ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

An old Island Records promotional cassette containing 4 tracks from Robert Palmer's then forthcoming album Pride has recently resurfaced on the internet.

The songs included in this sampler are Want You More, Dance For Me, Say You Will and The Silver Gun. Surprisingly, none of them were released as singles from the album.

The most interesting thing about this item is the small booklet featuring Palmer's comments on each of the songs. As always, the singer demonstrates intelligence, musical erudition, and a good sense of humor.

Want You More

I have always wanted to sing a ballad in a 'Fifties baritone style. The essential problems, however, have been to:

(a) use the ballad framework without recourse to overt sentimentality;

(b) avoid the confusions caused by a contemporary prejudice against this form of music (notions of 'revival' or 'nostalgia');

(c) find an arrangement that avoids electric guitars and trap set, both of which would have been totally self-defeating.

Want You More, with its bitter/sweet vocal and syncopated percussion, has rendered the first two considerations jejune. The latter problem has been resolved by creating a mellow, but dynamic, string arrangement. The result of this experiment has been more satisfying than I originally envisaged.

Dance For Me

This song was inspired by a painting from the 'Orientalist' School, a group of turn-of-the-century artists whose work reflected their fascination with the Near East. The painting, of a prince bying female slaves, provided what I consider to be the ironically romantic mood of Dance For Me.

I have avoided the standard macho lyric content of a 'groove song', creating instead a broader, more fantastically erotic, context for the track ("Dance the unforeseen").

And dig the bass player Frank Blair.

Say You Will

I was working on a cajun rhythm one afternoon when Rupert Hine walked in and started playing a Glenn Miller-style horn arrangement over it.

It tickled us pink and, to top it off, I sang the wedding vows to the resulting tune.

Making music is lots of fun.

The Silver Gun

The song is a synthesis of Eastern styles and melodies, things for which I have long had a fascination.

The Silver Gun resulted from a contemporary rhythm I devised with a drummer friend of mine. It was the perfect vehicle for me to attempt this style without it becoming an entirely esoteric exercise.

I first attempted the song in English but overtones of the Byrds or George Harrison obscured the romantic atmosphere these melodies have always conjured for me. Thus I learnt to sing The Silver Gun in Urdu, an Indian language.

The gist of the lyrics is:

They say a man's best friend is his horse
But I say it is his gun, for what is a horseman without a gun?
I sold my silver-barrelled gun and bought a brocade gown for my beloved
But she refused it, she sent it back
Now I have no gun and no love

Voir aussi :

• Looking For Clues  (Pride Tour programme - 1983)
• Pride: Album Review (Sounds - 1983)