Duck Rock is one of my all-time favourite records. Off to dig out the LP and play it at maximum volume.

I'll always remember where I heard the news first :(

RIP

and always managed to be interesting. I travelled on the same Eurostar as him once and was just too shy to say hello and tell him how much I liked what he did and stood for. I wish I had now.

I haven't played it for maybe a year until now. It's pure, unbridled joy on plastic.

that's two rock and roll mavericks casting long shadows. RIP Malcolm, brightened up my life and, well, he was inspirational.

coffin with torn white cotton and a few leather straps with studs, I do hope

and sorry 'bout missing your post and starting my own, nature of this board, innit

I fear his kind walk less.

He was a maverick but a likeable one

Very sad. Didn't realise he had cancer. We have a lot to thank him for.

Sorry to be obvious, but isn't this one of the most joyful songs/videos ever? And from a wonderful album - fusion, but the opposite of the usual cringe-inducing, earnest stuff. Each song is like a bizarre recipe, chucking genres into a bowl and seeing what comes out.
It represents the better side of McLaren - colourful, daring and mischievous:

An arch manipulator and someone who obviously knew how to play the media like a piano.

pop music just got a little greyer, a little more Cowell.

I did an interview with Barry Cain a few years back and asked him

Malcolm McLaren once said “I have brought you many things in my time” which included breaking Punk, World Music and Hip Hop, but equally there’s a trail of broken relationships and bad blood.” What's your take on him – genius or jinx?

Genius. I mentioned in the book that Malcolm asked me to ‘ghost’ write his autobiography in 1979. I got to know him as well as anyone after countless interview sessions in my living room over a three-month period. He made me dance all night and still beg for more. He’s the Brian Clough of pop who should’ve managed England. Knowing Malcolm, I think love got in the way – he’s an incurable romantic. But we should all be thankful he turned the world dayglo.

Full thing's here if you fancy a peep
http://planetmondo.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-of-revelation.html

I don't think you should sum up a life in bullet points, but:

1) Madame Butterfly. Exquisite.
2) The entire Waltz Darling album. Unavailable for years, for no good reason.
3) Hosting Top Of The Pops *exactly* as you would have wanted him to.
4) Duck Rock.
5) Double Dutch.

6) Arch manipulator of some starstruck types (Ant, Rotten, Lwin) over 30 years ago.

On balance, a life worth living. RIP.

and sad. An absolute one-off and capable of utter brilliance and great beauty too.

more parallels between Cowell and Mr M than seem apparent at first. Both driven, manipulative, brilliant and seemingly nerveless. And both with a sense of enjoyment and mischief about what they do. It's not hard to imagine - given a twist of the Cosmos - to imagine MM hosting Britain's Got Talent. I'm sure he would have enjoyed the freak show aspect at the very least.

Echo the sentiments about Waltz Darling - is it still unavailable?

Anyway - typical of the man to have kept quiet about the one thing that mattered so much - when he was so adept at making a noise about nearly everything else.

I'm not sure he's capable of resting in peace - but praise be and thanks for everything he did. A true original.

Always thought the Pistols protested a bit too much about Mclaren. He set the scene, and framed them in a particular arty, sexy context without which they might just have been a dodgy pub rock band with a crap singer. He also got up more peoples noses, and was far more maverick and outrageous than any number of so-called 'punks'.

Mr Rotten appears to have changed his tune a bit anyway:
http://www.nme.com/news/john-lydon/50579

letting bygones be bygones and paying your respects. You only get one chance to pay proper respect when someone dies, as Macca learnt the hard way when Lennon was killed.

Malcolm was all of the above and a pretty shrewd businessman, to have screwed so much money in quick succession from EMI, A&M and Virgin.

but even I can see how he changed everything RIP

to appreciate properly what he did, being 6 in 1977. But it was always different, tangential during the 80's when I was old enough to appreciate it.

And whilst he was too young to go at 64, he packed more into his span than most would.

Jon Savage appreciation on the news last night was interesting-I had no idea he (JS) was so posh!!

You guys should write something in the next issue of The Word. Along with the contributions from the regulars, it would be most interesting.

Can't add anything to what has been said ^ other than that I adored the 12" of Buffalo Gals.

"I have been called many things: a charlatan, a con man, or, most flatteringly, the culprit responsible for turning British popular culture into nothing more than a cheap marketing gimmick"

:-)

from regular The Word contributor Paul McGee,

from unrepentant punk John Robb,

and from my Arts Desk colleague Peter Culshaw, who knew Malcolm well and I'd vainly hoped might introduce me to him one day...

McLaren was a mad professor, an alchemist who somehow found the secret to eternal life, through unleashing the Pistols and Punk, and the elixir of youth, through a then 14yo girl and the Burundi-inspired Bow Wow Wow.
To discover one made him a genius, to discover both marks him as an Einstein of modern culture.
Barking and pretentious though he could be, it's impossible not to admire a man with his eye for talent. An inspiration to many, maybe even Simon Cowell...