the first time I saw Barry White was on Soul Train in 1979 or 1980. he was performing "sheet music." after that, I saw him in a magazine with his wife, with her long-ass nails. Barry was wearing a gold lame gown of some sort. I heard some more Barry White music… I thought it was cool.
it wasn't until 1983 that I realized Mr. White was not a comedian.
even at that young age, I sensed that Barry was somehow a parody of soul music, particularly Isaac Hayes, of whom I was something of a fan (I wasn't big into music yet, but I was a big comic book fan and Ike looked like a black superhero with them chains and shit)
Barry is just so overblown, over the top… there's no subtlety in his shit. it's all broad strokes and lowest common denominator with him. I've always thought he was the precursor to R. Kelly… a producer who can make music that is syrupy, sweeping and "sexual," but utterly empty at the same time.