It's been a bad week for rock icons. First, Waron Zevon dies of a fatal disease. I've never been much of a fan of his, but it hit me, nevertheless. And today, I hear that Robert Palmer has died, aged 54, of a heart attack.
Robert Palmer has succeeded in gaining a spot in my heart, a long time ago. He's one of the artists that I consider sub-top, for many of his things I just don't care, but then again he occasionally he succeeds in hitting the spot, and then he doesn't lets go. I think he must have a few tracks in my list of top $n*100 (I don't know, 300 or so) favourite tracks of all time.
Around 1980 there was that album with the upside down waves on the picture, Clues. On one hand it's not a very remarkable album, but Robert proves to be quite a versatile musician, and it's the one that hit it off with me. The songs are just so different. There's the singles "Johnny And Mary", "Looking for Clues", but also "I dream of wires", a cover of and with help of Gary Newman, and "Found You Now", the closing track, that for some obscure reason is a song that stuck. I don't know why, but part of its charm is the drum (and that wacky synth).
The next time he hit me, was with "You're in my System", again a cover of and with help of the original artists, here, The System. This track is definitely one of my all time favourites. It bites, like hardly anything else does.
A few years later: "I didn't mean to turn you on". After that, I more or less lost track of him.
Robert Palmer was definitely one of the artists that ment something to me when I was a kid. The fact that he has died, makes me feel quite uneasy. Who'll be next, David Bowie, Leo Sayer, Thomas Dolby, Peter Gabriel, Madonna?
It also makes me feel that my generation is next in line. I, or people I know well, might well die of natural causes, in just 10-15 years or so. Life is short.
Being a fan I have to correct you there"I dream of wires", a cover of and with help of Gary Newman
Re:Numan's a new man again
bart on 2003-10-01T13:05:00
Oh damn, I knew that. It's been so long I forgot the correct spelling.
