Johnny Rotten sang/sneered the scabrous lyrics in 1977 or thereabouts:
Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need
There's no future, no future
No future for you
Well, it took 33 years, but it turned out to be true for the guy who midwifed the Sex Pistols and punk rock generally, Malcolm McLaren, who died yesterday at the age of 64.
There was always something amusing about what McLaren was doing with the Sex Pistols. The whole idea of prepackaged anarchy as a marketing strategy is a little bizarre. You can pretty much sell anything, I guess, but the audacity of McLaren was noteworthy.
The Sex Pistols didn't really permeate my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin in 1977. You heard a few rumblings about punk here and there, but I really didn't get to take the whole punk rock thing in until my college years. By then the music was second hand and had been co-opted into the larger music business. Well, that was what I believed at the time.
Nearly 35 years on, it looks different. It's pretty clear that what seemed so fresh to me, and so menacing to others, was second hand from the start. McLaren wasn't really much more than a rag merchant who figured out a new way to market his product. But it was fun while it lasted.
9 comments:
yes, you've exposed the widely know dirty little secret of the sex pistols.
they we all know it, we kinda enjoy pretending that we dont.
Mr. D:
Johnny Rotten thought the Queen had a fascist regime.....wht would he say about the Obama Administration?
Cousin D
what would he say about the Obama Administration?
Heh -- good question, Cousin D. Don't know, although I bet he might belt out a few "no future for yous" in the direction of Bart Stupak.
It turns out that there is no future for Stupak, at least not as a member of the house. He announced his retirement today.
The bet here is that he'll retire to greener pastures and a streamline of payouts from his democrat buddies for selling his soul.
It turns out that there is no future for Stupak, at least not as a member of the house. He announced his retirement today.
The bet here is that he'll retire to greener pastures and a streamline of payouts from his democrat buddies for selling his soul.
As I've speculated before, all the at-risk Congress-critters who voted for this obamination were no doubt assured that if they fell they'd be escorted into political Valahalla were they'd receive eternal milk and honey through a well compensated job in the expanding bureacratic beast. I wouldn't be surprised if Stupak's sinecure isn't already well in hand.
I wouldn't be surprised if Stupak's sinecure isn't already well in hand.
I have it on good authority he can be Doug Kmiec's cabana boy at the U.S. Embassy in Malta, NW. Perhaps Stupak can get his own island embassy? I'd suggest Elba, but that seems a bit churlish. Maybe Riker's Island?
Perhaps an ambassadorship to the Island of Dr. Moreau to further study the effects of centralized healthcare.
It is so funny how even Punk has changed over the years. They used to bite of chunks of red meat, and spit it out as they threw the rest of it into the crowd. Now, none of them will go anywhere near meat. They might try to save a few chickens here, and there. They all used to hate the government too. Now they just hate conservatives. I can not believe that the hippies even ruined Punk too. Actually, I can.
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