Malcolm McLaren and Situationism.

Juvenile Respect for Authority.

Malcolm McLaren’s death was unexpected.

He made a great contribution to radical culture. The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, that is.  It was mixed with a greater boost to his own personal inflation. Frankly, who cares about that? Punk was a much needed shock. We liked it in the late 70s. A real thrust in the guts.

One thing made him real him for me. Not long ago he was on a Radio Two programme about  Serge Gainsbourg (here). McLaren really loved and understood the poetry and music. Really. That chimed a lot with me.

A useful account of his relations, or not,  with situationism is here . I’ve always heard that Jamie Reid was the real situationist. That is the account I had from a few Warwick Uni people who got into King Mob, not that they, nor Jamie (more here), were actually members, (the people I spoke to were too late on the scene anyway). 

Some  say that McLaren never got beyond the “détournement” of  the ‘spectacle’ bit. Or that he fell in love with it.

There’s a useful entry on Punk and Politics on Wikipedia – here.

We could do with some of that anger and energy in politics and culture today.

Ian Bone notes funeral here.

Splinty has a Video-Fest here.

French Tribute here. French radio here. Le Monde trying to be ‘tendance’ (which apart from being the name of a well-known revolutionary group means ‘trendy’ in French) – here.