Obituary: Earl Palmer

Sep 23 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

WHEN rock was young, he was the drummer – a man who understood the music through race, soul, sex, family and experience.

Although he played for some of the greatest white performers, such as Eddie Cochran, The Beach Boys, The Byrds and the Righteous Brothers, he rose from a black tradition.

But there was a living to be made.

Earl Palmer was born in New Orleans, the son of a touring singer. The identity of his father is less certain. Some said he was a whaling-ship’s cook, who died young. Others suggested that he was the band-leader, Fats Pichon.

An altar boy at his Catholic church, Earl was introduced to the pleasures of wine by the priest, while, at home, he was introduced to a succession of “aunts”, who turned out to be his mother’s girlfriends.

The boy loved marching music, boxing, tap-dance and pool. Somewhere along the line he became friendly with the great Bessie Smith, breathing wine fumes onto her face as she rocked him on her ample knees.

Palmer soon learned to blow the clarinet and saxophone. This all-round musical ability would serve him well in his later career as the best drummer in town.

But first came World War II. He was demoted from sergeant after claiming that he had supplied black comrades with ammunition for their own protection, but he served with the Allies in France.

Back in New Orleans, he played in jazz combos as a prelude to rock and roll. Success came in Dave Bartholomew’s band. Bartholomew produced records, including those of Fats Domino, whose Fat Man (1950) was a million seller. After that, Palmer was much in demand, featuring on Lloyd Price’s Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Smiley Lewis’s I Hear You Knockin’, Little Richards’s Long Tall Sally, Eddie Cochran’s Something Else and Richie Valens’s La Bamba.

In 1958, he recorded his own composition Drum Village (Parts 1 and 2), but there was trouble when he started dating a white woman and he hot-heeled it to Los Angeles.

Further success came for him as a regular on Phil Spector records, drumming on You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, by the Righteous Brothers, and Ike and Tina Turner’s River Deep, Mountain High.

Palmer, married four times with seven children, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.

Earl Palmer, drummer; born October 25, 1924, died September 19, 2008.