Duck Rock

Malcolm McLaren | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000001FVW
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,179 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Obatalá

2. Buffalo Gals

3. Double Dutch

4. Merengue

5. Punk It Up

6. Legba

7. Jive My Baby

8. Song for Chango

9. Soweto

10. World's Famous

11. Duck for the Oyster

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND OF HIP-HOP, June 19, 2003

By 

Shawn Wolfe (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Duck Rock (Audio CD)

This album anticipates the multi-cultural "world music" movement by almost ten years. (Check that date, 1982.) At the very least it was one of a handful of early attempts to exploit that movement, pre-dating Paul Simon's "Graceland" by a good five or six years. (Talking Heads did it too, incorporating African rhythms into their new wave music in the late 70s and early 80s. Then later David Byrne went full tilt multi-culti, with his Brazillian music compilations of the early 90s.)

If you're too young to know who Malcom McClaren is/was -- he's the guy who assembled/managed/invented the Sex Pistols in 1976. He also managed Adam & The Ants in their early days, as well as Bow Wow Wow. Both of those acts were built around the "Burundi Beat" and vaguely Appache tribal rhythms. "Duck Rock" was the first time McClaren put out an album of his own, but he's not really a singer or a songwriter or a musician, or even a record producer. He's an "idea man" and an exploiter of other people's creativity.

His idea here was to mix early East coast hip hop, radio DJ banter, and scratching with African zulu, Brazillian and Carribean music, with layers of Eurocentric strings, lush beds of nu-wave synthesizer and... Appalachian square dance music! The effect is at turns gorgeous, hilarious, ponderous, weird, wonderful, infectious, etc., etc.

Some other reviews here crow about Eminem sampling the song "Buffalo Gals" -- but hundreds of rappers and hip hoppers have sampled "Duck Rock" over the years. (Neena Cherry's "Buffalo Stance"?)

"Duck Rock" is a unique melange of an album - and a first of its kind in many ways. It really is the Sergeant Pepper of hip hop... in my opinion. Others would elaborate and do it better, but "Duck Rock" came first. It's seminal - and judging by the scant number of reviews here, it's been all but forgotten. Pitchfork.com didn't even include it in their Top 100 Albums of The 80s. In my estimation, "Duck Rock" belongs in the top 5, easily, in terms of influential albums of the 80s.

McClaren's subsequent albums weren't as interesting or relevant.

Produced by sampling maverick Trevor Horn (Yes, Buggles, Art Of Noise, ABC, Propaganda, Seal) who deserves as much of the credit as McClaren for this brilliant album. Maybe more. All of his best ideas (Art Of Noise most notably) were arrived at in the process of making the ground-breaking "Duck Rock".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can You Say CLASSIC?, March 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Duck Rock (Audio CD)

I remember this album form when it hit stores in 1982. I bought it for the outrageous cover and was amazed when I got home at the techniques malcom McClaren and The Worlds Famous Supreme Team were incorporating in their radio shows. This is a classic that every hip-hop head should have in their collection. If you appreciate the art of scratchin' this is a must own. The re-released product with appearances by Rakim and KRS One and Soulson revives this classic and gives it a new life and identity, but the original holds its own.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Malcolm's first solo album fuses hip-hop with african rhythm, June 20, 2005

By 

Joseph P. Ulibas "Captain Couth" (Florin, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Duck Rock (Audio CD)

Duck Rock is an very intersting album. Malcolm was on a trip to New York. On his trip he heard an interesting sound. The music of break dancing and double dutch. Being a business man and a "haberdasher", he knew that this music was going to become the next hottest fad. So he got together with music producer Trevor Horn (of the Buggles) and worked on an album that'll mirror the music of hip-hop with traditional african music. This album was a labor of love for Malcolm. He put his heart and soul into this disc. It also caused a lot of grief because he "borrowed" heavily from traditonal South African music.

Recording the disc was an event in it's self. Bringing a cast
of characters into the studio (a whole cast of african singers and musicans, N.Y.C. hip-hop d.j.s', an elderly southern violin player to name a few). The album was a huge sucess
but it cost the studio plenty. To re-coup the losses they released a few discs that featured re-mixes and out takes from the production (Swamp Thing and Do You like Scratching). Buffalo Gals was a smash hit and hugley inspirational amongst many young hip-hop music performers in the United States and the U.K. Fifteen years later these artists paid tribute to McLaren by doing their own re-mixes and versions of Buffalo Gals and other songs from this disc. Malcolm would later re-visit the world of hip-hop ten years later. This time merging the music with Shakespere and Salsa beats.

Highly recommended.