Day 0516 - Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren "Duck Rock" (1983)

Having become well known through his involvement in the punk scene (in particular, his management of the Sex Pistols); McLaren was keen to translate that notoriety into pop stardom for himself.

McLaren teamed up with producer Trevor Horn, who was given a reasonable amount of creative control due to McLaren's lack of musicality and specific direction for how the album should be.  The book states that such was McLaren's lack of musical ability that he had to have Horn slapping him in time to the beat of the music to keep his vocal delivery in time.

Music from various nationalities was brought into the mix along with McLaren's interest in the nascent hip-hop and turntablism scene.  The resulting tracks could be seen as a precursor to the world music craze that would later arise.

Day 0394 - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols

Sex Pistols "Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols" (1977)

 
Well this one was really always going to show up, wasn't it. This album gets held up as one of the most influential, the one to really 'put punk on the map'.  Quite frankly though, with so many punk artists and albums around at the time, the 'revolution' would have happened whether this band released an album or not.

I can see why this one got seized on though: for a start, it was hugely publicised with the Pistols being assembled and marketed by Malcolm McLaren.  The band had gone on the Bill Grundy show and dropped the F-bomb.  But aside from all of that, where a lot of the other artists at the time, such as the Clash or Suicide or whoever were punk, mixed with other musical elements the Pistols seemed to be designed as some kind of punk shorthand.  The album has simplistic 3 chord songs played fast, noisily and with a large dose of sneery, smirking attitude.  There's not lot of variation so it almost reflects the later more "pure" underground and American hardcore punk that followed over the next decade or so.