On this blog, Robert Palmer has been the subject of a post before, resulting in a cool live version of his 1980 Clues album.
For the average music fan, Palmer is mainly seen as the "Addicted To Love" superstar with sexy video clips and therefore "not really relevant". Big mistake, as he was a musician’s musician, knew what he was doing in the studio, and played various instruments too! Checking out his albums showed that almost every one had one or two "odd tracks" that are not the usual rock music at all. Fact is that Palmer was seriously interested in all kinds of music, and that showed particularly in those tracks: African highlife, calypso, samba, reggae, etc. Apparently, Chris Blackwell (head of Island Records) ranked Palmer as the most knowledgeable music nut he'd ever encountered, acquiring a taste for obscure sub-genres and new trends long before anyone else.
Palmer's preferred medium for enjoying music were self-made mix tapes which would be stuffed with everything from Fred Astaire to African folk, and his albums ran a similar course!
In the 1990s Gerald Seligman, the founder of the Hemisphere world music label, suggested the initial idea for Woke Up Laughing, but Palmer wasn't interested in a simple compilation, preferring instead a rethink and a fresh approach. The result was that several tracks got remixed, new vocals, and even a hybrid of an earlier and new version: Woke Up Laughing 79/89 [latter portion of track (1:49-5:32) recorded in 1989]. The CD liner notes included an in-depth interview with Palmer in which he provided lots of details in the making of the chosen tracks, talk about an eclectic artist!
While working on this post, I played Woke Up Laughing again and it still sounds excellent, a great flow of different kinds of music.
The subtitle of the CD is Adventures in Tropical Music: 1977 - 1997, and that gave me the idea of expanding it, as Palmer continued doing this all throughout his career, from rock to new wave, swamp funk, soul, rhythm & blues, American Songbook, proto-techno, disco pop, and finally blues! Even his final blues album, Drive, had a surprise calypso song on it…
Also it seemed a good idea to include the unmixed original tracks as long as they followed the ‘tropical music’ line. The collaboration with Adrian Belew on guitar (& Palmer on everything else!) is probably bordering on tropical madness, but he sings it in French and it’s one of my personal favorites!
The pdf contains all artwork, incl. the extensive interview with Seligman, plus additional pics of album covers, labels, etc. The single Lee Perry track (warning: vinyl rip, poor quality!) warranted adding another interview with Palmer to the pdf about the working conditions in Kingston, Jamaica during his time there. Most other artists probably would have packed their suitcases and left the same day, but Palmer hung on for a while -- impressive.
Woke Up Laughing Deluxe Edition: https://tinyurl.com/FauxLaughing
ReplyDeleteThe original CD's 14 tracks (and liner notes) are expanded by Koen to add a second disc which continues Robert Palmer's "adventures in tropical music" through his final 2003 album. Palmer died in September, 2003. Please enjoy and share a comment!
Welcome aboard art58koen! This looks really great! Thanks! - Stinky
ReplyDeleteMost excellent work! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDeleteNever could have imagined downloading a Robert Palmer comp but since it's been cobbled together by a 4or5guy and featured here .... Plus who can resist that great album cover! Thanks?
ReplyDeleteBetter than cobbled, it's extensively annotated, and Koen makes a persuasive argument that Palmer should not be dismissed as a pretty face with a few hit songs. "I am not unguilty of it," as Mark E. Smith once said, but Stinky and Koen helped me see the light. Here's a great article about Robert Palmer:
Deletehttps://gmarlowe.medium.com/simply-irresistible-the-life-and-times-of-robert-palmer-fc4a24daa780
"Not only did he have a great voice and an astonishing vocal range, but he had great taste. Perhaps more than anything, he had a unique ability to seek out little known songs and reinterpret them in an entirely fresh way, that made them his own. And when you look back at his recordings, you soon realise he was the master of many genres: whether it be reggae or R n B, rock or new wave through to jazz and the blues."
WoW so HE was the trailblazer--making the path I have aspired to fill for others and myself. SOLID Jonder and art58koen!!! You've both got me beeming with admiration to take me through this week then the next--my last work week of 2023 so I can 'study-up' on vacation as next year being a '4' year I believe will be another great year of music like the others before were so special kinda like alt. radio music peaking in 1994 for example.
ReplyDeleteCount me in! I, like many others, wrote off Palmer as 'that Addicted To Love guy', until I picked up a pack of his early albums on a whim. And I was like: wow, I ddn't know, Palmer was a soul guy. And a reggae guy. And a Tropicalia guy. And a new wave guy etc. etc. The man contained multitudes!
ReplyDeleteThe Heavy Nova album was a heavy-rotation listen on my walkman back in ...1988? I saw him in concert and it was so good...not only did he sound great; all of the artists did. Change His Ways is very tropical sounding to me...such a fantastic song.
ReplyDeleteThe Sakamotoesque "Between us" is wonderful. Thanks Jonder...
ReplyDeleteI will share your comment with Koen (who compiled the music). Thanks for visiting, and for listening!
Deletethis looks really good. thanks Joen and jonder
ReplyDelete