On Sunday the 27th of December 2009, Sneakin' Out is performing "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band With A Little Help From Their Friends"
at Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi.
When Sneakin' Out first formed the three of us lived together, rehearsing through the day and into the night. We lived at 3939 SE Madison. The Beatles music was becoming a large part of our cover repertoire and that was all right by me. Ever since I had acquired a bootleg CD recording of "Sgt. Peppers" in mono I had heard, for the first time, what all the fuss was about. Don't get me wrong, I was a devout "Revolver" lover. Every sound was a tympanic tickle that had never been attempted, especially in pop music. "Rubber Soul" too, with it's songs of love, longing and automobiles. But I digress. So when it was time to choose a "performance piece" "Sgt. Peppers"
seemed like the perfect choice. It was fun, mysterious, experimental and classical (hmm sound familiar?). We three starting learning the songs in a random type of way. We started with "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". Being a child of the 70's I had been in love with the version performed by
The Elton John Band w/Dr. Winston O'Boogie (Lennon) on guitar and vocals, so it seemed an obvious choice to me. Beyond the six notes at the beginning of "Dancing Queen" it was the first song I played on the glockenspiel. Next up was "Penny Lane". Although "Penny Lane" did not appear on "Sgt. Peppers" proper, it and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were the
start of the studio journey The Beatles were to embark on for the next two years until the rooftop performance during the "Get Back/Let It Be" debacle.
I remember learning the solo with Dave Deluka in the "studio" basement at 3939 starting so slowly it didn't even resemble the finished performance. Six hours later it bordered on a kind of recognition to it's actual sound. This was only made clear to us from Cheddars' yelps of approval as he listened to us repeat the solo cornet line for the umpteenth time. And then on the 7th day etc... I don't truthfully remember the order in which we learned the rest of the songs from the album, I wish I could say I do. "Within You Without You" was early on as well as I was using a shrudi box to help establish the drone along with Cheddar's rolling bass note. A shrudi box is a harmonium without keys, basically, with valve-holes that air moves through creating different pitches. Sadly, it has since been sold.
We started assembling an orchestra in the living room of the bungalow house at 3939 starting with clarinet and french horn. Performed by our publicist and booking agent at the time Vicki Reitenauer and Carol Gabrielli.
There does exist a few video snippets of the five of us learning "Sgt. Peppers" the song and "With A Little Help From My Friends". Then it just started to happen. So-n-so knew a violin player who has a wife who plays viola. I know a trumpet player. One day a young woman showed up with a violin, I opened the door and she said, "I'm...here for "Sgt. Peppers". This continued until we reached critical mass and rehearsed with a set number of players. This group was dubbed "The Billy Shears Orchestra".
The choice to do the first performances at Mississippi Studios was two-fold.
1) Jim Brunberg had expressed interest, and Mississippi Studios was the place to play. 2) The number 39. I believe things happen in life you can choose to see or dismiss. Just because you see them doesn't mean you have any true understanding of their meaning, stuff just happens. While living at 3939 SE Madison, we looked into perhaps a larger residents. While driving to my folks house in Tigard, I passed a for rent sign in Multnomah. I had gone to grade school in Multnomah when the arts center was still a grade school. The house from the sign was on Spring Garden a side street off of 39th where we had lived in Multnomah when I was a child. I pulled up to the house and surprisingly the address was 3939 SW Spring Garden. When I told the others about it they were a little woo-woo but not much else. The next day, after living at the Madison address for 10 years, we received mail for 3939 SW Spring Garden. That was a little more than woo-woo. Later that day in going over venues we found out from Jim Brunberg that the address for Mississippi Studios was in fact 3939. WTF?
We performed two sold out shows at Mississippi Studios, our first such shows. It was a very emotional experience for us the musicians and the audience alike. I remember numerous people singing along and crying. I remember the line of people in the rain waiting for tickets to the second show that was added only minutes after the first one sold out. We also did a show in McMinnville, Oregon a thriving community about an hour-an-half-by-car from Portland in the heart of the wine country. It was performed at 3rd Street Pizza a movie theatre/pizza parlour. At this show we projected films of the BSO and other friends behind us, standing roughly like the crowd of inspirations on the cover of the original album, as we played the music. Everyone stood completely still to give the impression of a static image. As this video was sans sound I would give random direction to random members such as scratch your nose, or yawn. This inevitably would garner some response from the keen punter in the stalls. During "She's Leaving Home" all the women present in the crowd walked out of shot, leaving the men looking at each other confusedly.
We performed two more shows a few months later at Mississippi Studios, as well. At these I unfortunately had strep throat and don't remember much about them at all.
"Sgt. Peppers" has been performed many times since then in different configurations. It's first performance proper was just the three of us, at one
of two gigs we ever played at "Rock Creek Tavern", before the BSO was a
reality.
I hope you will join us in the upcoming concert. If it goes in true typical Sneakin' Out fashion it will completely resemble and be utterly unrecognizable from previous performances. It's getting better all the time.
Postscript:
A few months after the original performances of "Sgt. Peppers" we were able to play the High Sierra Music Festival with thanks due in part to Jim Brunberg. When we arrived at the campsite we received our itinerary. Our campsite was number 39, of course!
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