Robert Palmer 2003 Interview (part II)
Palmer explains that some of the typical influences in the R&B/Soul field had less impact on him than one might imagine - for example Al Green and Curtis Mayfield were not so influential upon his developing vocal style because of 'That 'Falsetto Thing' as Robert describes it. It isn't something he does.
RP: I like to avoid any one strict style. Musicians can be very snobbish and sometime the Blues Purists can be the worst of the lot. For the songs here, we found that if we left spaces then the songs arranged themselves, almost. To be honest, a lot of the time on these tracks I thought: how little can I get away with? To make the song work? There's some virtuoso piano and harp playing as you'll hear but we wanted to serve the songs and not our egos. To get out of the way of spoiling the songs. I had no deadline, no record company to please, no purpose other than to see how it came out, and no clock.
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Often preparation is the enemy of Art.
RP: It can be. Here the homework if you like was organising the tempo and the key and then... it's what Quincy Jones said - that 'allows God to walk through the room'! And if there were 'mistakes' well why bother fixing them?
A couple of times I did think: Was that supposed to happen there?
RP: (Laughs) Happy accidents! Why bother fixing them, what do you gain? The thrill was to do it and not rely on 'stock licks'.
Does the 'Man In The Suit With The Cool Girls' thing still dog you?
RP: (A throaty sigh) It never was any kind of contrivance... I do like to wear suits, to dress that way. Someone else stuck the girls in! For the Addicted thing it was the juxtaposition... I don't understand why some people are fixated with the 'dress' factor. Now after all, Rock'n'Roll is supposed to be the music of the cult of the individual and all you see is fashion and bandwagon-jumping. The hats backwards, the baggy pants. But it just doesn't bother me, I just make music.
I have some names to throw at Robert, things I've wondered over the years...
What made you choose a Devo song to perform Girl U Want?
RP: I was probably hooked by its first line!
Some Devo tracks are great. Others are terrible.
RP: That's true, the better ones just have it.
You won't recall this but I was leaving the house one time to see you at Hammersmith Odeon and you were interviewed on the radio. Instead of talking about your own release you were raving about Moon Martin.
RP: No I do remember that. He was a cult in France! We did work a couple of years ago on some things in fact. Always had a touch of the Dashiel Hammetts about his turns of phrase. Makes for an interesting crossover of styles.
Allen Toussaint?
RP: These guys were tyrants. They'd stand in the studio control room with their arms folded, frowning at the sessions. I chucked 'em out and then the band looked at each other and said OK we're gonna party now. So we jumped in at the deep end to see what would happen, musically. It was playing grooves rather than formalised song. It was a magical musical meeting playing with them (These sessions resulted in Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley and other album tracks featuring members of Palmer's heroes Little Feat - PS).
Gene Page?
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RP: Ah yes, the arranger.
Died a few years back... Drink problem. (Page worked with Barry White and many other Soul acts, his speciality being soaring string arrangements over Funk grooves; he in fact passed away 1st January 1998. Time flies - PS).
RP: What brought me into contact with Gene was working with James Jamerson, the Motown Bassist. The drummer for those takes was Ed Greene, who I'd always mentally pictured as this skinny black guy but turned out he was this huge white jock-type! The other players were mainly from Little Feat. Greene would never play on the run-through, he would just sit and keep basic time on a hi-hat or something. You had then to wait until Jamerson alone in the booth had figured out his bassline and once you got to there they would immediately record, one-take, snap! Greene suggested Gene Page as the ideal man to work on the tracks so took a cassette to him. Page agreed to do the job and came in to do the charts, assemble the players.
I also asked Palmer about working with Tony Thompson the Chic drummer (he also played on Sylverster's Mighty Real) who of course played with The Power Station on their projects, Palmer being main singer. Apparently Thompson was a great studio drummer but for various reasons not the ideal drummer for touring. Robert says he was last seen selling seatbelts in Dubai! I don't think he was kidding me either...
Of Palmer's past albums, Heavy Nova is pretty impressive, but maybe the extremes of styles work against it compared to, say, the stylistic thread that's there in other albums such as Secrets.
Roger McGuinn of the Byrds used to say that he felt album releases were almost like issues of a magazine. The band were the cohesive element but where the material went would be as chosen at the time - here's our Country Edition or our Science Fiction Special. So the production can be allowed to vary, to prevent repetition.
RP: Ever since I produced my first 'own' record (almost by default) it has been a real 'learning process', all the technical aspects you have to pick up. But if you work with the best people you can present the song in its best setting. If you take She Makes My Day for example, it had to be done that way, even though it stood out from the accompanying tracks. I want to make the song work rather than aggrandise the singer.
So will you tour this record?
RP: (Thoughtful) It remains to be seen what we do... for a start what would be the sensible venues? And would I/should I do any older hits?
Chris Rea took the bull by the horns and played his new material, making it clear that this was what the tour was about. Then he also included some rearrangements of familiar songs to suit the 'Stony Road' line-up. Worked very well, made a great live show. No reason you shouldn't rearrange any song from the canon that can work... For example, Under Suspicion?
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RP: (Momentarily silenced) Yeeahhh...
It has the tension, the space...
RP: And the Blues guitar licks!... gotta think about that.
Thanks for the time... enjoyed it
RP: No problem - and send me those things you mentioned!
Pete Sargeant (Blues Matters! - Août 2003)