Barry White Estate Shares Previously Unreleased Album From Era When Singer Was Confused Virgin Frightened By Sex

LOS ANGELES—Making the extremely rare tracks available to the public for the first time, the Barry White estate issued a previously unreleased album Wednesday that represents an early era in which the R&B legend known for his sultry bass-baritone was still a confused virgin frightened by the idea of sex. “White was nearing 30 by the time he finally started having hits, but prior to that he recorded Let’s Take It As Slow As We Can, a collection of 10 heartfelt but less confident songs that chronicle a time in the artist’s life when he would get flustered and anxious during any romantic contact with a woman,” estate representative Cleveland Feinberg said of the album that includes such tracks as “Nothing But Kissing All Night Long,” “(Ooo Baby) No Need To Touch Me There,” and a soulful meditation on the clitoris titled “Where And What Is It?” “It’s easy to assume that Barry White was always a suave Lothario, but the creative trajectory that made him into a pop-culture icon began with a young, deep-voiced virgin singing lines like ‘Oh, man, I’m sorry my hands are so sweaty’ and ‘What—what’s happening to me? Are you sure this is okay?’ When we went back through the master tapes, we found outtakes of the singer’s panicked hyperventilating, as well as several otherwise finished tracks that include no lead vocal, apparently because the mere thought of speaking to a woman would make White too nervous to sing the words of a romantic ballad.” Feinberg later put a needle on the record and played a few of the album’s songs, many of which terminate abruptly after no more than 15 seconds.