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Biography
Earl Cyril Palmer (October 25, 1924 & ndash; September 19, 2008) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080920/us_nm/palmer_dc_1 Yahoo news was an United States|American rock & roll and rhythm and blues drummer ,cite book | first= Paul | last= Du Noyer | year= 2003 | title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music | edition= 1st | publisher= Flame Tree Publishing | location= Fulham, London | isbn= 1-904041-96-5 | page= 181 and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .Allmusic|class=artist|id=p112089/biography|pure_url=yes allmusic Biography
Palmer played on many recording sessions, including Little Richard 's first several albums and Tom Waits ' 1978 album Blue Valentine (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, Guardian (newspaper)|The Guardian
Biography
Born into a showbusiness family in New Orleans and raised in the Tremé district, Palmer started his career at five as a tap dance r, joining his mother and aunt on the black vaudeville circuit in its twilight and touring the United States of America|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 Institution 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 (song)|The Fat Man ", "I'm Walkin" (and all the rest of Domino's hits), " Tipitina " by Professor Longhair , "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 Backbeat (music)|backbeat 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 (US)|Aladdin Records . Palmer soon wound up in The Wrecking Crew (music)|the Wrecking Crew , a famous group of session musicians who recorded nonstop during their heyday from 1962-68. The musicians union tracked Earl Palmer playing on 450 dates in 1967 alone. 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 , Bobby Vee, Ray Charles , Sam Cooke , 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.
Palmer died in September 2008, in Banning, California , after a long illness. http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/2008b.html Thedeadrockstarsclub.com - accessed September 2011
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.
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 (band)|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 Blaine|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, foreword by Bruce Springsteen, The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock's Great Drummers , Billboard Books, NY, 1984/1991
'' Twistin' And Twangin' - Duane Eddy (1962) http://members.home.nl/henk.gorter/Itc6203.html
Color Him Funky - Howard Roberts (1963)cite web|url= http://www.guitarchives.com/howard/how.html |title=The Howard Roberts Quartet - Dirty 'n' Funky |publisher=Guitarchives.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-25
Ins and Outs - Lalo Schifrin (Palo Alto, 1982)cite web|url= http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/5775123/a/Ins+And+Outs%2FLalo+Live+At+The+Blue+Note.htm |title=Lalo Schifrin - Ins and Outs/Lalo Live at the Blue Note CD Album |publisher=Cduniverse.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-25
King of America - Elvis Costello (1986)
The Ultimate School of Rock & Roll - Gene Summers (1997)
"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 score s, including:
1961 : Judgement at Nuremberg , score by Ernest Gold (composer)|Ernest Gold 1963 : Hud (film)|Hud , score by Elmer Bernstein : It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World , score by Ernest Gold (composer)|Ernest Gold 1964 : Baby the Rain Must Fall , score by Elmer Bernstein : Ride the Wild Surf score by Stu Phillips (composer)|Stu Phillips : Robin and the Seven Hoods , score by Nelson Riddle 1965 : Boeing Boeing (1965 film)|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 Goldsmith 1967 : Pretty Polly (film)|Pretty Polly , score by Michel Legrand : Cool Hand Luke , score by Lalo Schifrin : In the Heat of the Night (film)|In the Heat of the Night , score by Quincy Jones 1968 : A Dandy in Aspic , score by Quincy Jones
Television scores
Palmer was also the session drummer for a number of television show themes and soundtracks, including:
The Flintstones|Flintstones Theme Song
M Squad
77 Sunset Strip
Bourbon Street Beat
Hawaiian Eye
Peyton Place (TV series)|Peyton Place
I Dream of Jeannie
Green Acres
Ironside (TV series)|Ironside
The Outsider (1968 TV series)|The Outsider
It Takes a Thief (1968 TV series)|It Takes a Thief
Backbeat (biography)|Backbeat: The Earl Palmer Story 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.drummerworld.com/drummers/Earl_Palmer.html Earl Palmer at drummerworld.com
imdb name|0658210|Earl Palmer
Persondata | NAME = Palmer, Earl | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = United States|American rhythm and blues drummer | DATE OF BIRTH = October 25, 1924 | PLACE OF BIRTH = New Orleans , Louisiana , United States | DATE OF DEATH = September 19, 2008 | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Earl Category:1924 births Category:2008 deaths Category:American drummers Category:American session musicians Category:R& B musicians from New Orleans Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Liberty Records artists Category:The Wrecking Crew members
