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MALCOLM
McLAREN reacted with the nonchalance
of the true rascal last week to
the claims of two struggling French
songwriters who say they co-wrote,
but were not credited for, two
songs on Bow Wow Wow's "Your
Cassette Pet".
The two Songwriters, Stephane Pietri and Pierre Grillet, worked
with McLaren for six months during 79 on the script for what they innocently
describe as "A kind of soft-core rock'n'roll costume musical
for kids". We may never learn the full foetid truth about
this work - originally planned as a movie - but it is safe to assume
that many of the ideas and characters in it emerged a year or so later
in the shape of Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow.
In fact, one of the characters in what would have no doubt been a thoroughly
scurrilous romp was Louis Quatorze. "Louis Quatorze" was
also the title of one of the eight songs in the "musical". "Sexy
Eiffel Towers" was another. According to Pierre Grillet, all of
the songs were registered with SACEM, the French equivalent of the
Performing Rights Society, and they are credited to Grillet, Pietri
and McLaren.
Much to their dismay, no such credit appeared on the "Cassette
Pet". Pietri and Grillet. however, did get paid for the two script
treatments for the "musical" they worked on with McLaren
- who later did a third treatment with an English writer and a fourth
and final treatment on his own.
"Malcolm wrote a final script himself when he got back to London," says
Pierre Grillet. "He kept the basic characters but changed the plot. Louis
Quatorze was in it, for instance. But probably he thought he wouldn't be able
to make the film so he used the song and the idea for Bow Wow Wow.
"I don't mind that he should get credit for it. But I want the money!"
There speaks a mercenary after McLaren's own heart.
Grillet admits that McLaren came up with the idea for "Sexy Eiffel
Towers", but says the song was written by the three of them. He
adds that McLaren so liked a song of theirs called "Cowboy" -
which was written for Amanda Lear - that they re-worked it for the
script, changing the title to "Apache" because one of the
characters in the script was a homosexual apache. "Uomo Sex Al
Apache . . . geddit?
McLaren seems not to be at all perturbed by Pietri and Grillet's claims,
but they are confident that SACEM, acting on their behalf, will somehow
extricate the monies due.
When we first rang McLaren, he was in the throes of "trying to
make a record" with Bow Wow Wow. The Bow Wows are preparing for
their first routine rockbiz tour next month, playing such wildly alternative
venues as London's Rainbow.
On the face of it, this seems to be in flagrant disregard of Lesson
No. 5. (You remember Lesson No. 5... "Don't play!"). But
after breaking so many other rules, the least McLaren could do at this
point is break a few of his own. On this score, he proved no more repentant.
"Look, I've just got out of the bath, man. Can't you ring back in about
half an hour...?"
Man!? Maaaaaaan! Where on earth did he pick up expressions like that? |
