It’s unfortunate, really, how it takes someone’s passing to realize just how deeply he or she impacted mainstream popular culture, particularly when much of their artistic output was relegated to the fringes. But that’s the way the world often works, as it was with Alex Chilton a few weeks ago, and as it is with yesterday’s news of Malcom McLaren’s death from cancer at 64.

Possessing a brilliant creative streak, McLaren reveled in the raucous intersection of music and fashion. Beginning with partner Vivienne Westwood and the clothing shop they owned together in London, on through to his creation/management of the Sex Pistols, McLaren was intensely driven to push cultural boundaries few had even dared approach. Not surprisingly, he’d often annoy and/or alienate those around him in the process. Among the many voices paying respects now, John Taylor of Duran Duran offers what I feel is one of the best summations of McLaren’s legacy.

Though I tracked along with Alex Chilton, I admit to not being terribly familiar with McLaren beyond his career as a music manager. For one, I knew zilch about his solo musical career. But now surveying that those albums, he was way ahead of the curve, melding world music, hip-hop, opera, R&B, and dance. Not much of a musician, McLaren called upon folks like Trevor Horn, Bootsy Collins, and Jeff Beck to help shape sounds that hovered just centimeters above the underground.

With “Deep In Vogue,” from 1989’s Waltz, Darling, McLaren set the photo pose-like dance style popular in New York City gay clubs to music more than a year before Madonna’s much bigger (and much more pop) “Vogue.” Weirdly enough, McLaren’s “Deep In Vogue” spent a week at #1 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart on July 29, 1989, knocking off Madonna’s “Express Yourself.” Madonna wrote “Vogue” with producer Shep Pettibone later that same year, and there are some similarities between the two tracks. Hear here:

One more fun fact about Malcolm McLaren? He co-produced the 2006 film, Fast Food Nation, based on Eric Schlosser’s non-fiction bestseller.

Purchase Malcolm McLaren (introducing Lourdes & Willie Ninja) – “Deep In Vogue” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.