Robert Barrell & Cyndi Lauper
Robert Barrell was a close and dear friend of singer Cyndi Lauper. Lauper recounted numerous conversations and experiences that she shared with Barrell in her memoir titled, "Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir." Below is an excerpt taken from Lauper's memoir that best describes Barrell and Lauper's relationship.
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"At the time, I had been going to visit my friend and great teacher/mentor Bob Barrell. I had met him when I was flunking out of high school. It was after one of those more hopeless days that I found this unlikely ally, in an unlikely place—under the El in Richmond Hill/Ozone Park, Queens, on 106th Street. I was walking home and there, in a little storefront, were all these paintings in the window. They were beautiful and had a depth, soul, and passion to them. They didn’t just speak to me, they screamed to me, 'Wake up!' These were pieces of genuine art in the vast, desolate landscape of those who were too busy struggling to exist to be bothered with culture. Next to one painting was a sign that said, ART SCHOOL, UPSTAIRS. So I went upstairs and met Bob. He wasn’t just a wonderful artist, he was a wonderful teacher. He taught me to paint, and he thought I had talent, and that gave me a newfound courage.
He also taught me about history and politics and life. He gave me a glimpse of who I could be. He had a whole gaggle of misfits that came to class on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Who knew? I had thought I was all alone. He was a great philosopher and talked to me about things that I never learned in school—about Gandhi and Martin Luther King and civil disobedience and Thoreau. So I’d go back and visit him, and we’d paint and talk.
Bob put a name to what was going on around me. He would say that the struggling masses were a 'product of misery.' He said that misery begets misery unless we break the chain. And that’s where the title of the song 'Product of Misery' that I wrote all those years later, on my album Hat Full of Stars, came from."
Excerpt From: Cyndi Lauper. “Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir,” pp. 67-68.
Cyndi Lauper gifted Robert Barrell with the platinum record of her single "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," which sold more than one million copies. Additionally, Lauper's album, "She's So Unusual," went multiplatinum at the time of release. This was a major accomplishment for Cyndi Lauper as this single, along with the album it is featured in, was the first of many successes for Lauper.
Cyndi Lauper was often depicted in Robert Barrell's art as she was a source of inspiration for his genius.