Robert Palmer — R.I.P.

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This thread is dedicated to celebrating a remarkable man who's among my very favourite singers, the late Robert Palmer. Sadly upstaged in his own music videos by "a miasma of minge" (as their director Terence Donovan described the heavily made-up and ineptly gyrating women in them), in actuality Robert had one of the most diverse recording careers imaginable. He was comfortable mixing hard rock with calypso, bossa nova and reggae... and also happened to be one of those rare examples of an intelligent and well-spoken pop star gifted with real musical integrity. In the late 60's and early 70's he cut his teeth singing with various R&B bands, including Vinegar Joe.



Palmer went solo in 1974 with Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, one of the all-time greatest debut LPs and an uncanny masterpiece of blue-eyed soul. Several radio hits followed in the late '70s, with more funk-oriented material like this gem:



In 1980 he released the album Clues, which embraced New Wave textures and harder-edged rhythms (also unique for containing both a Gary Numan song and a Beatles cover on the same record). As a record producer, he reached a fantastic peak during this period and gained worldwide popularity.



Taking a break from recording the 1985 blockbuster Riptide (which spawned the aforementioned "bimbo period" of videos) along with producer Bernard Edwards he formed a supergroup called The Power Station that included two guys from Duran Duran and super-heavyweight drummer Tony Thompson.


After years of bona fide stardom, Robert returned to the music of his youth (spent growing up on naval bases in the Mediterranean, where he heard Lena Horne, Nat King Cole and Billie Holliday on American Forces radio) with an excursion into big-band crooning.



His last and in my opinion greatest album Drive was full of raucous barroom stompers, and it just about looked like he was going to turn the corner into full-on crotchety bluesman status before his untimely passing in 2003 at the age of fifty-four.