michael wyatt

This is one of my favorite images even though it took a while to do and still doesn't look quite right.

I'm not a huge Badfinger fan - but I am a fan, and I really wanted to do a caricature of them, with an emphasis on their unfortunate history.

For those who don't know the story, Badfinger was a British band that achieved a fair amount of success from the Late '60's to mid '70's. They, along with James Taylor were one of the most important acts to be signed to The Beatles Apple label. Paul McCartney wrote their first hit "Come and Get It",

and while they were extremely talented musicians and arrangers in their own right who would go on to write a string of hits of their own, some becoming even bigger hits for other artists, they would always be associated with The Beatles due mainly to their tight, melodic harmonies which closely resembled the Fab Four's.

The band was plagued with problems from early on. There were the usual ego clashes compounded by lousy record deals and a Manager who ripped them off for almost everything they earned. They generated millions for others and wound up broke and depressed. Guitarist Pete Ham became so despondent that in 1975 he hung himself in his studio, effectively ending Badfinger. A failed comeback attempt and band infighting triggered bassist Tom Evans suicide in 1983. Drummer Mike Gibbons died of natural causes in 2005, leaving Joey Molland the only surviving member. He currently eeks out a living performing as "Joey Molland's Badfinger".

I wanted this caricature to capture, as best as a caricature can, an impending sense of doom , ala Edgar Allen Poe (thus the Raven peering at them).