Malcolm McLaren Monologues

When I listened to the Malcolm McLaren monologues on WPS1 for the first time, his voice opened up all these memory banks from a past life, when I was 16 or 17. One evening, I went to see the movie “The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle” at a small “program” movie theater in Stuttgart with my first American girlfriend. The movie was anythinig but new, then, and Punk was not dead, I guess, but a pretty much Billy-Idol-ed out.

It was the voice of Malcolm McLaren that stayed with me from this movie, more than Johnny, Sid and all the other Pistol Nuts:”This is Malcolm McLaren. I have brought you many things in my life …” I can still remember his voice, just taking credit, brazenly, for inventing punk rock, god, and the internal combustion engine!

Over the years he would pop (literally) up out of nowhere sometimes (remember vogueing?) claiming credit for a fad. Well, now he is back with a piece from the soundtrack of Kill Bill and

“bastard blues,” “chip music,” “post-karaoke,” and “rock and roll Gameboy music,” as well as”mash-ups” (tracks formed by layering pre-existing songs, as exemplified by the fusion of Captain and Tenille’s “Love Will Bring Us Together” and New Order’s ” Love Will Tear Us Apart.” – WPS1

“His” stuff is fun and some of it is really good. But Malcolm-Himself is still the centerpiece of the show. And perhaps his monologues are truly his original art.

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