It reminded me of all the good times we had back in the 70's, when music was music! It also reminded me of something that most folk don't know, and that is all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. That's what we specialize in with The Higher Learning Network,NFP!
Since we produce TV/Radio/Print Production Behind-The-Scenes, we know that it takes a team to make the group/host/guests look great.
In TV, it's the Director/Technical Director/Graphics Director/Floor Director/Audio Techs, and more!
In Radio it's the Program Director/Producer/Promotions Dept./Music Director/Sales Dept/Management, Interns and more!
In Print it's the Writer/Writer's Assistant (if they're lucky enough to have one) Editor, Managers, etc.
But in Music, it's a w-h-o-l-e lot of folk, toooooooooo many to mention! So I will begin with what you probably recognize most, and that is the album cover. Someone had to design the cover. Guess who was designing those covers with all that funky artwork, for all those years!
Don't know? Then be sure and read this article and share it with someone. Then go a step further and help make his life's work memorable.
Funkadelic Artist broke, living in Hyde Park
Artist behind Parliament Funkadelic art struggles to get by
Chicago's Pedro Bell was the artist behind some of music's most iconic album covers.
Now his life is anything but a pretty picture.
Thick dust covers the gold lame shirt and silver leather coat in Pedro Bell's closet.
The clothes are remnants from a brighter time when Bell, a rainbow Afro wig on his head
and platform shoes on his feet, strutted through Chicago as a charter member of the
'70s funk revolution whose sound is heavily sampled in rap songs today.
"It was psychedelic from a black perspective," Bell said.
Bell, 59, designed the cover art for more than two dozen George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic albums.
Under the name Sir Lleb (Bell backward), he wrote the albums' liner notes, peppering them with cartoonish drawings,
clever puns and names like "Thumpasaurus" and "Funkapus" that remain synonymous with Clinton's music.
"George Clinton gets a lot of credit for the conceptual dimension of P-Funk, but actually Pedro Bell was a big part
of that with his texts and imagery," said Pan Wendt, co-curator of a gallery exhibition in Toronto called "Funkaesthetics"
which featured Bell's work.
Now, as Bell's art receives increased recognition in the art world, the artist struggles to survive.
Almost totally blind, Bell can't see the dim hallways of the Hyde Park Arms, the shabby SRO he calls home.
His ankle is swollen from a wound that won't heal. He receives dialysis three times a week because severe hypertension damaged his kidneys. He recently beat an eviction order on a court technicality.
And despite the commercial success of Clinton's music, Bell said he didn't profit from it.
He's broke.
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