Should Robert Palmer have stayed on longer with the Power Station?

I think that Palmer was every bit the equal of Phil Collins.

 

In reference to Palmer coming up with the "Power Station sound", at some point he said he wanted the Scorpions top be his backing band for a record. I don't recall the if this was before or after the Power Station.

 

Yes. He should have toured with them and made 3 or 4 albums.

 

The Meters have said in interviews that they were royally p*&Sed for not getting proper credits on "Sneakin' Sally."

 

Probably after. The Heavy Nova album was going to be a combination of Heavy Metal and Basso Nova. The crazier the idea, the more he liked it.

 

Pressure Off from their Paper Gods album has some good bass lines IMHO.

 

That was just a theory, wasn't it?

When they toured with Michael Des Barres, did they do Duran Duran songs?

 

I looked at setlist.fm, and it mentions "Hungry Like the Wolf" as being part of the set in 1985. Doesn't look like they did any DD in 1997.

Woulda made sense for them to do "View to a Kill" in 1985 since that was a current hit...

 

The Taylor's kept a very good friendship with Palmer. Even the other guys in DD became very good friends with him! PS was a project and had short legs and Palmer saw it as that.

 

Just had a look at John Taylor's book. All he says about Palmer quitting is "Robert did an about face and bailed."

Later he talks about the tour ("the Power Station tour continued, rather painfully"). He soured on it after playing with Duran Duran at Live Aid and realizing how much better that was (even though they weren't getting along)...he decided PS was a vanity project that went on too long.

And all Andy Taylor says about is, "Robert Palmer pulled out, saying he couldn't spare the time."

 

Palmer invited Andy for a Tokyo show in his final year, as seen here complete with japanese dancin' gals.

 

They did two that I know of: "The Reflex" and "Hungry Like the Wolf."

 

I've never been able to find the answer to this question, or I've been looking in all the wrong places: who is his female duet partner on "Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming"?

 

B.J. Nelson (wikipedia)

 

I guess that counts as "Backing Vocals," then...

 

The Power Station continued without him?

 

For a tour and one more song, yes. With Michael Des Barres replacing Palmer.

 

I just realized that Robert Palmer wasn't at Live Aid because he left Power Station. I'll bet he regrets missing that gig. I had assumed that he was there . . Live Aid and Robert Palmer seems like a match made in heaven.

 

I wish he'd stayed. But it was a smart career move.

The Duran Duran members had already had major success. I'm sure they understood that this was Robert's chance. That is why they support the effort by playing on the album.. But...it would have been a great tour and maybe a cool second album.

 

Yep, almost, Bernard Edwards produced Riptide, Tony Thompson is on it, yep it's close to the Power Station. Oddly enough, that style and sound seemed to get swept away (heh Riptide) with "Addicted to Love" and the video. IMO both Power Station and Riptide were artifacts before there time. Who knows, if he did a Power Station album in say 1985-86 would it have suffered the same fate.

 

In this interview Robert Palmer answers this thread question specifically and in general. Talks about what influenced him, steering away from trends, working with Bernard Edwards, Andy Taylor, Tony Thompson. Getting personal feedback from fans and receiving cassette tapes from songwriters. Plus Scritti Politti, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, M - Popmuzik, what drives the industry in the UK vs US and how the track Addicted To Love (then unreleased) came to him in a dream.

 

I think the point here was that The Power Station started as a studio concept and Palmer was never up for going 'new band' with it. In fact neither was anyone else, being as they had not quit their other bands but Andy Taylor of Duran definitely saw it as a step in the direction he preferred, toward being a 'rock' star rather than a teen idol.
Remember also that Palmer had plans if not schedules for his solo album already and especially that The Power Station's success was a surprise.
'Supergroup' albums had no big history of success nor was the concept particularly cool but TPS blew all that out of the water with huge success. Although there were many elements to the synergy, a large part of the success had to be that Duran Duran fans had a huge appetite at the time for more product, 1984 having seen them on high ground.
I've read interviews where the Duranies tell of really wanting to go live with it partly because they weren't touring with Duran and partly because they felt liberated by the vehicle.
But there was, in my recall, plenty of notice from all concerned that Palmer was never going to feature in an ongoing band.
The Power Station, as conceived, wasn't a band but a project, perhaps really just an album project. Palmer had temporary involvement with it but did not 'join with it' so to all intents and purposes, despite the marketing of it, he guested on an album.

 

Hello,

I write this having not read all the responses ( too many pages & it's too late ), but thought it worth responding to the original question(s) asked...

"Should R.P. have stayed on with The Power Station" ?....My answer is no, for a number of reasons. No doubt many have mentioned about his already long-standing career in the US-of-A, & world-wide successes that spawned from his constant ability to change himself & image to gain recognition, not to mention his many changes in direction of musical styles by this time !

In many ways, there are parallels with David Bowie here, but the main difference being that Bowie created imaginary characters, that us as the general public, could always relate him back to, eg, Major Tom, Siggy Stardust etc etc. Plus Bowie had a great number of key players in his "organization" that he could always rely on, & fall back on when needed. I'd suggest that Robert Palmer was a more genuine singer, & less "artsy" than Bowie, so though he moved through a great many stylistic changes, he carried his own career on his own terms. And he'd already found great success ( & retirement money lol ) prior to "Power Station".

Power Station was a great band. And its time came & went all too soon. Many will say the same of Duran Duran, but what can you do apart from speculate about what once was ? Many have heard about the methods used by Bob Geldoff to get the bands to perform for Live-Aid, to great success !!! The other side of the coin is that it may have been "the straw that broke the camels back", & Robert decided that this thing ( Power Station ) is getting out of control, so he left. I wouldn't blame him either. When you've been in relative control of your career & life all along, & then an "uncontrollable monster" starts dictating the way, I give him credit for keeping his integrity, common sense, & right to make a correct decision ( for himself ), even if the timing was less than perfect. But that's life !!!

Ciao,

Gregster

 

I'm just surprised the other guys in the Power Station were so accepting of Robert Palmer leaving them in a lurch. he must have been a really great guy to get away with that!

 

Hello,

I'd say the guys were more surprised about leaving the "success potential" than anything else. Something must have made him pretty scared or upset to withdraw from it, that's for sure.

Once again, it seems like he just didn't want to do it, or like what it was turning into, so he opened his own door & walked away.

He didn't get-away with anything really, he possibly didn't like being pushed around & told what to do. So he likely told some-one to go & get ****ed, & walked away LOL.

He was British remember lol !

Ciao,

Gregster

N.B. If no ones mentioned it yet, even Little Feat considered offering him the lead-singer role when they re-formed again in 1987 to fill in Lowell's shoes, but they decided against that, though they all enjoyed working with him from 1974 through to 1978 on his own records etc etc.