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Pedro Bell, Whose Wild Album Covers Defined Funkadelic, Dies at 69
Source: New York Times
Pedro Bell, Whose Wild Album Covers Defined Funkadelic, Dies at 69
His vivid imagery, hypersexualized and full of futuristic themes, helped create the mythology of George Clinton’s groundbreaking group.
By Neil Genzlinger
Aug. 30, 2019
Updated 7:13 p.m. ET
Pedro Bell, whose mind-bending album covers for the band Funkadelic gave visual definition to its signature sound in the 1970s and ’80s, died on Tuesday in Evergreen Park, Ill., near Chicago. He was 69.
George Clinton, the brains behind Funkadelic, announced his death on his Facebook page. Mr. Bell had been in poor health for many years.
Mr. Bell created his first cover for Funkadelic, the pioneering band that merged funk and psychedelic rock, in 1973. The album was “Cosmic Slop,” and it featured a topless woman, space imagery and mutants. Though Funkadelic and its sister act, Parliament, had been around for several years, Mr. Bell’s artwork and the liner notes he wrote under the name Sir Lleb (“Bell” spelled backward) helped define Funkadelic and its elaborate mythology.
“Bell portrayed the members of Funkadelic as ‘The Invasion Force,’ a Technicolor assortment of alien superheroes, afronauts, mutants and cosmic warriors,” Lodown magazine once wrote in an article about him. “Their mission was to fight the good fight, ‘to rise and prevail’ in the ideological and musical ‘Funk Wars.’”
-snip-
His vivid imagery, hypersexualized and full of futuristic themes, helped create the mythology of George Clinton’s groundbreaking group.
By Neil Genzlinger
Aug. 30, 2019
Updated 7:13 p.m. ET
Pedro Bell, whose mind-bending album covers for the band Funkadelic gave visual definition to its signature sound in the 1970s and ’80s, died on Tuesday in Evergreen Park, Ill., near Chicago. He was 69.
George Clinton, the brains behind Funkadelic, announced his death on his Facebook page. Mr. Bell had been in poor health for many years.
Mr. Bell created his first cover for Funkadelic, the pioneering band that merged funk and psychedelic rock, in 1973. The album was “Cosmic Slop,” and it featured a topless woman, space imagery and mutants. Though Funkadelic and its sister act, Parliament, had been around for several years, Mr. Bell’s artwork and the liner notes he wrote under the name Sir Lleb (“Bell” spelled backward) helped define Funkadelic and its elaborate mythology.
“Bell portrayed the members of Funkadelic as ‘The Invasion Force,’ a Technicolor assortment of alien superheroes, afronauts, mutants and cosmic warriors,” Lodown magazine once wrote in an article about him. “Their mission was to fight the good fight, ‘to rise and prevail’ in the ideological and musical ‘Funk Wars.’”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/arts/music/pedro-bell-dead.html
______________________________________________________________________
Source: Rolling Stone
AUGUST 28, 2019 9:18AM ET
Funkadelic Cover Artist Pedro Bell Dead at 69
Illustrator created iconic images for 1974’s Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, 1978’s One Nation Under a Groove, among others
By RYAN REED
Pedro Bell, the artist responsible for numerous Funkadelic and George Clinton album covers, has died at age 69. Both Clinton and bassist Bootsy Collins confirmed the news on social media, though a cause of death was not announced.
Clinton wrote on Facebook, “RIP to Funkadelic album cover illustrator Pedro Bell. Rest easy, Sir Lleb!”
In a statement issued to Rolling Stone, Collins praises Bell’s art as an “essential” part of the Funkadelic experience.
“The wild and bizarre artwork gave our early audience a sense of seeing the visual side of the music and the language,” he says. “He had a way of translating and communicating what all the weirdness was about, and that you the consumer really wanted to figure it out, because it truly was otherworldly. Every time the two were done together it would create the One. They there would be another satisfied customer! Thanks to our Captain Draw the Clone Stranger of Artistic Gratification to the Nation, Mr. Pedro Bell. The Funk got Stronger. Your service to this world can never be calculated.”
-snip-
Funkadelic Cover Artist Pedro Bell Dead at 69
Illustrator created iconic images for 1974’s Standing on the Verge of Getting It On, 1978’s One Nation Under a Groove, among others
By RYAN REED
Pedro Bell, the artist responsible for numerous Funkadelic and George Clinton album covers, has died at age 69. Both Clinton and bassist Bootsy Collins confirmed the news on social media, though a cause of death was not announced.
Clinton wrote on Facebook, “RIP to Funkadelic album cover illustrator Pedro Bell. Rest easy, Sir Lleb!”
In a statement issued to Rolling Stone, Collins praises Bell’s art as an “essential” part of the Funkadelic experience.
“The wild and bizarre artwork gave our early audience a sense of seeing the visual side of the music and the language,” he says. “He had a way of translating and communicating what all the weirdness was about, and that you the consumer really wanted to figure it out, because it truly was otherworldly. Every time the two were done together it would create the One. They there would be another satisfied customer! Thanks to our Captain Draw the Clone Stranger of Artistic Gratification to the Nation, Mr. Pedro Bell. The Funk got Stronger. Your service to this world can never be calculated.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/funkadelic-cover-artist-pedro-bell-dead-877565/
1 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
favorite music . Perfect matches
