Blues and Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer

[7/4]

• Amazon release date November 10, 2009.
  
• I wouldn't mind seeing an index of contents.
  
• Publisher's page here.
  
• FaceBook.
  

Edited November 16, 2009 by 7/4

[John L]

Interesting. There is a lot of great material to choose from. I would up for purchasing a complete works collection. Robert Palmer was very special.

[7/4]

In Search of a Father in Search of the Blues

By BEN SISARIO

Published: November 15, 2009

Music critics' lives — a blur of deadlines, headphone cords and modest payments by the word — don’t often inspire much fascination.

But Robert Palmer was different. As the chief popular music critic of The New York Times in the 1980s and the author of the enduring study “Deep Blues,” as well as a musician who could hold his own in jams with the Rolling Stones and Ornette Coleman, Palmer enjoyed a rare respect from the people he covered. When he died at 52 in 1997, of complications from liver disease, Sonic Youth paused at the start of a concert to pay tribute, and Patti Smith performed at his memorial.

“The Hand of Fatima,” a new documentary by his estranged daughter, Augusta, and a new anthology of Palmer’s writing, “Blues & Chaos” (Scribner), reveal what many colleagues knew but readers could scarcely guess from his eloquent and calmly authoritative prose: that he struggled with drug addiction and the emotional wreckage of three failed marriages, and that the place closest to his heart was not some club in New York or Mississippi but the remote Moroccan village of Jajouka, thousands of miles away.

more here.

[Chuck Nessa]

He was a very interesting and troubled guy. He wrote some liner notes for me.

[7/4]

I really enjoy his writing.

the movie: The Hand of Fatima

• NY Times: Critique of a Critic
  
• NY Press
  

Edited November 16, 2009 by 7/4

[AllenLowe]

well, I always catch flack for this, but I have problems with Deep Blues. He, in effect, cites many other sources (as far as can be told) but without any notes. I like the interviews, but his musical observations are just a bit too re-hashed (see Paul Oliver, eg). I've always found Giles Oakley to be miles ahead in his blues history, the Devil's Music. But, as I indicated, I am in a tiny tiny tiny tiny minority here (I'm also the guy who doesn't like Charlie Gillette's book).

[J.A.W.]

(I'm also the guy who doesn't like Charlie Gillette's book).

What don't you like about it?

[AllenLowe]

Gillette? Numerous musical mistakes and really bad writing.

[J.A.W.]

Gillette? Numerous musical mistakes and really bad writing.

I take it you're referring to Charlie Gillett's book The Sound of the City. By the way, his name is Gillett, without the last e.

[AllenLowe]

that's the one.

[paul secor]

From The Times review:

"The book also points to blind spots that were particularly conspicuous for a pop critic in the 1980s. He dismissed Madonna as simply a poor singer and Bruce Springsteen as a pretentious showman"

No blind spots there, imo.

[AllenLowe]

I'll agree on that one, especially re: Springsteen; sincere but insufferable.

Madonna I don't mind.

[7/4]

I'm not too surprised.

@

[AllenLowe]

I'm not too surprised that you're not too surprised.

Edited November 16, 2009 by AllenLowe

[J.A.W.]

I'm not too surprised.

@

I'm not too surprised that you're not too surprised.

Amazing...

[7/4]

No one should be surprised.

The Material Girl.

.

[7/4]

Robert Palmer played on an Ornette Coleman album:

[7/4]

Robert Palmer wrote liner notes for a La Monte Young album (among others):

He was a very interesting and troubled guy. He wrote some liner notes for me.

For what album(s)?

[7/4]

up

[Chuck Nessa]

Robert Palmer wrote liner notes for a La Monte Young album (among others):

He was a very interesting and troubled guy. He wrote some liner notes for me.

For what album(s)?

He wrote notes for the recently reissued Spirit Catcher by Wadada Leo Smith.

[7/4]

Thanks Chuck.

.