Robert Palmer
 | | Fri. November 21.1997 11:16 AM EST | ||
Famed Music Critic Robert Palmer Dead At 52Heralded record producer, documentarian and author of Deep Blues succumbs to liver disease. by Addicted To Noise Staff Writer Chris Nelson | ||||
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 | "I do continue to believe in the transformative power of rock and roll," Palmer wrote in 1995. | | ||
Renowned music critic and record producer Robert Palmer, whose recent bout with liver disease rallied musicians such as Patti Smith and former Big Star leader Alex Chilton to perform benefit shows in his honor, died Thursday morning in New York ofcomplications from the illness. He was 52.
The author of Deep Blues had been fighting a severe case of hepatitis that he contracted in 1985, and from which he suffered a relapse several years later. He was first admitted to Little Rock's University of Arkansas Medical Center in August, but was soon transferred to New York's Westchester County Medical Center to await a donor for a potentially life-saving liver transplant. Doctors were hoping for a single donor to provide both a liver and kidney to reduce the chance of rejection.
Palmer is best known for the seminal genre-study Deep Blues, which traces the history of that music from the Mississippi Delta in the early years of this century up to Chicago in the post-World War II period. He set a precedent as the New York Times' first full-time rock 'n' roll writer, and served as chief pop critic for the paper for more than a decade in the 1970s and '80s. Most recently, Palmer authored the book Rock & Roll: An Unruly History , the companion to the PBS series of the same name, for which he served as chief consultant. In addition, he was a long-time contributing editor at Rolling Stone, wrote and directed the award-winning documentary The World According to John Coltrane and taught courses on American music at Yale University, Carnegie-Mellon, Bowdoin College, the University of Mississippi and Brooklyn College.
Music critic Greil Marcus, a contemporary and long-time friend of Palmer's, recently referred to him as "one of the few distinguished pop music critics to come out of the South. His background in Arkansas, both as a fan and as a teenage rock 'n' roll musician, has always informed his writing and yet he never writes down to people who have no musical training."
Although in later years, Palmer questioned whether the music he loved still held the measure of danger it once did, he never doubted its transcendental qualities. "I do continue to believe in the transformative power of rock and roll -- a power that can only be accessed by the individual listener," he wrote in 1995. "It's my contention that this transformative power inheres not so much in the words of songs or the stances of the stars, but in the music itself -- in the sound, and above all, in the beat."
In 1992, Palmer collaborated with Eurythmic Dave Stewart on a film documentary based on Deep Blues. The movie and its soundtrack introduced the world at large to such Mississippi northern hill country masters as Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. Palmer went on to produce albums for the Fat Possum label by Kimbrough (All Night Long) and Burnside (Too Bad Jim), whose rawness proved to many listeners that the blues was still a thriving and vital art.
"Everything I learned, I have learned from Palmer, just from being around him," Fat Possum owner Matthew Johnson told Blues Access earlier this year. "He's one of the brightest people I ever met."
Palmer, like many musicians and writers, did not have health insurance. The past few months saw several benefits launched around the country to cover the costs of his transplant. Patti Smith played a benefit show for Palmer in late October at C.B.G.B.'s in New York, while alternative-rock pioneer Alex Chilton and legendary writer/producer/musician Allen Toussaint raised funds at a show in New Orleans, La. Kimbrough and Tony Joe White paid tribute along with a host of other musicians at a benefit in Palmer's one-time home of Oxford, Miss.
Palmer's widow JoBeth Briton has established the Robert Palmer Fund for Artists' Aid in her late husband's honor. She has asked that in lieu of sending flowers, mourners make a donation to the fund (c/o Augusta Palmer, 155 Lafayette St. 3C, New York, NY 11238).
"Bob and I were both so uplifted by the tremendous outpouring of love, support and generosity from friends all over the world," Briton said in a statement. "It was Bob's wish -- and my hope -- that people will continue to band together to help one another in times of need. This fund is being started in the hope of beginning that process, as well as to celebrate everything Bob did while he was here."
A memorial service will be held for Palmer on Nov. 23 at the Tramps club (51 W. 21st St.) in New York City from 2 to 4 p.m. [Fri., Nov. 21, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]
