ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

You get the impression that Robert Palmer is about to shave his head bald and slash his face so people will pay more attention to his music than his good looks. Some say he looks a little like a British Robert Redford - square jaw, seductive grin, enticing crystal-blue eyes, ashblond hair. He dresses impeccably well, even his T-shirts look like they just came fom a Chinese laundry.

But all the talk about his striking features and articulate manner makes the Yorkshire native feel "a bit like I'm banging my head against the wall." "It's very frustrating to have to deal with the fact that my appearance is more obvious than my sound," Palmer says in a clipped, English accent. Consequently, "seeing as I've made a whole lot of disparate sounds that people can't categorize - and I won't help them categorize - then the easy way out is to talk about my hair style and my shoe size which is kind of in the end aggravating."

But Palmer, after releasing his fifth album, Secrets, is confident his true image will eventually emerge.

"What I do is provide entertainment and any other quality judgement is really a vanity - size of the audience, style of the hotel, quality of equipment, color of shoes - because in the end result you're up there to provide entertainment and everything else is more or less irrelevant."

"I don't see it as a competition or even as a career. It's that enthusiasm for what I'm doing that's transmitted to the crowd that is the entertainment."

As Palmer says, what he does is not easily categorized, except that he rarely repeats himself. He changes from album to album - ripping through rock numbers, reggae, rhythm & blues, and even disco. His latest hit single, Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor), brings his followers back to pure rock 'n' roll.

It's all part of Palmer's master plan - not to be tied down to one style and even broaden the tastes of his listeners. His success is "going to emerge out of events rather than have to be created out of some contrivance."

"In the long run I expect that my one ambition will come out. I won't be expected to go up and perform some kind of formula sound. That to me is digging a ditch. Like Anita (disco) Ward, she's going to go around the world singing Ring My Bell for the rest of her life."

Palmer works hard to be proficient in a variety of musical styles. Each year, he spends six months in the Bahamas preparing for a grueling half year of bus and plane rides, interviews, recording sessions and live performances.

"I figure that the time I earn to spend on my own to assess what I've been doing and what I want to do is very important. It's a necessity rather than a luxury," he says. "That balance gives me the opportunity to be more involved in my work when I'm out doing it."

When Palmer finishes his next six-month stint in the Bahamas, you can be sure he'll unleash with something entirely different than Secrets. "At the moment, it's anybody's guess what's coming next and for me, it's always been that way." 

(The Albany Herald - Dec. 1979)