great youtube, that keyboard solo is close enough for jazz. :)
didn't little feat back him on some of dem early albums or am i just fantasizing? there are more than a few albums I wish little feat were on (the wild the innocent and the e street shuffle for starters).
― espring (amateurist), Saturday, 22 March 2014 02:57 (ten years ago) link
yeah, Palmer's first album has Lowell George playing all over it (plus a Little Feat cover and another LG co-write) and his second album has pretty much all of Little Feat as his backing band.
― some dude, Tuesday, 25 March 2014 13:00 (ten years ago) link
The Andy Taylor memoir has a couple anecdotes about the Taylor boys partying and booching with Palmer, whose dress and hair sense and ability to look impeccable after a night of partying surpassed Bryan Ferry's apparently.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 March 2014 13:07 (ten years ago) link
Some People Can Do What They Like (1976) is tremendous. some funky funky shit.
― jamiesummerz, Tuesday, 25 March 2014 14:07 (ten years ago) link
Yeah the Little Feat/Palmer combinations are amazing (on top of everything else). I said elsewhere that great as that Little Feat box set is a dream box would have included a slew of their backing sessions for others and the Palmer stuff is top of the list. Phill Brown, producer/engineer for a ton of folks, had some great anecdotes about those sessions in his book Are We Still Rolling?
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 25 March 2014 14:16 (ten years ago) link
And they backed up Akiko Yano on her debut album
― brimstead, Tuesday, 25 March 2014 18:39 (ten years ago) link
you know i hadn't noticed before today (when I listened to the album on headphones) how bizarre/awesome the female backing vocals on "hey julia" are... "doodle doodle doo..."
― display name changed. (amateurist), Sunday, 25 May 2014 00:11 (ten years ago) link
anyone know how the whole little feat/akiko yano/hosono collabs came about?
just listened to the yet-to-be-mentioned-on-this-thread "best of both worlds" for the first time in years and, damn, those are some weird chord changes. he briefly changes keys in the middle of each verse, from B to D, in a way that's unexpected, awkward and pretty damn cool.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 05:28 (nine years ago) link
as for his interest in african, caribbean, brazilian, etc. music, here's a pretty good interview where he delves into it with some musical depth.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 18 June 2014 05:39 (nine years ago) link
really enjoying Clues and Pride
― Heez, Friday, 17 March 2017 23:13 (seven years ago) link
somehow I never knew about Clues. What a great album.
― akm, Saturday, 18 March 2017 05:22 (seven years ago) link
https://open.spotify.com/track/5bg0lxba4KQmBhWe3nKHUB
― calstars, Friday, 26 May 2017 23:09 (seven years ago) link
Link to Alfred's recent writeup since he hasn't gotten around to it yet:https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/he-needs-all-the-world-to-confirm-best-of-robert-palmer/
― Under Heaviside Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 July 2017 00:21 (six years ago) link
i somehow managed not to hear "every kinda people" until like two or three years ago. what a great song! i love the steel drums. definitely the sort of soft rock i go for.
― The Saga of Rodney Stooksbury (rushomancy), Sunday, 23 July 2017 01:03 (six years ago) link
Yet he wrote a few terrible tunes.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 20 February 2018 02:34 (six years ago) link
Hearing this for the first time and digging it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdWTy9TwvZ8
― ... (Eazy), Friday, 5 April 2019 20:59 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7tMoOJbc-A
I never knew he used to cover "New Day Rising" live
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Friday, 13 December 2019 20:45 (four years ago) link
Another one for the "I can't believe this exists" file: Palmer covering Motörhead's "Eat the Rich" live in 1988.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEaCwaYyt_E
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 22:52 (two years ago) link
Well, the embed didn't work, but here's the link...
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 22:53 (two years ago) link
Totally believe it. This man loved performing his record collection
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:01 (two years ago) link
The crazy/awesome part to me is that "Eat the Rich" is a song from 1987, which means Robert Palmer was an active Motörhead listener.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:05 (two years ago) link
His fake Lemmy is hilarious.
― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:11 (two years ago) link
He covered The System's "You Are in My System" a year after its release too.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:15 (two years ago) link
His live "New Day Rising" was late-'80s too, no?
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:26 (two years ago) link
yep
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:28 (two years ago) link
Was near his Comsat Angels period iirc.
This man loved performing his record collection― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 19, 2022 4:01 PM
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 19, 2022 4:01 PM
Well put.
― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Tuesday, 19 April 2022 23:29 (two years ago) link
I have a soft spot for his cover of “pressure drop”
― brimstead, Wednesday, 20 April 2022 00:40 (two years ago) link
Happy birthday. He was capable of dubbed-out shit like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xccGP7IfgjI
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 January 2023 14:52 (one year ago) link
I feel he is on the cusp of a new hipster crush.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 19 January 2023 17:05 (one year ago) link
Wow this is fantastic…a stripped down version of a track that would appear on the Power Station’ album…and bonus Adrian Belew mention/solo…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3uUkZKXzcM
― X-Prince Protégé (sonnyboy), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 10:23 (ten months ago) link
Somehow in his wiki bio:
A quiet man in his personal life, Palmer was uninterested in most of the excesses of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle, although he was a very heavy tobacco user who smoked as many as 60 cigarettes a day
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:27 (ten months ago) link
Here is Palmer in the opening seconds, showing uninterest in most excesses of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1UBS5ZL7Hs
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:33 (ten months ago) link
From the Phill Brown book:
As we finished the album the whole subject of the budget became a bit of a sore point. Despite the early attempts to keep costs under control, Some People Can Do What They Like turned out to be the most expensive album so far for Robert, at about $75,000. We had used 28 days of studio time for tracking, overdubbing and mixing, 22 reels of 2-inch multitrack tape, 10 reels of 1/4-inch mixing tape, and an unknown number of boxes of cassettes and razor blades. Twenty-three musicians, two engineers, three assistants, one producer and one model had been employed, not to mention Robert himself. Then there were fees for house rental, cars, hotel accommodation, flights, meals, hire equipment and per diems. Oh... and a cocaine bill for Robert of $10,000.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:45 (ten months ago) link
Green Gartside has an anecdote from his long 2019 radio interview where he praises Palmer as an R&B obsessive and, contrary to stories, an exceptionally courteous man. Palmer called him sometime in the early '00s to rave about another obscurity. Green was like, "Robert, where are you?" Palmer was standing in the ocean with a cell phone, like Al Pacino in The Insider.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:49 (ten months ago) link
There's a lot about Palmer in Guy Pratt's memoir too, all of it very fond.
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:51 (ten months ago) link
Pratt on Palmer:
These were fabulously debauched times, although they were never keen on you leaving the house, figuring they had all the gourmet food, cocktail ingredients, narcotics, firearms, films and musical equipment anyone could ever wish for.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:38 (ten months ago) link