Thursday, April 15, 2010

“...a sausage roll with custard over it”

When I heard that Malcolm McLaren had died, and his long-term antagonist John Lydon spoke of him with some degree of affection, I tweeted:
When Simon Cowell dies, will Joe McElderry order us to miss him?
The point I was trying to make is that there’s not that much *moral* difference between McLaren’s quasi-Situationist shenanigans with the Sex Pistols, and Cowell’s pimpery to the proles of airbrushed eunuchs like little Joe; it’s just that in the 70s, the music was better.

But I was wrong. Of course I was wrong. Here’s a video of Malcolm last year, already clearly unwell, railing against the karaoke culture of Cowell and Blair and their ilk. If anyone was going to blame him for SuBo and Jedward, he wasn’t going to take the rap. There’s also a great riff about the sexuality of wine-tasting, as well as rock ‘n’ roll, William Morris, failure and much more.

Sorry, Malcolm.

3 comments:

Robert Swipe said...

While we're being nice to Malcy can I mention what a brilliant song 'Hellzapoppin' is too - but then, you know me and stockings...

;)

You think this is bad, just wait until Bruce Lacey snuffs it.

xxx
Bob

wrod vrecifi: pezzen.

(I know that's she's no?)

Billy said...

If Simon Cowell referenced the Lettrists just once on the X-factor, I'd be happy.

Dick Headley said...

Great find Tim. MM looks like somebody's cuddly old uncle.