Dials and knobs replaced women’s nipples. Pimps and prostitutes
were a hybrid of human, alien and insect. Women were tortured in phallic shaped
spaceships with probes attached to their butt cheeks. Black super heroes shared spaces with alien creatures and half human – half drone musicians. These were
heavy and sometimes disturbing images to my pre teen mind, but I couldn’t put
the album covers down. My young mind wanted to know why. Why do those people
have worms (maggots) where their hair should be. Why is that tube attached to
that woman’s breast. Why is the spaceship shaped like a penis and testicles?
Why? This is only a portion of the mind of the late great Pedro Bell – graphic artist
and visionary behind many great Parliament Funkadelic albums, posters and story lines.
In the world before music videos, the album cover served
as both and accompaniment and illustration of the music that we purchased on
those 12” discs a few decades ago. Part of the adventure, beyond making the
trek to your favorite record store was bringing your album home, putting it on the
turntable and letting the album cover transport you to another world, as you
listened to the music.
If the U.S. Funk Mob aka P Funk aka Parliament Funkadelic
are masters of the concept album, then Pedro Bell alias Captain Draw aka Sir
Lleb is the man who (*along with Overton Lloyd) gave us the visual link that
captured our initial interest, before we even heard the music. In fact our very
reason for even making the purchase was not only based on the song that we
heard on the radio, or on Soul Train on Saturday morning. Those record
covers aided in the sale as much as the music did, and the images and the music
were a perfect marriage.
George Clinton, Uncle Jam himself says that in the early
1970’s among their fan mail, which contained letters from people who thought
that Black musicians should leave Rock music to White musicians were fan letters
from a young Chicago artist named Pedro Bell. The letters were filled with
images which George described as hyper-sexual and strange. The images were so
strange that the Postmaster General questioned George concerning what kind of
organizations he might belong to. On Maggot
Brain and Free Your Mind George
had worked with photographers and he worked with illustrators on America Eats It’s Young. George says in
his autobiography Brotha's Be Like
that he began writing Pedro and discussing album cover ideas. When George
discussed his vision for Cosmic Slop, Pedro created images that George described as “nightmarish,
funny and beautiful”. 
Bell would illustrate well over 2 dozen P Funk album
covers, as well as George Clinton's iconic solo lp’s and spin off projects like
Jimmy G & The Tack Heads. Pedro wrote liner notes and created promotional
materials for P Funk, all littered with his own coded language, sometimes
dissing their contemporaries like Rick James. He called his art “scartoons”
because even though they were funny and animated, they left a mark. Both his Cosmic Slop and Hardcore Jollies illustrations were featured in Rolling Stones 100
best album covers.
Pedro’s work heavily influenced lp art by Snoop Dog and
Digital underground as well as many of the 80’s Miami Bass records. Sir Draw’s
work has also reportedly been an inspiration to many 70’s graffiti writers.
I was bothered to hear a decade ago that Mr. Bell was in
poor health. Legally blind and
*Overton Lloyd joined P Funk after Pedro Bell. Mr. Lloyds
style is more caricature and a lot less dark than Pedro’s. Overton designed the
Motor Booty Affair cover, Gloryhalistoopid, the animated television
commercials, the mini comics that accompanied the Parliament lps and mostly
Parliament covers, while Mr. Bell designed mostly Funkadelic covers. Their work
did overlap, and many time one artist created the outside cover, while the
other created the inside (of a gate fold lp).
