Flavorwire

The Modern Lovers — “Pablo Picasso”

There are other amusing artist-inspired songs in Jonathan Richman’s repertoire – ”Vincent Van Gogh,” “Salvador Dalí” and “No One Was Like Vermeer“ — but this ’70s John Cale-produced proto-punk tune deals with a most pertinent matter. Mainly, why in all of Pablo Picasso’s shameless machismo and physical… let’s be blunt… ugliness, he was still pulling teenage mistresses and various such. ”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.” Why indeed. Such mystery!