Once considered the most hated man in punk rock, according to NPR, McLaren was known as Dick Clark from hell. As legend tells it McLaren actually started his career running a clothing shop on King’s Road that sold fetish gear with his girlfriend. At the time the shop was also used as a fence to sell stolen music equipment.
Those thieves would go on to become the Sex Pistols. “He was the original punk rocker and revolutionized the world,” his son Joe Corre told the Associated Press on Thursday. It was McLaren that gave the group its name.
McLaren didn’t limit himself to management. In a move that channeled Hunter S. Thompson he decided to run for Mayor of London promising that, if he won, he would set up a legalized brothel outside Parliament. He would eventually go on to become knighted and create shows for the BBC.
“I was upset when I heard the news, as I’ve always had a soft spot for Malcolm,” said Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones “I knew him since I was 17 before the Pistols formed…Malcolm was definitely the Brian Epstein of punk-without him it wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”
His rebellious nature made punk rock what it is today. Without British punk there would be no Ramones or the Clash, no Green Day or Dropkick Murphy’s. McLaren single-handedly helped spawn a new genre of music. Not many men can say they lay claim to such an achievement.
Strangely it was neither sex, drugs nor rock n’ roll that did McLaren in but cancer. Last week the world lost a prophet. The punk rock community, indeed the world, will never be the same.
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