McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, The Sex Pistols and those that surrounded them, inspired the DIY ethic that has influenced so much music and fashion and film since. Those that continuie to employ that ethic are today given greater power and independence by the Internet, and with this medium will ultimately bring down the corporate music business, I'm sure.
Watching clips of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle also made me realise how shockable the general public were back then, and how, sadly, it would be virtually impossible to shock and upset a nation with music, fashion, or indeed simply an 'attitude', today.
The time is right to do it now
The greatest rock 'n' roll swindle
