043. "...we are all children of Thatcher and McLaren” (Burchill)

How does one write anything about the Sex Pistols which hasn’t been written before? So much ink has been spilled on one band as to be almost incomprehensible. Without the Sex Pistols music would be completely different. Without Malcolm McLaren, there would be no Sex Pistols. At least, according to some. The apparent importance of the Sex Pistols could stir many a structure/agency debate. Right band right time? Individual innovators? Or, in fuller terms, did the individual efforts of one band irrevocably change music, or were they just the crystallisation of a larger socio-political trend?

Where you fall in the above debate will colour your position in your view of McLaren. The Sex Pistols fraternity seem to be split in two. On the one hand there are those who see him as instrumental to changing the face of popular music for ever by managing one of the most iconic bands of all time. Others regard him as an exploiter, sucking out the ‘true spirit’ of punk, distilling it, and selling it for a tidy profit.

Perhaps these questions are best discussed another time, because despite the answers, a life has been lost. As a track from the collection to remember his legacy, DMM could only really choose one song: God Save The Queen.

Malcolm McLaren
(1946-2010)