Robert Palmer 2003 Interview (part I)
Pete Sargeant talks to English song stylist Robert Palmer about music, musicians and the creative process and the background to his forthcoming album release Drive.
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By tonight Palmer will have flown back home to Switzerland but this morning he is talking to me as part of the gruelling Press Round he has faced during this busy week in Britain. From his demeanour, you wouldn't know it as I get nothing but fast and detailed responses to the questions I put to him and there is no hint of jaded-ness or duty. The first time I ever spoke to Robert he was part of Vinegar Joe, with Elkie Brooks as co-vocalist and since then I have seen most every tour - mainly because he varies his sets and because he plays with excellent musicians.
How are you? Busy week?
RP: You bet! But I'm OK - you know, yesterday, I was involved in a hoax!
Well this interview's genuine! What was the hoax?
RP: (Laughs) I got asked a long, long ridiculous question... I got bored and went for a cigarette then came back... it was Channel Four, it transpires...
Don't tell me...
RP: Yeah - 'Banzai' (British spoof show, very fond of harassing celebrities and hoping for fierce negative reaction and the opportunity to film and show same - PS) and it was pretty funny!
(Resisting temptation to launch into endless droning question) You still live in switzerland then?
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RP: Yeah - fifteen years now.
Do you play any gigs there?
RP: (Chuckles) Oh no!! You don't s**t in your own back yard!
Is it true about your driveway?
RP: Totally - it's called Tina Turner Drive! (Paid for by Tina Turner's cover of Addicted To Love - PS)
A quick confession - on the rare occasion I play a party gig I often do Addicted To Spuds (the Weird Al Yankovic version which uses Palmer's tune with his permission but changes the lyric to a paean to potato dishes - PS)
RP: (Not offended) Yeah I let that happen cos' I thought it was funny but I didn't OK the video!
Any reason?
RP: If there's ever a video parody of a song then that parody tends to stick in people's minds and that would 'kill' the song for any shows...
Of course Palmer is right - think about Weird Al's Teen Spirit video which kicks the original across the room and back and also the HeeBeeGeeBees' Meaningless Songs In Very High Voices destruction of the toothsome Brothers Gibb.
Now I've heard this Drive album, what's the background?
RP: We did it at home. Musicians are international.
And these include your son, what does he play?
RP: He's 24 and plays drums, guitar, sings and writes. His voice isn't like mine though some of the family think it is - he writes unusual things, maybe say Foo Fighters-influenced at times but with Middle Eastern elements... he likes 2nds, 4ths, 6ths...
Like Rachid Taha?
RP: Who's he?
French/Mediterranean/Rai/Blues/Techno/Traditional singer witha hot band, seen him twice. A 'no barriers' guy...
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RP: Well this I have to hear...
Arrangements are made; this, readers, is very typical of Robert Palmer. He is intrigued by new songs and sounds and open-minded enough to take them in and see what he can do with them. No painting the same picture over for him.
The material on this new record - diverse or what?
RP: It's spontaneous, looser.
I hear a quote from (Ellington's) Caravan in the Willie Dixon number!
RP: Yeah! 29 Ways... you see, I've never sung this kinda thing before, it's something different for me.
The version of Hound Dog - it doesn't sound like you. I could play it to people but they wouldn't ever guess it was you.
RP: Hmm - I deliberately pitched that one half a step up, to get that vocal sound.
Well for God's sake don't start pitching your songs three semitones out, like that clown Sting!
RP: Well probably even worse is **** the bloke in **
Too right. And yet the very next track Crazy Cajun Cake Walk Band now that couldn't be anyone but Robert Palmer.
RP: Ah yes - Redbone. Now that rhythm it intrigues me. It has roots in swingtime, but Red Indian downbeats.
After I played the album, the next record I reached for was Dr. John's Gumbo (Rebennack's very loose-limbed Noo Awlins/Professor Longhair styled album, which has a loping almost fairground swing, with pipe organ and second-line drumming and percussion - PS). In fact Drive's a little like a Louisiana jukebox, with no songs outstaying their welcome, very bluesy atmosphere.
RP: Well 24 or so songs were cut and the second batch in particular because I was conscious that I needed to prevent it becoming a (stereotypical) 'Blues' thing, to keep the lightness and the dynamics.
How did you know Faye Dunaway? (The liner notes mention that Palmer's initial brush with material of this type came when he was asked by the actress to create some soundtrack songs with a 40's/50's feel for a film - PS)
RP: (Modestly) She was... a fan, I suppose you could say and we met some years ago. For the Milk Cow's Calf Blues song (a Robert Johnson tune included on Drive as last track - PS) we nailed that in half an hour! With a sparse arrangement and I thought 'I like this'... it's one way of working. And that really led me to this set, the feel. And I'd put loads of my records onto minidiscs to listen to wherever and that got me hearing things and identifying them later, as they weren't all labelled.
So that's going to take your ears past stuff you might not mormally play.
RP: Exactly! But I found that the (Italian) harp player we used knew so many of the songs and who wrote them. In fact he's a writer who also plays sometimes. One of the guitar players is German, there's one Italian drummer. The pianist is African...
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And you're from Yorkshire originally aren't you? How did you hear all this Soul and R&B then?
RP: In Malta, which is where I mainly grew up, on the AFN (American Forces Network).
What sort of material?
RP: Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino... and Arabic music from the mosques!
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