Earl Palmer

Earl Cyril Palmer (October 25, 1924 - September 19, 2008) [ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080920/us_nm/palmer_dc_1 Yahoo news] ] was an American drummer and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:w9fixqqgld6e~T1 allmusic Biography] ]

Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard's first several albums and Tom Waits' 1978 album "Blue Valentine". According to one obituary, "his list of credits read like a Who's Who of American popular music of the last 60 years". [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/23/popandrock.usa Obituary, "The Guardian] "]

Biography

Born in New Orleans, he started his career at five as a tap dancer, joining his mother and aunt on the black vaudeville circuit in its twilight and touring the country extensively with Ida Cox's Darktown Scandals Review. His father was thought to be local pianist and bandleader Walter "Fats" Pichon.

Palmer served in the United States Army during World War II, eventually being posted in the European Theatre. His biographer states,

::"Most Negro recruits were assigned to noncombatant service troops: work gangs in uniform. "They didn't want no niggers carrying guns," says Earl; they carried shovels, and garbage cans instead. Earl's job, loading and handling ammunition was relatively technical, but his duty was clear: to serve white infantrymen."Scherman, Tony, foreword by Wynston Marsalis, "Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story", Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington D.C., 1999 ]

After the war ended he studied piano and percussion at the Gruenwald School of Music in New Orleans, where he also learned to read music. He started drumming with the Dave Bartholomew Band in the late 1940s. Palmer was known for playing on New Orleans recording sessions, including Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" (and all the rest of Domino's hits), "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard (and most of Richard's hits), "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price, and "I Hear You Knockin'" by Smiley Lewis.

His playing on "The Fat Man" featured the back beat that has come to be the most important element in rock and roll. Palmer said, "That song required a strong afterbeat throughout the whole piece. With Dixieland you had a strong afterbeat only after you got to the shout last chorus. . . . It was sort of a new approach to rhythm music." Reportedly, he was the first to use the word "funky", to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable.

Palmer left New Orleans for Hollywood in 1957, initially working for Aladdin Records. For more than 30 years he was to play drums on the scores and soundtracks of many movies and television shows. His career as a session drummer included work with Frank Sinatra, Phil Spector, Rick Nelson, Ray Charles, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens, Bobby Day, Don and Dewey, Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys, Larry Williams, Gene McDaniels, Bobby Darin, Neil Young and B. Bumble and the Stingers, as well as jazz sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic and Count Basie, and appearing on blues recordings with B. B. King. He was also in demand for TV and film scores.

Palmer played drums in a recording session with west-coast folk singer-songwriter Jim Sullivan around 1969 or 1970. The album was released twice with different audio mixes. On the Monnie Records album, "U.F.O.", Palmer's drumming can be clearly heard, but on the Century City Record, "Jim Sullivan" the drums, percussion and bass were moved back in the mix.

He remained in demand as a drummer throughout the 1970s and 1980s, playing on albums by Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Tim Buckley, Little Feat and Elvis Costello.

In 1982, Palmer was elected treasurer of the Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians. He served until he was defeated in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990.

His biography, "Backbeat: the Earl Palmer Story", written by Tony Scherman, was published in 1999. In 2000, he became one of the first session musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In recent years, he played with a jazz trio in Los Angeles.

Personal life

He married four times, and had seven children: Earl Cyril Palmer, Jr., Donald Alfred Palmer, Ronald Raymond Palmer and Patricia Ann Palmer from his marriage to Catherine Palmer; Shelly Margaret Palmer and Pamela Teresa Palmer from his marriage to Susan Joy Weidenpesch; and Penny Yasuko Palmer from his marriage to Yumiko Makino. He married his fourth wife Jeline Palmer in November 2004, and lived in California.

Quotations

*"You could always tell a New Orleans drummer the minute you heard him play his bass drum because he'd have that parade beat connotation." --Earl Palmer.
*Late in his career, Palmer appeared in a music video with Cracker on the song "I hate my generation". As "Addicted to Noise" tells the story:"According to Cracker leader David Lowery, when Palmer was asked if he would be able to play along with the songs, he gave Lowery a look and said, 'I invented this shit.'"
*"I've been asked if people could borrow my drums because they like their sound. What the hell, they think the drums play themselves? I said, 'You really want 'em? Really? Okay. Cost you triple scale and cartage.'"
*When asked by Max Weinberg what more of the recording sessions he'd played on Palmer replied::"Don't ask me which ones I played on.. I should have done like Hal. Hal used to get gold records for all the things he played on. I never did that, you know. I would like to have a room with all those things in them. It would have been nice - show my grandchildren when they grow up so they don't say, 'Oh shut up old man and sit down.' I could just say, 'Look. I don't have to tell you nothing. There it is.' " [Weinberg, Max, foreward by Bruce Springsteen, "The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers", Billboard Books, NY, 1984/1991]

