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The recent passing of music impresario Malcolm McLaren has led to a lot of emotions. Some hate McLaren for his self-aggrandizing ways and mismanagement of The Sex Pistols’ supernova career. Others laud him for his contribution to music history as not only a tastemaker and agent provocateur, but as a semi-successful musician as well.

There’s something to be said about some of that music, too. McLaren’s debut LP, 1983’s Duck Rock, has been championed – thanks to both the quality of the music and McLaren’s near-unmatched gift of self-promotion – as one of the first records to bring hip-hop culture and technique to the masses. It mashed up worldbeat and Stateside DJ prowess (cutting and scratching and such) and packaged it in a way that reflected the excitement of old-school New York dance music (down to the sleeve art by Keith Haring). The record also had a considerable staff at hand, including synth whiz Thomas Dolby and all of the members of The Art of Noise (Duck Rock producer Trevor Horn in fact formed the group with Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik not long after the making of the record).

While McLaren would later dabble in other genres in subsquent years, including funk and opera(!), it’s probably Duck Rock that will end up as his signature work. And with the rising trend of reissuing great, off-the-wall U.K. dance LPs from the ’80s (hello, ZTT!), maybe it’s only a matter of time before Duck Rock gets the deluxe treatment. And there’s a lot of material there, too – not only the various single tracks and remixes (some of them compiled on the 1998 remix album Buffalo Girls Back 2 Skool), but a hard-to-find record of Duck-inspired material recorded on tour and released very quickly in 1985 (even the press release cheekily dismissed it as filler – but it’s never been pressed to CD, which might be at least fair to give it a whirl).

Your buffalo girls go round the outside after the jump.

Malcom McLaren, Duck Rock (Charisma MMLP1 (U.K.)/Island 90068-1 (U.S.), 1983)

Disc 1: Original LP and some B-sides

1.  Obatala – 4:17
2. Buffalo Girls – 4:22
3. Double Dutch – 5:53
4. El San Juanera– 1:56
5. Merengue – 3:52
6. Punk It Up – 4:11
7. Legba – 4:03
8. Jive My Baby – 5:35
9. Song for Chango – 2:49
10. Soweto – 3:53
11. World’s Famous – 1:41
12. Duck for the Oyster – 2:57
13. Buffalo Girls (Trad Square) – 3:43 (7” B-side – Charisma MALC 1, 1982)
14. Zulu’s on a Time Bomb – 3:23 (7” B-side – Charisma MALC 2, 1983)
15. D’Ya Like Scratchin’ (with the Red River Valley Girls) – 5:25 (12” B-side – Charisma MALC 212, 1983)
16. World’s Famous (Radio I.D.) – 3:20 (U.S. 7” A-side – Island 7-99790, 1983)

 Disc 2: Swamp Thing (Charisma CAS 1170 (U.K.)/Island 90481-1 (U.S.), 1985) and more remixes

1. Swamp Thing – 6:17
2. Duck Rock Cheer – 7:12
3. Buffalo Love – 4:00
4. Supresto –1:13
5. B.1. Bikki – 3:42
6. Eiffel Tower – 3:46
7. Boom Boom Baby – 4:45
8. Duck Rockers/Promises – 5:56
9. Buffalo Girls (Split Stereo Scratch Version) – 3:30 (7” A-side – Charisma MALC 1, 1982)
10. She’s Looking Like a Hobo – 3:35 (U.S. 12” promo A-side – Island DMD 374, 1982)
11. Double Dutch (12” Version) – 8:21 (12” A-side – Charisma MALC 212)
12. Hobo Scratch (12” Version) – 9:25 (U.S. 12” B-side – Island 0-96999, 1983)
13. D’Ya Like Scratchin’ (Special Version) – 3:43 (U.S. 12” A-side – Island 90124-1, 1983)
14. Would Ya Like More Scratchin’? (New York City Remix) (12” A-side – Charisma CLAM 1, 1984)