ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

Do you get pissed off with the whole routine of touring?

"I suppose I get cynical about it but I don't get pissed off by it; because I like to sing. I like the physical sensation of it and everything - when it comes down to it the only real thing that makes any sense of it is going onstage and singing. That's the only thing that makes it possible to put up with the rest of the stuff that sometimes..."

(Julie London starts singing 'Cry Me A River'. I shiver a little bit).

"... I bump into a lot of nice people, sometimes with similar interests. But most of the time people just... showbiz, you know? They want to align themselves with you for certain reasons. I used to hate it when I was in my first group in Yorkshire and we'd open for The Move and Jimi Hendrix and I'd think, How come these people act that way? What gives them the right to be that way? And I still can't understand. I go and see these groups and they don't act like people to me, they act like... they speak their own language and they expect everybody to run and fetch for them. They don't know how to check out of a hotel or pay bills or hail a cab, and they're encouraged by the people they have around who work for them and do all these things for them. Incidentally, it's of little consequence but um, I haven't worn a suit for about six months. But there's a fantastic Indian restaurant in town and they won't let you in there without a jacket and a tie, so..."

What do you think of my jacket?

"Well, if you had a tie you could get in."

I feel a very native sympathy with regards to the Indian restaurant predicament. Robert scores a point.

He tells me that he and the guy who mixes his sound are taking their favourite secretary out as a treat. "She's forty and she's got two kids and she's a sweetheart." This somehow leads to the matter of how he never keeps the same band together for very long.

Does that create any problems?

"Well, it's not intentional. It's just like, in the middle of a tour I'll begin to assess the effect of the tunes on the audience and it'll give me ideas for what I'm gonna do next. I'll start including in the show things that often throw the band. Like last year I started doing a Gary Numan tune and some of the stuff that's on the new album, and the guitarist was the guy from The Meters and he thought I was kidding, he couldn't believe it, thought I was joking!..."

Gary Numan does seem a bit out of keeping stylistically.

"But I never knew about his style, I never knew what he looked like or anything. I just heard two of his tunes on the radio and put them in the set. Later on I saw some pictures of him."

What do you make of his whole 'concept'?

"Oh, I mean, I think that song Cars is a soul song. I Dream Of Wires - he told me what that was about. It was brand new to him and he'd only just finished it when he got there."

What is it about?

(I Dream Of Wires has bugged many a reviewer of Numan's new album. The problem has been their readiness to accept and interpret such lines as I am the final silence/The last electrician alive" as a direct articulation of the singer's psyche - not the narative character's).

"It's about the futility of recollection. It's about, specifically, a guy who becomes redundant because they no longer use wiring or electricity, so he's reminiscing about his past (which is our future), he's talking about all the electronic gadgets he used to work on - like one of those guys who are into old cars. He (Numan) just moved it a stage further to make a little ridiculous. Like that tune Animals that Talking Heads do, when David Byrne's screaming in fury about nothing. Instead of like singing one of those really intense songs about jealousy or something like that they make it more humourous and appealing by moving it from the everyday and putting the emotion in a context where it can be regarded. Regarded rather than like something you have to get 'into'. When singers get real 'heavy' it's 'Everybody get up and get down say, Yeah clap your hands' - that really kind of fake stuff... So a writer goes to great lengths to be inventive instead of just banging your head over the fact you can feel these deep emotions. Those particular songs that I mentioned effect me because they're more interested in the music and the humour than trying to express things like Liza Minelli or someone..."

(Tony Bennett starts singing 'I Wanna Be Around'...)

What prompted the lyrics to 'Looking For Clues'?

"Oh, I don't really want to talk about it. It's a bit too serious."

But I think it's really interesting. And don't you want to be represented 'seriously' in the press for a change?

"I don't wanna to talk religion and politics. That tune is inspired by those themes and I could never write straight from that context. I always talk around the bush. I don't want to talk like a zealot."

Oh, go on!

"Well... Have you heard Stevie Wonder's new single? All about Zaire and stuff. That makes me sick..."

Why?

"It's like Jane Fonda and the anti-Nukes lot. That's so fake to me. Who cares what they think? That's not what they're up to if they're singers or actresses or whatever. And to go around like their worldview is so important... Everybody's worldview is important to them(selves). But to advertise it in specific terms - I find it offensive, I find it obscene."

I totally agree. Personal politics is the thing to get over.

"That's my intention. I'm getting ready for Armageddon. If they vote Reagan in here it's all over... he said, not wanting to talk about politics!"

And Thatcher in Britain?

"Is that bad news?"

When did you last live in Britain?

"Five or six years ago."

Why did you leave?

"Clues. I was flooded. I lost everything. I came home and and was knee deep in water."

Anything to do with the cover of 'Looking For Clues'? (Which does indeed show the singer knee-deep in water).

"No, that's just coincidence. Actually, I have had a lot of bad luck with water. I've been flooded since."

You don't believe in astrology, do you ?

"I don't disbelieve in it but I don't believe in it particularly... Uh, anyway at the same time (as he was flooded) I had a radio hit in America. So I just came over. I just followed the demand rather than trying to go places and create one. That's why it took me so long to get back to England. I like to go places I'm asked, instead of inviting people to come and see if they like it: did I pass the audition? I'd had enough of that in the groups I was in in England. I don't want to rush but we'd better be getting back. I woudn't mind sitting here and drinking another three of these with you..."

Want another drink?

"I'd love to but I haven't got time."

Final question: are you wary of the press because of your dealings with them in the past?

"I used to be but now I kind of enjoy it, it's a laugh, cos I'm opinionated about the media... Actually, I'm still interested in trying to think about what Looking For Clues is about. Did we pay for the drinks?"

Shall I get another one?

"No, as I say, I must move. Dusty calls! Living on such a flimsy basis as: 'Well, if it entertains me that's all that counts, hope the public likes it in the long run... over a period of months that'll end up looking in retrospect as if they're clues to some puzzle, on all kinds of levels. Did you know that they put all the calendars in the world - the Aztecs and the Mayans and the Chinese and Christian - into this computer and the last time they agreed was the year zero and the next time they agree is the year 2012, Christmas eve. I mean - so what?" 

Pour lire la suite, cliquez ici