Some go Early

September 2008 saw the sad passing of a true legend of the music industry, a man whose back catalogue of contributions almost reads like a dictionary of the very best and most important American music since the very birth of rock’n’roll. Indeed, such was the influence of the great drummer Earl Palmer, that he can be truly credited as one of the inventors of rock’n’roll itself, the man who gave the roll to the rock if you like. For he was drummer on no less a run of records than Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” (amongst other Little Richard classics), Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man” (and virtually all of Fats’ hits), Lloyd Price’s incredible “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, Smiley Lewis’ “I Hear You Knockin”, Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” - basically the list is ridiculous. And this is before we even get started on his position as drummer (alongside friend and fellow beat master Hal Blaine) in the notorious Wrecking Crew, the roster of elite session musicians providing backing for the Wall of Sound of Phil Spector.

The man played on “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” the twentieth century’s most played song on US radio, not to mention Ike and Tina’s “River Deep Mountain High”. Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, the Beach Boys, Neil Young, Tim Buckley, Harry Nilsson, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Elvis Costello, Etta James, Tom Waits, Professor Longhair, and still more too numerous to mention. He was like a one-man museum of American popular music. And his reach even extended to film scores, and I mean those that go down in history as classics. No incidental music for Earl Palmer, oh no. This guy laid down beats for Lalo Schifrin’s “Cool Hand Luke” and “Bullit” scores. He worked with Quincy Jones on “In The Heat of the Night” score.

Essentially Earl Palmer was the single greatest session drummer of all time. Nicknamed the Metronome, his precision and languidly precise style is a master class in percussive accompaniment. As he said himself, the job of the drummer is to accompany the fellow musicians, not to showboat or standout. Always understated as a man, his contribution to popular music is difficult to overstate. And all from humble beginnings in New Orleans. Where else but the city that throbs to the beat of the marching band, and which can virtually bottle funk and sell it by the pound such is it’s intrinsic feel for it.

Indeed, believe it or not, Earl Palmer is even credited with inventing the word “funky” when describing the danceable syncopation needed to merge the sounds of blues, jazz, country and rhythm’n’blues into one pulsating musical style, rock’n’roll, the music that changed the world. He was the pulse of so much in modern music, that his own passing is cause for great sadness, but celebration also that his inimitable style has blessed so many great works and leaves such a palpable legacy.

If you can find his solo releases, “Drumsville” from 1961 and “Percolator Twist” from 1962, you are in for a real treat, and clips of the man online are lessons in studied cool, as well as reasons why the internet was invented. The guy even dressed like a complete don at every opportunity. The campaign for a Twelve Bar “Palmer” blazer starts here. The one and only true funky drummer. Play on player.