Sneaking Sally Through the Alley by Robert Palmer (1974)
We’re going to step away from the hard R&B rock we’ve been focusing on for a moment here to acknowledge a different flavor of rock & roll from the 1970s. Robert Palmer is remembered today primarily for a couple of big MTV-era pop hits from the following decade. But in 1974, he was just another young, blue-eyed soul singer from England who looked kind of like a newer breed of Tom Jones. Then, on his debut as a solo artist, alchemy.
He went to New Orleans and teamed up with local R&B and funk luminaries like Allen Toussaint and the Meters. He also got major support from Little Feat frontman/guitarist Lowell George. Palmer wrote most of the songs, including the breezy “Hey Julia” and the funky ode to having a good time, “How Much Fun.” And he wisely recorded George’s “Sailin’ Shoes” along with two Toussaint numbers, the title track, and the subdued funk “From a Whisper to a Scream.” Palmer’s voice is assured throughout. He did not hit it big until the ‘80s, but his place in modern pop music was on very firm ground.
The Modern Lovers by The Modern Lovers (1976)
Not to be confused with “Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers,” another fine album from the same source, this early album from the greatest disciple of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground has a fascinating history. We’ve already noted how several of the previous bands were in the process of breaking up by the time they dropped the album we are discussing. Richman did them one better.
The Modern Lovers, a band he had founded five years earlier, hadn’t been together for more than a year when this collection of songs was released. All of the tracks had been recorded at least four years earlier. Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, who knew all about bands with personality conflicts, produced many of the tracks.
And those tracks are fantastic basic rock, somehow perfectly suited to Richman’s nasal delivery and a throbbing rhythm provided by bassist Ernie Brooks and drummer David Robinson, who would later join the Cars. Richman showed just how far simple songs could go if they had the wit and intelligence of ultra-cool drones like “Pablo Picasso” or the chugging honesty of “Someone I Care About.” Richman opens and closes with a couple of stripped-down but unstoppable rockers – “Roadrunner” and “Modern World.”