MALCOLM McLAREN : MADAM BUTTERFLY / FIRST COUPLE OUT [VIRGIN - ESP 1984] 7”

Malcom McLaren "Madam Butterfly"  single 7"

(Virgin)  1984 made in Spain

cat. num. A-106 751

#synth pop

1. madam butterfly

2. first couple out

Malcolm McLaren followed up the initially bewildering but ultimately fruitful cross-cultural experiments of Duck Rock with a couple of time-filler EPs in a similar style, but for his next project he chose a completely different concept, mixing operatic arias with electronic R&B featuring soulful female vocalists. (In other words, two different types of divas are involved.) The single "Madam Butterfly" was the initial experiment in the style, created by McLaren with producer/writers Stephen Hague and Walter Turbitt. (Hague and Turbitt didn't work on the rest of the album, eventually called Fans, and the album version of the single was remixed by McLaren's future collaborator Robbie Kilgore.) Gimmicky and silly the idea may seem -- and over the course of a full album, it doesn't entirely work -- but as a single, "Madam Butterfly" itself is so unapologetically gimmicky and silly that its sheer chutzpah would put it over by itself. However, the song is ingeniously arranged, with McLaren's spoken narration -- in the voice of the character Pinkerton -- blending with shards of Puccini's familiar aria Un Bel di Vedremo sung by soprano Betty Ann White, and Debbie Cole's soul-chick vocal turn in the voice of the opera's main character, Cho Cho San, over a musical bed of synthesizers, sequencers, and electronic drums in which themes from Puccini's opera flit in and out of an otherwise state-of-1984 dance track. Somehow, what could easily be a laughable, pretentious mess sounds ineffably cool.