Richard Palmer-James

Richard William Palmer-James (born June 11, 1947 in Bournemouth , Dorset ; also known as Richard Palmer and Richard W. Palmer ) is a British pop and rock guitarist, singer and lyricist . He became famous in the 1970s as a member of the band Supertramp and as a lyricist in the band King Crimson . In 2016 his first solo album Takeaway was released . He has lived in Bavaria since the early 1970s, initially in Munich , and now on a farm near Arnstorf in the Lower Bavarian Rottal .

biography

Early years (until 1969)

In his hometown of Bournemouth, Palmer-James played guitar with school friends, including John Wetton , in the bands The Corvettes , The Palmer-James Group , Tetrad and Ginger Man, and sang most of the tracks, only cover versions .

Supertramp (1969/1970)

With Rick Davies (keyboards, vocals), Roger Hodgson (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Keith Baker (drums), Palmer-James founded the band Supertramp in 1969 . The band made their first public appearance under the name "Daddy," and he called himself just Richard Palmer. He was the guitarist and (at that time) the only lyricist of the band and also responsible for their name, which he gave to the title of the book Supertramp. Autobiography of a vagabond borrowed from William Henry Davies .

In July 1970, the debut album Supertramp , in the style of progressive rock and with musical borrowings from bands such as Traffic or King Crimson , came on the market, but sold poorly. Palmer contributed all the lyrics, and his vocals can be heard alternating with Hodgson in the songs Maybe I'm a Beggar and Try Again . The song Goldrush , written by him and Rick Davies, also dates from the production time of the debut album , but it was only released in 2002 on the Supertramp album Slow-Motion .

Because of the moderate success of Supertramp at the time, Palmer-James left the band. For him came the bassist Frank Farell (later co-writer for Leo Sayer ). After his departure he was briefly active as a guitarist and lyricist in the Czech / German / English jazz rock band Emergency .

King Crimson (1972-1974)

He then gained fame as a lyricist for the British progressive rock group King Crimson in the early 1970s as the successor to Peter Sinfield . The singer at that time was his childhood friend John Wetton. Palmer-James contributed some lyrics to three albums: Larks' Tongues in Aspic ( Book of Saturday , Exiles and Easy Money ), Starless and Bible Black ( The Great Deceiver , Lament , The Night Watch and The Mincer ) and Red ( Fallen Angel and Starless ).

In Munich (since 1976)

In 1976 Palmer-James founded the Munich group , which broke up two years later. Until 1977 he made his living mainly as a soundtrack composer for industrial and television films and series such as Paule Pauländer (director: Reinhard Hauff , 1976), Ein Tag mit dem Wind (director: Haro Senft , 1978) or the Munich stories (director : Helmut Dietl , 1974).

In 1978 he recorded the album I Wish You Would in Munich with his ex-colleagues from the band Tetrad, John Wetton (bass and vocals) and W. J. Hutcheson (keyboards) under the band name Jack-Knife . It contains songs from the tetrad era. The German Curt Cress played the drums ; In 2014 it was released again - this time as a double CD with the record name Jack-Knife / Monkey Business 1972–1997 .

In the 1980s, Palmer-James became a successful copywriter in the field of commercial pop music. His greatest successes include works, partly as a co-author, for La Bionda (One For You, One For Me) , Moti Special (Cold Days, Hot Nights) , Michael Cretu (Samurai) , Sandra (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena as well as Haddaway (Fly Away) and Mireille Mathieu (Together We're Strong) .

In 1985 Munich was reunified. Together with Peter Bischof (vocals), Eberhard "Ede" Wilhelm (drums), Hans-Herbert Gebhard (bass, vocals) and Oliver Hahn (keyboards, programming), Palmer-James took part in 1987 under the musical direction of Simon Phillips (drummer and others Toto and Mike Oldfield ) released the Munich album You Never Know . The single Your Turn was a small hit in the charts .

Since the 1990s

In the 1990s, Palmer-James devoted himself increasingly to blues and folk music, the actual sources of his musical inspiration. Accordingly, nowadays he mainly plays acoustic instruments such as resonator guitar and mandolin . Occasionally he gives concerts with the classical guitarist Eric Schachtner in Germany , Italy and Switzerland under the motto Blues Meets Classical .

1998 brought Palmer-James with John Wetton the album Monkey Business 1972-1997 with demos, unreleased and newly recorded older songs, including pieces that were intended for a King Crimson album after Red (1974), which never came about .

In 2016 his solo album Takeaway was released .

Discography

Palmer-James was a lyricist, composer, singer and / or guitarist for these albums:

Supertramp :

• Supertramp , 1970
  all lyrics; also vocals alternating with Hodgson in Maybe I'm a Beggar and Try Again
• Slow-Motion , 2002
  lyrics of the song Goldrush with Davies

Emergency :

• Get Out To The Country , 1973
  involved in songs I Know What's Wrong , Jeremiah , Confessions , The Flag and Little Marie

King Crimson :

• Larks' Tongues in Aspic , 1973
  texts for the songs Book of Saturday , Exiles and Easy Money
• Starless and Bible Black , 1974
  texts of the songs The Great Deceiver , Lament , The Night Watch and The Mincer
• Red , 1974
  lyrics for the songs Fallen Angel and Starless

Munich :

• Sideshow , 1979
  Text of the song Sideshow
• You Never Know , 1987
  guitarist

Jack-Knife (Palmer James and John Wetton) :

• I wish you would , 1979

John Wetton :

• Arkangel , 1997
  Song Magazines was written by Palmer-James and John Wetton
• Raised in Captivity , 2011
  song The Devil and the Opera House was written by Palmer-James, John Wetton and Billy Sherwood

John Wetton and Richard Palmer-James:

• Monkey Business 1972–1997 , 1998
• Jack-Knife / Monkey Business 1972–1997 , 2014

Richard Palmer-James:

• Takeaway , 2016

Web links

• Richard Palmer-James at Discogs (English)
• Interview with Richard Palmer-James in Calamity ( Memento from September 12, 2014 in the web archive archive.today ) (English), from elephant-talk.com