R.I.P. Pete Shelley

Punk rock and bisexual icon Pete Shelley has died at the too-young age of 63. After the success of his punk band Buzzcocks (contemporaries of The Sex Pistols), he went solo and in 1981, he recorded a genre-defying song that mixed both acoustic guitar and synthesizers (which were being heavily explored in music at this time) in a propulsive, effervescent gay anthem called "Homosapien." The mix of acoustic and electronic instruments sounds amazingly fresh and sparkling even today. I used to hear this song played while waiting to see bands like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Ultravox at The Kabuki Nightclub in San Francisco in the early 80s!

I'm the shy boy, you're the coy boy
And you know we're Homosapien too
I'm the cruiser, you're the loser
Me and you sir, Homosapien too

Homosuperior in my interior
But from the skin out
I'm Homosapien too
And you're Homosapien too
And I'm Homosapien like you
And we're Homosapien too

And I think of your eyes in the dark
And I see the star
And I look to the light
And I might wonder right where you are
All the Gods in the sky, way up high
See the earth spinning 'round
But the sun and the moon
And the stars are so far from the ground

I'm the shy boy, you're the coy boy
And you know we're Homosapien too
I'm the cruiser, you're the loser
Me and you sir, Homosapien too

Homosuperior in my interior
But from the skin out
I'm Homosapien too
And you're Homosapien too
And I'm Homosapien like you
And we're Homosapien too

And the world's built of age are a stage
Where we act out our lives
And the words in the script seem to fit
'Cept we have some surprise
I just want this to last
Or my future is past and all gone
And if this is the case
Then I'll lose in life's race from now on

Homosuperior in my interior
But from the skin out
I'm Homosapien too
And you're Homosapien too
And I'm Homosapien like you
And we're Homosapien too

And I just hope and pray
That the day of our love is at hand
You and I, me and you
We will be one from two, understand?
And the world is so wrong
That I hope that we'll be strong enough
For we are on our own
And the only thing known is our love

I don't wanna classify you
Like an animal in the zoo
But it seems good to me to know
That you're Homosapien too
I'm the shy boy, you're the coy boy
I don't wanna classify you
Like an animal in the zoo
But it seems good to me to know
That you're Homosapien too
I don't wanna classify you
Like an animal in the zoo
But it seems good to me to know
That you're Homosapien too
I don't wanna classify you
Like an animal in the zoo
But it seems good to me to know
That you're Homosapien too

R.I.P. Pete and thanks for the music.

R.I.P. Malcolm McLaren

We have lost more creativity. The great impresario, stylist, artist, and fearless provocateur Malcolm McLaren died today in Switzerland after a lengthy battle with mesothelioma. He was 64.

He and Vivienne Westwood single-handedly changed the course of world pop culture forever. Read his fascinating biography here.
Despite the fact that he invented the snarling, ferocious musical genre known as "punk rock," and despite the fact that he surrounded himself with the likes of Johnny "Rotten" and Sid "Vicious," for me, Malcolm seemed like a delighted little boy, full of a kind of naiveté, almost giddily happy, and ready to make a fool out of himself at any moment. His musical career is peppered with lyrics and performances from him that could be considered "corny," but which I find totally endearing and mesmerizing for the fact that he appeared fearless and without any self-consciousness; he simply flung himself into whatever it was he dreamt up and I admire that. McLaren was a "conceptual collage artist" who threw cultures, fashion, lifestyles, art, and music together and found joy and artful expression in both the similarities and the differences of all the elements in the mix. A good example is his debut release, Duck Rock which treated all "folk music" as one, whether it was African music from Soweto, square dancing music from the Appalachians, hip-hop music form Brooklyn, or voudoun drumming from Haiti.
Take a moment to honor McLaren with two of his videos. In this first video for "Madame Butterfly (Un Bel Di Vedremo)," his glorious version of the classic aria "Un bel di..." from the opera Madama Butterfly by Puccini, melancholy models languish in a steamy, beautiful hammam. This track is from McLaren's 1984 conceptual release Fans, a collection of interpretations of classic operas.

And this video, "Paris Paris," is from his release Paris, a wistful and deeply passionate love letter to the City of Light. It features the elegantly beautiful Catherine Deneuve and has a distinct North African flavor, to reflect the North African immigrant influence on Parisian culture.