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Chris Barker Creates New Beatles Memorial Album Cover for Deceased Celebrities in 2017

Chris Barker Creates New Beatles Memorial Album Cover for Deceased Celebrities in 2017

Last year British artist Chris Barker created a poster in homage to the iconic, famous Beatles cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, showing all the celebrities who had passed away in 2016. This year he's done it again with another brilliant take of the same album cover, but this time he wanted to also reflect the concerns of 2017.


Barker posted the cover art to his Twitter, saying: "Seems as good any time as any to post this. #sgtpepper2017."

This year, 2017, marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' album, "Sgt. Pepper," which makes the new art even more iconic.

Tom Petty, Adam West, Gordon Kaye, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Fats Domino, Sir Roger Moore, Hugh Hefner, and John Hurt are among the many well-known faces who passed away this year, and are commemorated in the new art.

Actor Adam West is more known for his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the 1960s serial, but also for his voice acting in later years, guest-starring on Family Guy numerous times.

Sir Roger Moore was an English actor, best known for having played Ian Fleming's British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985. He died in May at the age of 89.

Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino Jr. was an American pianist and singer-songwriter of Louisiana Creole descent, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. Domino sold more than 65 million records, and between 1955 and 1960 he had eleven Top 10 hits.

Neil Fingleton, one of Britain's tallest men (at 7 feet, 7 inches) and an actor who was best known for playing the giant Mag the Mighty on HBO's Game of Thrones, died at the age of 36 due to heart failure.

Events were also featured in the art, taking on a bit of an apocalyptic, climate change theme with the red skies and flooded waters at the bottom.

In the background looms the Mandalay Bay Hotel, the Las Vegas scene now associated with Stephen Paddock's gun massacre of at least 58 people. Also in the background are palm trees blown by the multiple hurricanes and tropical storms that have ravaged the world in 2017.

Barker told indy100why he decided to create the piece again:

I said I would never ever do this again but then I realised I could use the meme to deliver a different message about climate change and how we need to start thinking about the lasting effect man is having upon the world.

Twitter cried out its broken heart.

Sean Hughes was a British-born Irish stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He starred in his own BBC4 television show Sean's Show and was one of the regular team captains on the BBC2 musical panel game, "Never Mind the Buzzcocks."

Others were dismayed at how many days are still left in the year, dreading who else might leave us before the year is over.

Some recognized the paper towel roll reference, floating in the floodwaters, while others needed a little reminder of Trump's behavior in Puerto Rico, after the island was devastated by multiple Hurricanes.

The President's career also seems to be a casualty this year, with his red hat floating in the water alongside the paper towels and what appears to be his resume, or is that wishful thinking? Or is it the United States that is mourned?

A floating Oscar from the Academy Awards must be in reference to this year's blunder, when the wrong film was announced as Best Picture. For a moment, La La Land was the winner, before the world learned that it was, in fact, Moonlight that had won.

If you all remember, both the Miss Universe pageant and host Steve Harvey took the opportunity to sympathize.

Peter John Sallis also left us this year. He was an English actor, known for his work on British television and as the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films. He retired in 2012 and died at the age of 96.

And let us not forget those who are dead to us, but still left living and breathing...

Here is last year's art:

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