Deep Ellum and Central Track

by Alan B. Govenar an Jay F. Brakefield  (University of North Texas Press)

Backbeat: Earl Palmer’s Story

by Tony Scherman 

(Smithsonian Institution Press)

  The drummer, they have to be one of the most unheralded musicians in any band. Usually sitting in the back of the group they supply an indispensable and steady beat. Their names are mostly unknown. Go ahead, name some of your favorite drummers, …Ringo, maybe, Gene Krupa, the great jazz drummer and maybe a few others come to mind, but not too many others.  How about the man who played on such hits as,  Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti,” “Rip It Up,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin,” Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Charles Brown’s “Merry Christmas Baby,” Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” Ritchie Valens “La Bamba,” The Righteous Brothers “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” and Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep-Mountain High” to mention but just a few. He also played with the Beach Boys, The Byrds, Neil Young, Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan (his favorite), The Monkee’s, and even Elvis Costello. The man was and still is Earl Palmer, BACKBEAT is his story.

  Earl, born 1924 in New Orleans started his entertainment career during his early childhood as a dancer on the streets of Treme district. He quickly joined his mother in Ida Cox’s (“The Uncrowned Queen of the Blues”) “Darktown Scandal Revue”  one of the many traveling vaudeville/minstrel show that criss- crossed America. These minstrels, supplied their audiences with all forms of entertainment, dancing, comedians, slap stick skits , and of course music. During the late 1890’s to the 1930’s they were America’s most popular form of entertainment. These minstrels were often the training ground for many modern musicians and entertainers. Earl, a tap dancer in Ida’s show, often credits his unique approach to drumming to his ability to create a different tap to the same song.

  After spending World War II in the army, which Earl describes in some detail as a completely segregationist thing, he settles back in New Orleans. Already a semi-accomplished drummer he uses his training voucher from the U.S. government to go school at “Grunewlad’s Music School” to learn how to read and compose music. Earl gigs around New Orleans, records with some of the soon to be most famous musicians of all time at Cosmo Matassa’s recording studio and falls in love with a white woman, Susan.  Earl, a black man, and his lover Susan are a deadly combination in New Orleans in the 1950’s, where laws were on the booksthat strictly outlawed the “marriage or habitual cohabitation” between “a person of the Caucasian or white race and a person of the colored or Negro race”. These racist attitudes forced Earl to move out west, California, where he slowly begins to build his career as one of the all time great studio drummers.

  During his stay in Los Angles, Earl, a firm believer in being a union musician, becomes one of the most sought after studio musicians ever. You have to remember that most name musicians that recorded during the late 50’s and early-mid 60’s used nothing but studio musicians to record 45’s or albums with. Earl used his “street” playing along with his schooled training to be in such demand that he often played on three different records in one day. Besides being in such demand for studio work he also played on many of the most popular movie soundtracks of all time, “In the Heat of the Night, “Valley of the Dolls”, “Herald and Maude”, “Lady Sings the Blues” and “The Fabulous Baker Boys” are all Earl Palmer. On top of all this work Earl states that his most demanding work was that of a drummer on the soundtracks for all the classic “Looney Tunes” cartoons.

  A highly recommended book for fans of all music, as the author, Tony Scherman, captures Earl’s unique way of recalling his past and telling his stories. Get to know the man that was one of the founding fathers of Rock ‘n’ Roll drumming and add Earl Palmer to the list of drummer’s that are among your favorites!

(Dave  Moskal)