#jack waldman

* Long Live Rock Archive

Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love

I mentioned Bryan Ferry, when I discussed Robert Palmer's Riptide, which made me notice they do share some characteristics. They both have this personal of a suave, debonair lounge lizard, even though they did not start their career that way. Moreover, they reached their commercial peak in the 80's and all the albums that followed it tried to achieve that same triumph to mixed results. However, one of the most interesting things about them is their propensity for cover. We already saw Ferry's willingness to mold them into something distinct and the same can be applied to Mr. Palmer. Sadly, he never did an alubm that consisted entirely of his interpretations of other people's songs, he peppered them all over his discography, but those he did, such as this one in the link that was a version of a tune by Cherrelle, were intriguing takes.

Billy Idol - Rebel Yell more! more! more!

Robert Palmer - I dream of Wires

Robert Palmer and Bryan Ferry have many things in common besides their Byronic personas, including their peculiar business of conducting covers. They rarely make a facsimile of the original, you can hear that over and over again in their opuses. Moreover, they both tackled The Beatles’ tunes. For instance, Palmer’s Clues, already presented on this blog thanks to the fact it established Mr. Palmer as an 80’s musician, contains this version of a Lennon/McCartney song. It does ‘eighties’ it, true, yet his treatment of it provides us with a weird glimpse into an alternative reality where The Beatles did not split up and carried on despite all the acrimonies around them. I don’t know why, but his interpretation reminds of something McCartney would have done during that period.

We must admit that many musicians who changed their tone immensely in the 80's pointed towards their different sound in some of their 70's output. For instance, Robert Palmer, whose early 70's albums seem like a work of another singer, showed us an unfamiliar version of himself on Clues, which we already presented on this blog, since it contained a surprisingly good cover of a song by Gary Numan. To be honest, the entire album is filled with these sort of eye-openers, the chief of them being the fact that Mr. Palmer feels fine in the synthpop-like sonic surroundings. Nonetheless, the LP also consists of several transitional tunes, one of which you can hear in the link. It paves the way for his future, while it also honors his past.

I am not saying that Gary Numan should only do either weird indie stuff or typical pop music, he should do it all along his dystopian solo works. Moreover, he could also occasionally join those who cover him. What do you know, he actually does that and in some cases the names of the people who choose to record his tunes surprise us. One such is Robert Palmer. No, no, no, I am not talking about the writer, I am mentioning the singer, mostly known for his 80's hits, who graced his Clues with his version of the most famous song of Gary Numan's Telekon. Mr. Palmer lets his voice float through the sonic dystopia, presenting himself as one of those who just want to get on by. He speaks from a position of someone who is aware about the severity of the sci-fi situation, yet he does not want to publicly go against it, even though he despairs over it on his own.