Song Book - Robert Palmer

We’ve had already a few Deluxe Edition posts of Robert Palmer here, but there is plenty of room for more!

Palmer was always passionate about music and explored it as much as he could.

From interviews he comes across as highly intelligent and knowledgeable about music, so it’s no surprise that he wrote quite a number of songs.

Interviewer: Addicted to Love literally came out of your dreams? 

 

RP: Yes. Not lyrically. I keep a tape recorder by my bed and a pen and a notepad. I have a dream diary that I've had for ages and that. So it's not unusual for me to wake up and hum a piece of music that I've been dreaming. But often it's not. When I listen back to it the next day, it's a nightmare. I listened back to that the following day and I knew I'd caught one, a big one.

And the lyric is to do with the fact that everybody has an addiction. So I thought to myself, what am I addicted to? And I thought, I'm addicted to emotion. And I thought, well, that's a bit tart, isn't it? How can we put it? Let's go ZZ Top. Let's trash the idea. Let's get funny. And so I did, and ended up with lines like, your heart sweats, your teeth grind, another kiss and you'll be fine. I make no apologies...

Island Records founder Chris Blackwell said of Robert that he was “dazzled by his voice” and “endlessly dazzled by his knowledge of music, which seemed to take in everything from obscure jazz to the most cutting edge soul and funk.”

 

Some of his songs became hits, others not, but a lot were covered by other artists, from the pre-solo days with Vinegar Joe (Circles) to his unfortunate end in 2003 with Carl Carlton on his last album Drive (Lucky).

The most covered one is (no surprise) Addicted To Love, with Johnny And Mary second.

Although most Addicted covers follow either the same pattern or are slowed down, I managed to find two very different approaches!

Same for Johnny And Mary; a Norwegian acoustic version and a slower, almost atmospheric, work-out

Looking For Clues is also featured twice and both not what you’d expected…

Note that some songs are associated with Robert Palmer because he performed them first, e.g. Every Kind Of People, but were not written by him and therefore not included.

 

Artists included: Dynamo's Rhythm Aces, Stella Bass, Mint Juleps, Keef Hartley Band, Birdie Thomson, James Armstrong, Ian Matthews, Sazerac, Kiki Dee, Mrs Hips, Carl Carlton & The Songdogs, Michael Ball, Dub Mentor, Hugh Harris, Susan Cattaneo, Todd Terje, Mathias Kellner, Brad Davis, & Derek Carvalho and Al Gomes... Enjoy!

Warning: More Robert Palmer posts coming...