Malcolm McLaren, Punk Impresario, Dies at 64

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Malcolm McLaren, who died of cancer in Switzerland on April 8 at age 64, is best known for conceiving and managing the Sex Pistols. But over the course of his long and wilfully perverse career, McLaren ”“ equal parts manager, recording artist, impresario and self-promoter ”“ took joy in provocation, from the Pistols’ 1978 assault on America to mixing hip-hop and minstrel folk on his 1983 hit ”˜Buffalo Gals.’ In 2008, McLaren said his grandmother instilled this philosophy: “She said, ”˜To be good is simply boring.’ So who wants to be good?”

In the 1970s, McLaren ran the London boutique Sex, where he and his then-girlfriend, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, specialised in bondage wear. He briefly managed the New York Dolls, but McLaren found his true calling when he conceived of the idea of a confrontational band, enlisting shop employee Glen Matlock and John Lydon, who would hang around the store. “Malcolm was definitely the Brian Epstein of punk,” says Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. “Without him, it wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”

McLaren’s stunts, like having the Pistols play on a boat sailing past the Houses of Parliament, are legendary. “He was in the tradition of the rock & roll carnival huckster, and he was brilliant,” says Devo’s Jerry Casale, a longtime fan. After the Pistols’ implosion, McLaren briefly managed Adam and the Ants, and Bow Wow Wow, and recorded a series of albums that incorporated rap, opera, electronica and even Jeff Beck. But McLaren’s unwavering promotion of punk will be his true legacy. “It was wonderful to be able to sell something that was horrible,” McLaren said in 2008. “We made ugliness beautiful.”