very sad news

he was a great singer and I always found him kinda sexy

and YOU ARE IN MY SYSTEM TOTALLY rawked. I been listening to that all day too!

funkyslsistah said:

I've seen him do that floor-gazing thing - where he lifts the mic up and out of the way - I don't think it was to read lyrics on the floor - I think that was just a move he did.

I could be wrong. Often am.

I don't have any of his cds.

So I guess I'll have to listen to Power Station when I get home. Shit, I don't even have that on cd.

I've got VINYL baby!


I remember being on a small boat with my boyfriend's family one summer and Simply Irresistible was blaring on the radio. I LOVE that song.

From mtv.com:


Soulful rock singer Robert Palmer died in a Paris hotel room early Friday morning of a heart attack, according to his manager. He was 54.

Palmer, known for the highly stylized videos for such '80s hits as "Simply Irresistible" and "Addicted to Love," was in Paris with his companion, Mary Ambrose, vacationing for a few days after taping a career retrospective program for England's Yorkshire Television. He was scheduled to return to Switzerland this weekend, where he had lived for the past 16 years. "He was in perfect health as far as we know," said manager Mick Cater. "He had a medical annual a couple weeks ago and the doctor said he was in great shape." Cater said Palmer had gone out to dinner and attended the theater Thursday night and was found dead in his hotel room.

The singer was born Robert Alan Palmer in Batley, England, on January 19, 1949, and raised on the island of Malta until the age of 19. He was a member of several English bands when he was in his early 20s, among them the Alan Bown Set and Dada, a 12-member soul band whose sound would help shape Palmer's style as a solo artist. Palmer quit the group in 1973 to release his solo debut, 1974's Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, which featured members of the American rock band Little Feat and the funk group the Meters.

He experimented with a reggae sound on 1975's Pressure Drop but returned to a more rock-oriented groove on 1979's Secrets, which featured his first hit single, "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)." He latched onto the new wave sound in 1980 on Clues with some help from singer Gary Numan, best known for his hit "Cars," and the Talking Heads' Chris Frantz. The album spawned another hit, "Looking for Clues," which was accompanied by a low-budget video in which Palmer frolicked with oversized telephones and keyboards. The clip was an early staple on MTV.

Palmer formed the band Power Station with Duran Duran's John Taylor and Andy Taylor and ex-Chic drummer Tony Thompson in 1985. The band scored two top-10 hits with the new wave funk song "Some Like It Hot" and a dance-influenced cover of T. Rex's classic rocker "Bang a Gong (Get It On)." Palmer quit the group on the eve of a major tour and recorded his 1985 solo album, Riptide, a disc that would bring him his biggest success.

One of the first old-school artists to truly make it big via glossy videos, Palmer dressed up in a suit and surrounded himself with an army of slick-haired, ruby-lipped female backup performers for the clips to the driving rock and soul songs "Addicted to Love" and "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On."

He stuck with the formula for 1988's Heavy Nova, which featured one of his biggest hits, the urgent rocker "Simply Irresistible," whose clip again featured his harem of similarly dressed video vixens.

Don't Explain (1990) failed to connect with audiences, and Palmer’s output began to slow through the '90s. He released a 1992 album of standards, Ridin' High, followed by the eclectic Honey in 1994, which featured the guitar histrionics of Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt, some world music influences and a cover of Devo's "Girl U Want."

After an ill-conceived reunion with Power Station in 1996, he released the pop album Rhythm & Blues in 1999. A concert album recorded in 2000 at the venerable Apollo Theater in New York, Live at the Apollo, was released in 2003, followed by an album of blues covers, Drive, released in May.

"Robert Palmer had a profound influence on us as musicians," John Taylor said in a statement. "He was a sophisticated music scientist who loved to experiment. In many subtle ways, he helped to change and shape popular music. Very few artists can claim to have created a body of work as satisfying as his. He had a great sense of fun and he knew how to rock. He was a good friend to all of Duran Duran."

Palmer was not working on a new album at the time of his death, according to Cater. "My Kind of People," the hour-long show that was to focus on his musical influences and was to be aired in his native Yorkshire only, has not yet been scheduled for air.



—Gil Kaufman

Holy SHIT!!

54 is an extremely unlucky age for celebrities in the last 2 weeks.



John Ritter -- 54
Robert Palmer -- 54
"Whitey" from Leave It To Beaver -- 54.

sosgemini said:

I'm usually pretty good about knowing who did songs first but I always thought that was his originally but found out only recently he covered it from Cherelle. Yeah, Robert Palmer was really good and will be missed. I definately have to pop in his greatest hits CD. I'll have to listen to it all the way through and found out about his early stuff people keep talking about.

And that was a great obit by MTV.com. I'm glad that they wrote such a full article and give props to one of their first major video artists (even though he had a career going before video).

:F:

VinnyM27 said:

well... he wasn't really one of their first major video artists. he had, for all intents and purposes, 2 major videos, and they were out well after the early years of MTV.


still... great guy, great singer. it's a shame

VinnyM27 said:

I checked to see if they would say anything. I bet all the teeny bopers are like "Huh? Was he a dancer? He wrote songs? Nobody wrote songs for him? He did it himself? Wow."

He was born about 10 miles away from where I type. That was always the kind of thing you could say when a Robert Palmer song came on the radio, the kind of thing nobody knew and would make him somehow more real. A local guy who could break through, albeit temporarily, and make a name himself a name forever as a result of a timeless video.

Rest in Peace

Most of his songs WERE covers. It was his interpretation of the songs that made them great.

And SCREW the greatest hits - GO GET SNEAKIN SALLY THROUGH THE ALLEY - the album's band was the Funky Meters and Lowell George from Little Feat. TOO DAMN FUNKY.

dewmass said:

NILLA PLEASE! he made a name for himself long before that video. That was the third re-invention. The man re-invented himself as many times as Bowie. Or Prince.

bobbie palm was a true soul brother

he helped shape the 80's sound

and he helped in putting mtv

on the map

may his soul know God's peace

Sad to hear. I liked his music. His cover of "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On" was nice.

That's terrible...was he really unhealthy or something?

mrdespues said:

If the report I'm hearing is true, no. I heard it was only 2 weeks ago that he went for a checkup and the doctor gave him a clean bill of health.

some guys have all the luck not!

Supernova said:

Wasn't he a chain smoker though?

dnaplaya said:

As far as I know, yes. And if the story is true about the doctors giving him the thumbs up about his health, it's just another example that doctors aren't always right, and sometimes you need second/third opinions. Especially if he was a chain smoker.

I hate it. I mean, just hearing this guy's name takes me back to my early teen years. I never paid attention to clean-cut white guys until Robert Palmer hit the scene. Okay, and Sting, too, but anyway...

This news is shocking. He was clean coolness to the core in my opinion.

AaronMaximus said:

I guess I worded that wrong. He wasn't really one of the first (or even best) video artist but he certaintly is one of the most recognizable faces of the great video era, unlike all these Green Day cover artist and slow rappers that have been shot in the head. Very cool guy and good music.