Malcolm McLaren Laid to Rest at Punk-Rock Funeral

The funeral procession for punk impresario Malcolm McLaren lined the streets of London today as fans said their last goodbyes to the former Sex Pistols manager and punk rock legend. As Rolling Stone previously reported, McLaren passed away earlier this month at the age of 64 after a battle with mesothelioma. Hundreds of people crowded the streets as McLaren's coffin was led to a private ceremony on a horse-drawn carriage. The carriage was trailed by a double-decker bus — emblazoned with McLaren slogans like "Cash for Chaos" — that blasted Sid Vicious' raucous rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way," the BBC reports. Fans were also encouraged to sing and dance along with McLaren's version of the Max Bygraves song "You Need Hands."

Vivienne Westwood, who partnered with McLaren to open the legendary 1970s punk-clothing boutique Sex, attended the ceremony, along with the Buzzcocks' Steve Diggle, Adam Ant and Sir Bob Geldof. The punk motto "Too fast to live, too young to die" was scratched into the side of McLaren's coffin. He was laid to rest at London's Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx and author Douglas Adams are also buried. The Sex Pistols' Steve Jones wrote a tribute for the event that was read by McLaren and Westwood's son Joseph Corre.

"We might've discovered punk and invented it, but he put it on the map," the New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain told Rolling Stone in a Q&A shortly after McLaren's death (read the full interview here.) John Lydon added, "Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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