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From: nyarlathotep1@hotmail.com (Norbert)
Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles
Subject: Paul & Mal Evans Conceive Sgt. Pepper
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2024 19:05:50 +0000
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On November 19 [1966], Mal and Paul boarded their return flight
[from Africa] to London.  During the nine-hour journey home, Paul bean
imagining what lay in store for the Beatles, what the next chapter might
hold.  He later recalled that during the flight, "I got this idea.  I
thought, 'Let's not be ourselves.  Let's develop alter-egos so we're not
having to project an image which we know.  It would be much more free.'"
 After all, had had enjoyed the relative freedom that traveling
incognito over the past few months had given him.  With that, he turned
to Mal, with whom he often "bantered words about," and asked him to
"think of names" for the Beatles' alter egos.

     In Paul's memory, "we were having our meal, and they had these
little packets marked 's' and 'p'.  Mal said, 'What's that mean?  Oh,
salt and pepper,'  We had a joke about that.  So I said, 'Sergeant
Pepper,' just to vary it, 'Sergeant Pepper, salt and pepper' -- an aural
pun, not mishearing him, but just playing with words."  The conversation
turned to the fancifully named music group of the moment [snip of bands'
names].  This led Paul to "Lonely Hearts Club," the Beatle recalled.  "I
just stung them together rather in the way that you might string
together Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show."

     In Mal's recollection, they had first settled on "Doctor Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band" as the name of the fictitious group, only to
realize that "Dr. Pepper" was already a registered trademark.  This
necessitated additional brainstorming, which produced "Captain Pepper"
before the duo finally settled on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band."  Mal's involvement might very well have ended there on the plane
had it been for unforeseen events in Paul's life."

--from Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack