The 1985 Listening Post - Malcolm McLaren - Swamp Thing

Malcolm McLaren - Swamp Thing

#452/1087

November 11 1985

Malcolm McLaren 

Swamp Thing 

Genre: Obnoxious

1.25 out of 10

The great contract obligation album. Made up of entrails, detritus and leftovers from previous works. 

And it sounds like it. For as inspirationally brilliant Duck Rock was, this is a big goose egg.

While it’s totally credited to him and Stephen Hague, “B.I. Bikini” is lifted from “Swinging in the Alphabet” by The Three Stooges. And Malcom’s version is terrible. And why is Bow Wow Wow’s “Eiffel Tower” here? I mean, I get it, given the relationship but…why is it here?

This is sad for me since Duck Rock is the album that gave birth to The Listening Post Facebook Group project. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/swamp-thing/1453922222

The 1984 Listening Post - Malcolm McLaren - Fans

Malcolm McLaren - Fans

#1

January 1 1984

Malcolm McLaren

Fans

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Madam Butterfly (Un bel dì vedremo)

Oh boy, the 80s were weird. 

It’s fitting that the first album in 1984’s Listening Post be this record, actually. It was an impulsive comment about the brilliant Duck Rock on my Facebook feed that started a conversation about music which resulted in this group. 

As what we accept as popular music changes (just 10 years before the closest we would get to Opera in pop was the middle section of Bohemian Rhapsody and that was Fauxpera) it’s also fitting that it’s Malcolm that, he of African rhythms and Hip Hop and punk appropriations be the one to make something like this: a disco, post punk version of Madame Butterfly and Carmen and Turandot….

This is all about the opening track. The rest is middling studio created stuff that wishes it was more poignant or pointed than it ultimately can ever aspire to be. Carmen as rap track is…a noble attempt but Bizet is Bizet and Malcolm is Malcolm. The latter isn’t expanding on the former just mashing it up. 

Ray Manzarek’s Carmina Burana this isn’t. And it’s not even close to what Weezer would do with some of the same source material a decade later. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fans/724149817

The 1983 Listening Post - Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren - Duck Rock

The reason I started this group. I so enjoyed the conversation with the likes of John Damn Seven, Tom Mott, John Szostak, Geo Rule, Nick Bognar and others that I wanted to keep talking about music but not toss it into the general wall and watch it fade into ephemera.

At the time I had forgotten that McLaren was responsible for introducing Burundi Beat to the Ants of Adam fame, thus creating a war between Adam and Bow Wow Wow to see who would get the music out first.

In retrospect it makes a lot of sense. The punk scene in England was rife with World influences. Check The Clash to hear that come out in force. The nexus of Afro-Hip Hop seems to have converged on this album. I don't know if Malcolm will ever truly get his due, since he was responsible for the punk Monkees, Sex Pistols but, he deserves a lot of credit. This is terrific.

1/31/1983
Malcolm McLaren
Duck Rock
4.5 Stars

Best Tracks:
Buffalo Gals
Double Dutch
Punk it Up
Jive My Baby
Duck for the Oyster

https://open.spotify.com/album/6S4f7yDtJlS0iQMEuCtIF0…