Punkobit: Poly Styrene

I'd hoped this morning that it might have been crossed wires or an internet wrong.

But no: Poly Styrene, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, died yesterday.

There's a lot of love for her on the internet right now.

Adam Sweeting in The Guardian:

Poly Styrene's album Generation Indigo, a witty, fresh and surprisingly commercial batch of songs, earned rave reviews when it was released last month. "I just channel my songs like a medium," she said of the new material. "If my friends like them, then I'm quite happy that they're good songs." She had planned to take the new songs on tour.

To the last, she remained committed to her original punk aesthetic. "Punk attitude lives on," she said, "because of the spirit of its fearlessness to try to change things for the better."

Kathleen Hanna:

Poly lit the way for me as a female singer who wanted to sing about ideas. She taught me, by example, that fame was less the goal than something to back away from when it started to invade your core. Her lyrics influenced EVERYONE I KNOW WHO MAKES MUSIC.

Billy Bragg, talking to BBC News:

"Punk without Poly Styrene and the X-Ray Spex wouldn't have been the same."

Glen Matlock, talking to 6Music:

"She wouldn't kow-tow to even what the punk fashions should be, I think that's what that song is about.

"I did see her not that long ago so it's sad. Again, somebody from the punk rock scene has died far too young and it's a loss."

Boy George on Twitter:

"I was a fan of Poly before I got to know her, she was a Krishna follower too, oh bless you Polly you will be missed! Legend!"

James McMahon, on the NME Newsblog:

But to simply describe Marianne Joan Elliott-Said as a punk is to imprison her memory within perimeters – it doesn’t allow the full story to be told. Poly Styrene’s music was thrillingly, achingly human, containing sentiments and emotions vital within any era, not just in Xeroxed, safety pin pierced snapshots of yore.

David Quantick on Twitter:

I am enormously sad about the death of Poly Styrene, who was one of the smartiest, funniest, and prescient songwriters ever.

Amanda Palmer on Twitter:

OH BONDAGE UP YOURS!!! R.I.P. Poly Styrene. important voice in punk rock lady awesomeness.

Aggressively, produly self-made; smart, funny and punk in ways that people don't always realise punk should be. She's a terrible loss to the world, but has at least left some remarkable work behind her: