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by Donald Jefferes
from the OOB Blog Archives - December, 2017
(updated June, 2022)
It Was 40 Years Ago Today
[UPDATE - actually by now it's closer to 45 years ago today - but who's counting?...]
What am I referring to? Well, perhaps I'm jumping ahead of things... or maybe I'm leaping way back... what am I saying? I dunno... Wait... Let me start again...
Hector as Paul McCartney
"...me playing Lennon - you kind of inspired it
because of The Out Of Bodies and High School
- we were Sgt Pepper!"
Wow, yes... I guess we were...
With A Little Help From My Friends
...my recollections are a little sketchy about this - but as I recall, at some point (probably during our Sophomore Year at The High School of Art and Design) Hector brought in this amazing hand-made Sgt. Pepper's outfit that his grandmother had made for him! I mean, this beautiful, thoughtful grand ma-ma had made a beautiful, authentic looking Sgt. Pepper jacket with her own two hands for her Beatles-obsessed grandson - how cool is that? Anyway, he brings it in to school - knowing full well that I too was a Beatles fanatic - and together somehow this sparked a desire for us to attempt our OWN re-creation of the Sgt. Pepper album cover, with US as the fab four!
Donald as George Harrison
He was going to be Paul (he kind of had the baby-face thing going, and after all, it was HIS suit) and I was going to be George (the hair, I guess) and two other classmates were going to be John and Ringo - although at the time neither of them knew it yet. Now, we only had ONE suit, so we were going to take turns wearing it - and with the help of Dr Martin inks (remember, this was pre-Photoshop days!) we were going to hand color black n' white photographs accordingly. It was a BIG project (to say the least) that was going to incorporate photography and a lot of snipping, cutting and gluing - but in the end we were all going to have our own photo of the final Pepper cover for our own... it was an exciting endeavor...
The Ringo Starr that got away
So Hector, who majored in Film Making, and who also was no doubt familiar with photography - took a series of photographs after one of our classes (probably photography) with and without cheesy glue-on mustaches that we hastily made for the shoot (which looked absolutely awful, I admit) - and we posed in positions that were sort of half-ass planned to be later combined with cut-outs of instruments we didn't own. We did have Hector's bass guitar though - and as he recently mentioned to me he also brought in a clarinet (which I don't remember at all) and he assures me that he still has the myth-busting photographs to prove it... lying somewhere underneath his house, stored in a Tupperware container. He promised he would fetch them, and when he told me this it was like hearing he had found the Holy Grail. I wrote him "don't let me wait too long - I am running around in circles!"
[UPDATE - That was 5 years ago - I am STILL waiting...]
Well, like a lot of plans back then - the Sgt Pepper cover project eventually fell apart. I don't know exactly WHY, but I think it had something to do with the guy we had planned on using as Ringo. Evidently, the guy we approached to be our Ringo was actually INSULTED that we thought he looked like Ringo! (Funny! And not to mention a little insulting to Ringo Starr, but true!) - - and I recall that he first said no, then he said okay (reluctantly) ...and then NO again - and that was it - we lost our Ringo.
Lloyd as John Lennonm circa 1980
Now John, I am drawing a blank on John. Who could've been our John? I do know that totally separate from this project I had taken some pics of Lloyd as John Lennon - but it was clearly a 1980 Double Fantasy John Lennon that we had snapped a few years after graduation.
We had Dan in mind for John
The Pepper project John - well, I can only assume that out of everyone I knew back then that had even an inkling of Lennon-esque looks - Dan actually fit the bill. I'd have to ask him. Come to think of it, yes... I think it was Dan. But before we could even approach him about it Ringo had already dropped out. I don't think we had a second place Ringo lined up. Bummer.
I couldn't help but strike a Paul pose... you put on that jacket it's IMPOSSIBLE not to!!
So there goes the story of the Sgt Pepper remake cover that NEVER happened. And just maybe... MAYBE Hector will get around to crawling under his house and finding that Tupperware of pictures - so that I can assure myself that it actually happened - and that it wasn't all just a fever dream I had once. And yes, you'd think that the few pics I have myself that I posted here would be proof enough - well, according to Hector almost anything can be faked... just ask him about the Twin Towers - - he'll tell you. Wait, on second thought... no... no, don't do that...
...please don't...
A teeny tiny graphic found from the old OOB site,
the closest we've ever come to re-creating Sgt Peppers - with a few changes...
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band became Sgt Pee Pee's Lonely Farts Club Band...
Dan took George's spot, Mark became Paul, Joe became Ringo and I took John's position.
This was at least 10 years after High School and Hector and his Pepper Suit had moved on.
Photoshop took care of the rest.
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