Thursday, 23 February 2017

Sgt Pepper



At present I’m working on a jigsaw of the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As I’ve been doing it I’ve been trying to recognise the characters in the background. Some I can, others I can’t.

The obvious ones are Bob Dylan, WC Fields, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy. I’m trying to decide which busty blonde bombshell it is. I suspect it’s Diana Dors. And are those Marlene Dietrich & Tony Curtis? Some faces were no doubt famous at the time but are now long forgotten.

It seems a long time ago since the album & this image were created in 1967. I was still at secondary school. The glammed-up military style clothes the Beatles are wearing were very much in in those days. It was the time when colour arrived in fashion for both men & women. We were finally coming out of the brown & beige post war years. As I say, a long time ago.

Life seems to have turned darker since then. The vivid colours gone as unemployment demanded a more sober attitude to life. The opportunity to just celebrate life & be full of hope, to know a feeling than anything could be done, could happen. Maybe this just is reflection of my own growing older, but I don’t see that innocent enthusiasm among the young these days. No, maybe it is just that I’m getting old & feeling my years.

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