RP (1948-2019)

RP is Richard Peck. The categories above are arbitrary at best. When I sort out all the photographs, these are the piles into which they seem to fall. RP gets his own pile because he is one of the most interesting people I’ve ever known.

No description of RP is going to do him justice but since most of the people visiting this site already know RP, little description is necessary. RP is equal parts poet, performance artist, sculptor, philosopher, film maker, handy-man. RP is unique. And certainly deserving of his own page in The Basement Diaries.

RP is nothing if not a great collector. Boxes and bags, filled with thousands of photographs; 45 rpm records; assorted nuts and bolts… all neatly labeled, logged and categorized. I don’t pretend to understand why RP collects and saves the things he does. I do believe if one could see the pattern and significance of all this junk, you might begin to understand RP.

I stumbled across a small example of this while working on this web site. While digging through The RP Archives (under RP’s close supervision) I noticed a small, zippered bag. When I asked what was inside, RP explained the bag contained some of his most important stuff. I listened, fascinated, as he explained the significance of each item, collected over forty years.

  • Small ceramic dog. RP used to have a collection of glass dogs. As he got older he “blew them up” or shot them to pieces with a slingshot.
  • Opryland Viewmaster. RP and family at Opryland, USA
  • Air force dog tags
  • Knife won from carnival game.
  • Air force chevron (patch). The lowest possible rank. Ripped off “just like Chuck Conners in Branded.”
  • Earrings. Significance unknown.
  • Mechanical pencil. RP used this in the 7th and 8th grade. He thought it was neat that there was such a thing.
  • Rock. First grade. “It fit my hand and looked like a Bowie knife.”
  • Toy soldier (larger, green). “One of my favorites.”
  • Small gray man from Alamo set.
  • Green toy airplane.
  • Small black plane. From model aircraft carrier. All that remains from “a tragic fire.”
  • Boy Scout tooth brush. “I used this for years into adulthood.”
  • Tooth. 1955 trip to Florida. “I always thought this was a shark’s tooth… so it is.”
  • Woman’s garter. From some party.
  • Minnie the Mermaid photograph. Piggott, Arkansas, 1963. Fifty cents to see Minnie dance…two dollars to see her naked.
  • Pliers. Trip to St. Louis. RP became fascinated with tools about this time.

I’m not sure why I found this little collection so intriguing. That he kept these things at all, or his willingness to explain why they were important to him. Or, perhaps, my own mortality. One of RP’s kids may keep this little bag of junk. Maybe even a grand child. But eventually, someone will toss it without ever knowing or wondering what any of it meant. Now you know.

If there was a soundtrack to The Basement Years, RP was the arranger and composer…record librarian…and the guy who constructed the six-foot speakers. Like everything else with RP, his taste in music was… eclectic. For years RP maintained an extensive collection of 45’s and albums. He compiled the lists below for The Basement Diaries. To know and love RP is to know and love his music. Or some of it.

“It is a scientific fact that only a communist homosexual would dispute the fact that the songs/groups listed are undoubtedly the greatest ever recorded. The time span is roughly 1965 to 1975 and true rock music became extinct about 1978. We were blessed to be young during the only decade of truly good music out of all of mankind’s history.” –RP, August, 1998.

AlbumsRP’s Favorite Songs

  • Rescue Me (1965), Fontella Bass
  • I Got You Babe (1965), Sonny & Cher
  • Along Comes Mary (1966), Association
  • Itchycoo Park (1968), Small Faces
  • Born to Be Wild (1968), Steppenwolf
  • (We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet (1967) Blues MagoosShapes of Things (1966), Yardbirds
  • Tomorrow (1968), Strawberry Alarm Clock
  • Green Tambourine (1968), Lemon Pipers
  • Lightnin’ Strikes (1966), Lou ChristieRock the Boat (1974), Hues Corporation
  • Midnight At The Oasis (1974), Maria Muldaur
  • Piece of My Heart (1968), Big Brother & the Holding Company
  • 1-2-3 (1965), Len Barry
  • In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), Iron Butterfly
  • Magic Carpet Ride (1968), Steppenwolf
  • Aquarius (1969), 5th Dimension
  • Liar, Liar (1965), Castaways
  • Never Can Say Goodbye (1975), Gloria Gaynor
  • Turn the Beat Around (1976), Vickie Sue Robinson
  • Night Fever (1978), Bee Gees
  • Respect Yourself (1971), Staple Singers
  • Lady Marmalade (1975), Labelle
  • Light My Fire (1967), Doors [Greatest Song In History]

RP’s Favorite Artists

  • Animals
  • Dave Clark 5
  • Lovin’ Spoonful
  • Young Rascals
  • Beatles
  • Yardbirds
  • Cream
  • Birds
  • Hollies
  • Chicago
  • Supremes
  • Four Seasons
  • Turtles
  • Rolling Stones
  • Kinks
  • 5th Dimension
  • ABBA
  • Rotary Connection
  • Fleetwood Mac
  • Beach Boys
  • Paul Revere & The Raiders
  • Zombies

RP’s Saudi Arabia Adventure. Sometime after Richard’s abbreviated and tumultuous stint in the U.S. Air Force, he signed on with an overseas construction outfit to work in Saudi Arabia. As I recall, he had to sign a two-year contract but he didn’t last the full two years. Allan Johnson recently unearthed a couple of Richard’s letters from that time. One to John Robison and one to Allan and me. Vintage RP.