Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part I)

Publié le par olivier

Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part I)

Robert Palmer, the British singer known for his playboy image and steamy R&B/rock stylings, is not the slightest bit bashful about expressing his disdain for Duran Duran. The fact that he recently joined a group founded by two of the members of Duran Duran - and that one of them is within earshot - doesn't dissuade him from ragging on the teen dreams of the decade.

"We met on a social basis," Palmer emphasizes, speaking of bassist John Taylor, who is devouring a very late breakfast in true hungry-like-the-wolf fashion across the living room of their Sunset Marquis villa. "I'm not a fan of Duran Duran's a bit, but it didn't matter between us. He said, 'Listen to our record,' and I said 'Well, it's not my cup of tea,' but that had nothing to do with it. We got on together deep down. He could've been a bus driver and I could've been a ditch digger. I'm digging one right now, with this interview." This gets a chuckle from Taylor, who is finishing up his eggs.

To hear them tell it, this inner spiritual affinity caused what started as a bit of a casual goof to become a transcendent musical experience, now playing at your local record store in the form of The Power Station, the first - an possibly last, but don't count on it - album from the latest and best of the '80s semi-supergroups.

And Palmer wants to make sure that the makeshift band's motivations - or lack of the same - are made clear in the press. "We're not looking to create a new Firm, or get famous, or any of that nonsense," he explains.

"No, I wouldn't want to do that," agrees Taylor with a straight face.

1980s' supergroups The Firm and The Honeydrippers

1980s' supergroups The Firm and The Honeydrippers

"I don't mean to be trite," continues Palmer, "but there must be some magic involved with something like this. It's not The Honeydrippers or something. We weren't trying to set something up. This was an accident that we just now feel is worth making a fuss about."

"We did it despite everything," adds Taylor, "so it was already a success even before it was released. I mean, now I want it to sell, because I think it deserves to sell, but it wasn't the point at all while we were doing it. To even talk about it now..."

"I wish you could see more of this girl's bum," interrupts Palmer. A certain female rock star has appeared on the room's MTV, and Palmer is transfixed. "She's got a great bum."

"Oh, I don't like her at all," Taylor says with distaste.

Palmer clarifies his point. "I'm not keen on her, but I like her bum." Then her frontside reappears on the screen, and the spell is broken. He turns to the reporter and warns him not to identify the owner of this bum. "She might say he liked mine!"

Palmer and Taylor: Sick of the pin-up image?

Palmer and Taylor: Sick of the pin-up image?

The sense of brotherhood between Palmer and Taylor - not to mention the difference between the Power Station and Taylor's other group - is becoming clear. Duran Duran has a seamless sound that aims for the spiritual, even mystical, with songs about unions and snakes and the moon and lots of other things that don't make a heck of a lot of sense to anyone, the songwriters probably included. The Power Station, on the other hand, is clearly a collection of moving parts, all active, shaking, pulsating with wreckful abandon; and as for the lyrics, from the seductive funk of Some Like It Hot to the gleeful heavy-metal misogyny of Murderess to the Rolling Stones-meet-hip-hop suggestiveness of T. Rex's Bang A Gong, one thing is certain : These guys like girls.

And girls like them, as the cluster of teenyboppers patiently waiting across the street in hopes of the slightest glimpse will attest. "Me, sick of the pin-up image?" repeats Taylor, incredulously. "Ah, no. That'll be the day. That'll be the day I get married - which is a long way away."

It's probably just the wind through the shades, but for a moment it seems that one hears the girls across the street - already crushed by the detections of other Durans to the ranks of the maritally commited - emitting a collective sigh of relief.

Promo advert for The Power Station (1985)

Promo advert for The Power Station (1985)

But Taylor will own up to being "sick of not being taken seriously. We've always been very honest in what we do - always. There's never been any pretense or anything. We've always given good value for money. The media just seem to have this continuous belittling of us, it doesn't bother me anymore at all."

"It gets out of proportion, doesn't it?" interjects Palmer.

"But it's not being sick of the pin-up image," continues Taylor. "I mean, if I was that sick of the pin-up image, I wouldn't have had a picture on the cover of the record at all."

Nonetheless, the thought has occured to him that the Power Station could give him and guitarist Andy Taylor (no relation) a little credibility to get with the poster and button sales. Even by the standards of a great deal of die-hard Duran detractors, The Power Station is a surprisingly chunky, fun record - perharps not quite as miraculous as its creators make it out to be (the Second Coming could hardly measure up), but stylish and fast-paced and just-derivative-enough-but-not-too-much and all those good things. The collision of mostly non-synthetic dance rhythms with metallic guitar is not far from Let's Dance territory and should earn the Taylors a measure of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. It might even get some good reviews.

"This one?", asks Taylor. "I hope so - It'd be nice. I've never had one before."

Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part I)

If the presence of Palmer wasn't enough to make the music press sit up and take notice, the other talents aboard surely would be. The producer is Bernard Edwards, and providing an incredible drum sound is fellow former Chic-ster Tony Thompson, who achieves his effects with his own two hands, no less.

"Isn't that a breath of fresh air?" says Palmer. "I'm so tired of this tick-tock thing. When I listen to music, I listen for personality - and if you zone in on it, there's nobody there on those machines." He breaks into song: "The lights are on, but you're not home..."

Taylor concurs on the point, noting "It's the first record I've ever made not to a click track." And on the way his bass interacts with Thompson's kit: "I'd never played with another drummer (other than Duran Duran's), and it sounds like I've been playing with Tony for five years - which I have, in a way."

Not literally, of course. But Chic held a special place in Taylor's heart long before he signed two members up for the Power Station, and he was far more fascinated and intimidated by the idea of being produced by Edwards than he was by working with another famous funkster, Nile Rodgers, on the last couple of Duran Duran records.

Robert Palmer And The Duran Duran Twins Refuel At The Power Station (part I)

"Obviously, for me, it was much more unnerving," he relates, "because Bernard's a bass player, and he was my initial inspiration anyway to become a bassist. I never picked up a bass guitar until I heard Good Times. That's the first thing I ever played."

So he was really that into Chic?

"Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn't into disco, I was just into Chic. They were a whole different kettle of fish than the Bee Gees and Trammps and George McCrae. They weren't like that. Chic was a live, gigging, rock and roll band. Bernard is a great bloke. He's like a father, very gentle and humorous. It was like going back to school again, he taught me a lot of things but mostly in terms of attitude, really."

Tony Thompson, Andy Taylor and Bernard Edwards at the Power Station (1985)

Tony Thompson, Andy Taylor and Bernard Edwards at the Power Station (1985)

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