Discography

Albums

*"Here's Little Richard" - Little Richard (1957)
*"Swinging Flute in Hi-Fi" - The Strollers (1958)
*"The Fabulous Little Richard" - Little Richard (1959)
*"Sinatra And Swingin' Brass" - Frank Sinatra (1962)
*"The Astounding 12-String Guitar of Glen Campbell" - Glen Campbell (1964)
*"Accent on Africa" - Cannonball Adderley (1968)
*"The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees - The Monkees (1968)
*"Head" - The Monkees (1968)
*" People Like Us" - The Mamas and the Papas (1971)
*"King of America" - Elvis Costello (1986)
*"Seasons in the Sun" (Unreleased) - The Beach Boys
*"Ins and Outs" - Lalo Schifrin

ingles

*The Fat Man - Fats Domino (1949)
*Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price (1952)
*The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard (1956)
*Donna - Ritchie Valens (1958)
*"Polly Molly", "Forever And A Day" - 5 Masks (1958)
*"Patricia Darling", "Whatta You Do" - Ray Willis (1958)
*Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day (1958)
*Nervous, Gotta Lotta That, Twixteen, "Crazy Cat Corner" - Gene Summers (1958)
*La Bamba - Ritchie Valens (1959)
*Walking to New Orleans - Fats Domino (1960)
*The Lonely Bull - Herb Alpert (1962)
*"High Flyin' Bird" - Judy Henske (1963)
*"Please Let Me Love You" - The Beefeaters (who later became the Byrds) (1964)
*The Little Old Lady from Pasadena - Jan and Dean (1964)
* Dead Man's Curve - Jan and Dean (1964)
*You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers (1964)
*Please Let Me Wonder - Beach Boys (1965)
*River Deep - Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner - (1966)
*"We Were Made for Each Other" - The Monkees (1968)
*I'll Be Back Up On My Feet - The Monkees (1968)
*"Busy, Busy", "My Heaven" - Dan Bowden
*"Magnolia Simms" - The Monkees (1968)
*"Whistlin' Past The Graveyard" - Tom Waits - (1978)
*"Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun" - Tom Waits - (1978)

Film scores

Palmer was the session drummer for a number of film scores, including:

1961:Judgement at Nuremberg, score by Ernest Gold1963:Hud, score by Elmer Bernstein:It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, score by Ernest Gold1964:Baby the Rain Must Fall, score by Elmer Bernstein:Ride the Wild Surf score by Stu Phillips:Robin and the Seven Hoods, score by Nelson Riddle1965:Boeing-Boeing, score by Neal Hefti:Harlow, score by Neal Hefti:How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, score by Les Baxter:A Patch of Blue, score by Jerry Goldsmith1967:Pretty Polly, score by Michel Legrand:Cool Hand Luke, score by Lalo Schifrin:In the Heat of the Night, score by Quincy Jones1968:A Dandy in Aspic, score by Quincy Jones

Television scores

Palmer was also the session drummer for a number of television show themes and sountracks, including:
*Flintstones Theme Song
*M Squad
*77 Sunset Strip
*Bourbon Street Beat
*Hawaiian Eye
*Peyton Place
*I Dream of Jeannie
*Green Acres
*Ironside
*The Outsider
*It Takes a Thief
*The Leslie Uggams Show
*The Brady Bunch
*Delta
*The Partridge Family
*The Odd Couple
*The Pearl Bailey Show
*M.A.S.H.
*The Midnight Special
*Mannix
*

Notes

References

*"" by Tony Scherman, Foreword by Wynton Marsalis. ISBN 1-56098-844-4. More than half the book consists of direct quotations from Palmer.
*"The Rock Musician" by Tony Scherman

External links

* [http://www.earlpalmermemorial.com Earl Palmer Official Memorial Site]
* [http://www.geocities.com/shakin_stacks/earlpalmer.txt Earl Palmer Bio] posted on geocities.com
* [http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Earl_Palmer.html Earl Palmer] at drummerworld.com