Please indulge this music nerd as she provides a humble tribute to Mr. Ernie Barnes, pro athlete turned figurative painter who died last Monday at the age of 70. He was a guard for the Broncos and Chargers in the ’60s but transitioned to professional painting in the ’70s, when he basically proceeded to corner the market on classic jazz and soul album cover artistry:
“Late Night DJ,” the cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “Something to Believe In”
Donald Byrd’s “Donald Byrd and 125th Street, N.Y.C.”
The Crusaders’ “Ghetto Blaster”
“Sugar Shack”
All my non-70s babies, watch old episodes of “Good Times” and you’ll see this as the backdrop for the closing credits.
“Sugar Shack” shows a Brueghel-like mass of bodies, writhing and jumping to the rhythms in a black jazz club. There is joy, tension and despair in the canvas, which Barnes once said was inspired by a memory of being barred from attending a dance when he was a child. As in nearly all of his paintings, the subjects’ eyes are closed, a reflection of the artist’s oft-stated belief that “we are blind to each other’s humanity.” (LA Times)
Ohandbytheway, it’s also the cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album I Want You, a piece of music finery you gentlemen really, really ought to have in your collection if persuading a pretty female Earthling to stay at your place a little longer and hang out on the couch drinking a glass of wine is something you’d like to accomplish. I’m just sayin….I heard that this might work. From a friend of mine.
00:11 – 00:18, the loveliest way anyone’s ever expressed carnal longing without using actual words. Oh Marvin.
And thank you, Ernie.
