RK 50: Robert Palmer

9-2-08 RK 50: Robert Palmer

CD PRESSURE DROP ISLAND US 842594.2

1975 9 TRKS CD is copyguarded?

12" LOOKING FOR CLUES ISLAND UK 12WIP 6651

1980 3 TRKS no pic sleeve

CD CLUES ISLAND JPN P25D-25103

1980 8 TRKS

CD RIPTIDE ISLAND JPN PHCR-18738

1985 9 TRKS

12" I DIDN'T MEAN TO TURN YOU ON ISLAND US DMD 969

1986 4 TRKS no pic sleeve, promo

An unusual thing for the Ron Kane files – an artist that I like, but do not collect…

Perhaps it was the way that the 70’s Robert Palmer solo albums were marketed, but I figured that I was not their intended audience – In the mid-70’s, I was all about progressive rock…and Palmer seemed to me to be an M.O.R. male vocalist. I knew of his work in the band Vinegar Joe, and I am a big fan of the ’72 debut Vinegar Joe LP on Island (Atco in the US). Rock music by a rock band, on a label I liked.

But it looked like he was being marketed by Island as a light-weight alternative to Bryan Ferry or something – pop vocals. So, until I started seeing his videos in the early 80’s, I never particularly paid any attention. But how could you not notice the 80’s videos by Robert Palmer – the ones with all the models in them? Those models certainly rustled up some interest! Was it true that Palmer never got to touch even one of them, like the story about ZZ Top – and the girls in the “Legs” video?

I remember liking “Riptide” at the time, but I never bought a copy, for whatever reason. When I found an inexpensive Japanese copy of the CD, I went for it. Decent stuff.

I was in Japan when I heard that Mr. Palmer had prematurely passed away. In fact, I think I even read about it in “Stars & Stripes”, the American military newspaper (I was staying in a military ‘hotel’ with an “active-duty” friend of mine). This scenario has happened to me a few times – staying in Japan, and I’ll over-hear something about an artist – one of the Japanese words for ‘death’ is ‘shinu’…I seem to recall hearing of the death of the guy from Chic and maybe even Johnny “Guitar” Watson, while visiting Japan.

And where are those Robert Palmer models twenty years later? Are the Robert Palmer videos still on their ‘middle-aged’ resumes? “And I was one of those girls who pranced around salaciously in a music video for Robert Palmer that was shown on MTV dozens of times. Those videos lead to a lot of other work for me at the time, but…always strutting my stuff” – or thereabouts.

So, R.I.P. Mr. Palmer – I’ll continue to pick up your CD’s when I spot Japanese pressings in the cheapie bin.