The Beatles Sgt. Pepper Artwork Has Been Updated to Reflect Deaths in 2017
After all the horrible losses in the music world last year, British artist Chris Barker created an updated a version of the iconic artwork for the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band to feature those who left us. Barker has returned with a new version for 2017. See Gord Downie at the Back?
Seems as good a time as any to post this. #sgtpepper2017 pic.twitter.com/piWGmUiZwk
— christhebarker (@christhebarker) November 6, 2017
From Billboard:
Barker says he appreciated the public attention to his project, even though he decided to stay away from a command performance, choosing instead to use his increased online profile to make comments about the state of the world via his #faketoys series, which took on British and American political figures including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer.
“But I never intended to do another Sgt. Pepper montage,” he says. “I had done that. And this year wasn’t like last year. Sure, a lot of famous people had died but, to a certain degree, they weren’t world-changers. You could argue that Fats Domino and Chuck Berry changed the world and maybe a few others, but generally speaking these are all just good people who are good at their jobs and happened to get a lucky break. The story wasn’t the same as last year, so it would be pointless to try and replicate it. I didn’t want me doing a dead celebrity montage to become a sign that the end of the year was approaching, like the Coca Cola trucks or something.”
But, he started thinking, it was another monumental year, and maybe a dead celebrity montage could tell “another story.”
