A Classic Video of Pablo Picasso Marking Art, Set to the Song, “Pablo Picasso,” by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

Before the Sex Pis­tols and the Ramones, there were the Mod­ern Lovers, the Boston pro­to-punk band helmed by lead singer Jonathan Rich­man. Their sound owed a lot to the Vel­vet Under­ground, a band the teenaged Rich­man idol­ized, fol­low­ing them to New York City and ingra­ti­at­ing him­self to such a degree that their man­ag­er allowed him to couch surf for a few weeks.

Their sole album, released two years after they broke up, was cob­bled togeth­er from two dif­fer­ent demo ses­sions, one of them pro­duced by the Vel­vets’ John Cale.

By the time it came out, Rich­man had already embraced the gen­tler, sun­nier per­sona and sound that’s made him a cel­e­brat­ed solo artist with fans of all ages. He famous­ly remarked that he didn’t want to make music that could hurt a baby’s ears. As for­mer band­mate, bassist Ernie Brooks told punk his­to­ri­an Legs McNeil:

Jonathan start­ed say­ing his old songs were too neg­a­tive and dark, and he start­ed writ­ing things like “Hey There Lit­tle Insect,” and maybe he was way ahead of us, but we couldn’t fol­low him—he want­ed us to go, “Buzz, buzz, buzz” on stage, but we were too cool!

Rich­man’s impulse was cor­rect. More than 40 years out from the Mod­ern Lovers, his solo career is going strong. (On lat­er record­ings attrib­uted to Jonathan Rich­man and the Mod­ern Lovers, he is the only holdover from the orig­i­nal line up.)

But that Mod­ern Lovers album has plen­ty of stay­ing pow­er, too.

Rolling Stone dubbed it both the 48th best debut album and the 381st great­est album of all time.

And while “Road­run­ner” may be its best known track, thanks to a long run­ning cam­paign to make it the offi­cial rock song of Mass­a­chu­setts (over Richman’s protes­ta­tions that it’s not good enough to deserve the hon­or), “Pablo Picas­so”‘s mem­o­rable cho­rus can­not be unheard:

He could walk down your street

And girls could not resist his stare

Pablo Picas­so nev­er got called an ass­hole

(Fran­coise Gilot, Picasso’s mod­el, and moth­er of two of his chil­dren, might say oth­er­wise, accord­ing to sev­er­al YouTube com­ments elicit­ed by the unat­trib­uted short film above.)

In 1980, a writer for the zine Boston Groupie News tried to get Rich­man to reveal the song’s prove­nance. He had pur­sued art as a teenag­er, tak­ing Sat­ur­day morn­ing class­es at Boston’s Muse­um of Fine Arts. He’d put his phone num­ber on the back of his can­vas­es, con­ceiv­ing of that as a way to con­nect with peo­ple. So, was Picas­so his favorite painter or…?

No, as it turns out:

I read about him when I was 18. I moved to New York and was intim­i­dat­ed by these girls who (I) thought were attrac­tive. I was afraid to approach them. I did­n’t have too high a self-image. I was self-con­scious and I thought “Well, Pablo Picas­so, he’s only 5 foot 3 but he did­n’t let things like that both­er him.” So I made up this song right after I saw those girls. You can pic­ture it; I had this sad lit­tle look on my face and I was think­ing ‘Why am I so scared to approach these girls?’ That was a song of courage for me.

Picas­so looks pret­ty chip­per in the well select­ed vin­tage footage, above. The expres­sion Rich­man cops to hav­ing cul­ti­vat­ed sounds gloomi­er, a delib­er­ate ploy to entice girls into think­ing he was a sad and like­ly soul­ful artist.

In oth­er words, irre­sistible. Like a rock star!

The Mod­ern Lovers’ pop­u­lar­i­ty let him drop the self-con­scious pose, but his inter­est in art remained.

He still paints, and recent­ly iden­ti­fied some of the artists who have inspired him in Art News’ Mus­es col­umn: 

Mon­et con­tributed to his appre­ci­a­tion of the Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee.”

There’s a direct line between “Road­run­ner” and the lone­li­ness of Edward Hopper’s “Gas.”

And Picas­so? That ass­hole doesn’t even make the list.

 

Well some peo­ple try to pick up girls

And get called ass­holes

This nev­er hap­pened to Pablo Picas­so

He could walk down your street

And girls could not resist his stare and

So Pablo Picas­so was nev­er called an ass­hole

Well the girls would turn the col­or

Of the avo­ca­do when he would dri­ve

Down their street in his El Dora­do

He could walk down your street

And girls could not resist his stare

Pablo Picas­so nev­er got called an ass­hole

Not like you

Alright

Well he was only 5′3″

But girls could not resist his stare

Pablo Picas­so nev­er got called an ass­hole

Not in New York

Oh well be not schmuck, be not obnox­ious

Be not bell­bot­tom bum­mer or ass­hole

Remem­ber the sto­ry of Pablo Picas­so

He could walk down your street

And girls could not resist his stare

Pablo Picas­so was nev­er called an ass­hole

Alright this is it

Well

Some peo­ple try to pick up girls

And they get called an ass­hole

This nev­er hap­pened to Pablo Picas­so

He could walk down your street

And girls could not resist his stare and so

Pablo Picas­so was nev­er called…

Want to hear it again? Try the ani­mat­ed take below, by the endear­ing­ly mod­est 7atenine22.

Read­ers, if you have any intel on the per­son respon­si­ble for the film at the top of the page, please let us know, so we can give cred­it where cred­it is due.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

14 Self-Por­traits by Pablo Picas­so Show the Evo­lu­tion of His Style: See Self-Por­traits Mov­ing from Ages 15 to 90

Pablo Picasso’s Mas­ter­ful Child­hood Paint­ings: Pre­co­cious Works Paint­ed Between the Ages of 8 and 15

Under­rat­ed Albums That You Want the World to Know About: What’s on Your List?

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine.  Join her in NYC on Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 24 for anoth­er month­ly install­ment of her book-based vari­ety show, Necro­mancers of the Pub­lic Domain. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.


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