Robert Palmer was only 54 when he died of a heart attack

I will never get sick of this song.

While I agree he was talented, I disagree 54 is young

R2, of course it’s young. It’s like 25 years below the average life expectancy.

My sister died of a heart attack at age 50.

It was a meth induced heart attack.

r4

Your sister or Palmer?

3 packs a day of cigarettes will do that to a guy.

He was short and handsome with floppy brown hair--he always looked to me like Michael J. Fox's older brother.

OP, what the fuck makes your type of loon use the word "underappreciated" (sic) as a synonym for "click me like me I know more than you because I just learned something" bullshit?

Love Robert Palmer. Don't love you.

My friend was playing RP at high volume in his rented London apartment once.There was soon a knock at the door and he suspected a neighbour was about to complain about the noise.On opening the door he was greeted by RP himself (visiting a friend in the block) who thanked him profusely for buying his CD.True story.

r8, please go change your tampon. I think it's quite full.

OP, I didn't even realize he had died.

I must have missed the story back in 2003.

I really liked his music from the 80's, so I'm kind of surprised that I didn't know this.

Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

My sister’s heart attack was meth induced

Pastiche.

Palmer's heart attack could have been cocaine induced.

Coke was big in the 80's, and he looks like a coke party kind of guy.

Without him, we wouldn't have this...

[quote]Palmer's heart attack could have been cocaine induced.

Doubtful, he would've seen not one but TWO doctors.

I liked him well enough, but am unclear on how he was "influential."

I never liked SLICK stuff like in his videos

He was respected in the music industry.

Wrong r15. That song was originally recorded by Cherelle. Palmer never gave her credit for the song. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Palmer called it an obscure teenybopper song, which it decidedly was not. Fuck Robert Palmer and anyone who thinks that he wrote that song.

I love the reaction videos to him. "She's so fine, there's no telling where the money went." Yep.

I never realized he died, either. I just didn't notice his absence from anything in the past 20 years.

Welcome to DL, Cherelle/R20!

R2 Well if YOU die at 54, it won't be too young...

The best Robert Palmer jam

[R20] Robert Palmer (singer) never ever claimed credit for it.It was written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis anyway not Cherelle, and they pitched it to RP's management because they liked his work and previous soul/funk covers.In an interview RP stated that he liked the music but not the the lyric as he thought it sexist so decided to record it in an ironic self-mocking style.Jam & Lewis loved his version and were grateful for the exposure and significant royalties. Robert Palmer (Rolling Stone journalist-same name but no relation) reviewed and dissed Cherelle's original version as he was an old-school blues fan who didn't like modern R&B. Both Robert Palmers died of a heart attack a few weeks apart from each other.Spooky.

I remember reading in Belinda Carlisle book she was touring with Robert Palmer and he asked her if she had cocaine. So he smoked like a chimney and coke wouldn’t have helped.

I heard this song last week at a Trader Joe's and was excited to hear something new and different that I liked. I Shazammed it only to find it was a 40 year-old Robert Palmer song. It was stuck in my head all week. The lyrics are pretty funny. "It's crazy but I'm frightened by the sound of the telephone, oh yeah. I'm worried that the caller might have awful news, oh my."

Great lyric--"I'm never in the dark 'cause my heart keeps me well informed"

He was really terrific and underrated, and so many of his songs sound fresh today.

I mean, Johnny and Mary? Come on. Every musician who moved to Brooklyn in the last 25 years has been trying to write a relationship song this good.

Remembering Palmer

[quote] Robert Palmer (Rolling Stone journalist-same name but no relation) reviewed and dissed Cherelle's original version as he was an old-school blues fan who didn't like modern R&B. Both Robert Palmers died of a heart attack a few weeks apart from each other.Spooky.

And yet Cherrelle lives! Living is the best revenge.

Sexy sleeveless Robert doing "Johnny & Mary" live in 1980.

Everybody onstage seems wasted, and it's not the best version.

But he could have gotten it. And I want his sweatshirt today.

I like this one.

He had to have been a cokehead, right? Those big videos, the models, the music, that weird Power Station shit... it all looked and sounded like cocaine heaven. But I don't know that I've ever heard anyone talk about him using drugs.

Cocaine was his vicious victim. His entire persona reeked of smarmy guy with enough drugs to attract females. I'll repeat again, his entire persona dictated by acquiring drugs or females. Both eventually give out.

I liked his version of Can We Still Be Friends, though I guess that's as much because of the song itself.

He did die relatively young when you consider average life expectancy is somewhere in the 70s. And it was a real shame, he was such a great singer, had such a good voice. I never heard that he was a hell raiser or that he was particularly into drink and drugs. Maybe it was cigarettes that made weakened his heart. I don't really think he was "underappreciated." He was very well respected for his talent.

I always thought he was Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Meh. I sang it better.

R27, any dirt in belinda's book on Michael Hutchence? There were pics of them together around the time he got with Paula...does she name the girlfriends he cheated on to be with belinda?

Thanks

Back to Palmer

So if "I didn't mean to turn you on" was RP being self-mocking, was the video?

Palmer hit big on MTV and the charts when I was a preteen just starting to discover music.

Looking back, his big videos were deserved sensations—that glossy magazine look was super fresh for MTV at the time, when some artists were still turning in videos on videotape—and the stripped-down sound really hit right.

My parents bought me the cassette of Addictions: Vol. 1 the Christmas it came out and I wore it out playing it every night. I would fall asleep to "Some Guys Have All the Luck," "Every Kinda People" and "Johnny & Mary."

[R27] You'd have to ask Terence Donovan (Fashion Photographer) about his videos.Except he's dead.

I loved him! Sad he didn’t tour with power station, we suffered through Michael DesBarre in the live shows. Robert Palmer was a smooth 80s hottie. He also had a crazy stalker who thought was married to him and still flares up if you google him.

RP answers your questions from the beyond.

Hyperactive was his best

R26 The two Robert Palmers died years apart, not weeks. The journalist died of liver disease in 1997, the singer of a heart attack in 2003.

His mashup of ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ and ‘I Want You’ is utterly idiotic. The songs are incongruous - and not in a way that creates any sort of interesting result. Instead, you end up with one song, whose message is: “I care about the planet and now I have a raging erection and want sexy time”.

Dying at only age 54 back in 1903 was not that unusual. Dying at age 54 in 2003 is considered young(ish).

My cousin also died at 54 from a heart attack, and we know it was due to cardiogenic pulmonary edema (water in the lungs). The doctor had instructed him to be admitted to the hospital for it, but he refused and decided to treat it instead with water pills.

[quote]He had to have been a cokehead, right? Those big videos, the models, the music, that weird Power Station shit... it all looked and sounded like cocaine heaven. But I don't know that I've ever heard anyone talk about him using drugs.

I watched a bunch of his 1980s TV appearances and live concert performances on YouTube a few years ago and noticed frequent nose-swiping, in addition to his sped-up, jerky movements. Sometimes the nice suits hung off him because of weight fluctuations.

r14 He was a cokehead. A friend was in a band called Leatherwolf and they were in the Caribbean recording an album and they partied with him. Great guy but he liked his blow.

always presumed that he was a huge cokehead

The only song I liked of his was "Hyperactive."

Heavy cocaine user for decades and a chain smoker. So not a total surprise when he popped off.

He was always hot in an understated way, but the clips for Addicted to Love and Simply Irresistible were pretty crap