Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story

by Tony Scherman

By the time Earl Palmer moved from New Orleans to join the Los Angeles session musician Mafia in 1957, he'd already had a couple of careers in entertainment. As a kid tap dancer in black vaudeville, he saw the country, crossing paths with the likes of Art Tatum and Louis Prima before embarking upon a stint in the segregated World War II Army ("You was always running into stuff you didn't like. At first you took it. After two years you ready to hurt somebody"). Back in Louisiana, he took up work as a jazz drummer, little knowing that he'd soon be part of a revolution in music. As a regular on the scene, Palmer played on the seminal sides by Little Richard, Fats Domino, and many other R&B and early-rock & roll performers. Marked by a preternatural sense of propulsion and delightfully sly fills, Palmer's drumming was an indispensable part of shaping the new sound. By the '60s, he was working with Sinatra and Phil Spector, playing jazz (his first love) in clubs and contributing to dozens of movie and TV soundtracks (you'll hear him next time you watch Harold and Maude, Cool Hand Luke, or a rerun of M.A.S.H. or The Odd Couple). Backbeat is an incisive, frequently hilarious read that opens doors on recording studios, show business, and race in America. --Rickey Wright

Genres: Music, History, Biography

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 1999

About the author

Tony Scherman (born 1950) is a Canadian painter. He is known for his use of encaustic and portraiture to depict persons and events of historical or popular significance.

Reviews

[Sebastian Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really rather excellent biog’ of Earl Palmer. A drummer everyone ought to know and love, but who remains someone only really appreciated by drummers and music history buffs.

His life story is near enough a story of modern popular music, from N’awleans Jazz to contemporary (-ish) pop, with Palmer instrumental in helping define the emergent sound of rock n roll (hence the book’s title ‘Back Beat’).

Palmer comes across very well, and lead a colourful interesting life. Scherman does a good job of conveying his story, adding just enough contextualising info’, whilst in the main preserving Palmer’s own piquant linguistic flavour (the book is based on transcribed interviews).

I came to this book via a binge of listening to David Axelrod’s amazing music, which features Earl Palmer very heavily on classic recordings like Songs Of Innocence, and Earth Rot. My only minor disappointment with this book is that this particular aspect of Palmer’s career receives no coverage here. But that’s in itself a measure of the scale and scope of this legendary drummer’s legacy.

Highly recommended.

[Ted Gurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Scherman wades through hours of interviews with drummer Earl Palmer to paint a picture of what it was like growing up in Treme' in New Orleans in the 1930's. Palmer's transition from tap dancing to drumming is skipped but there is a great section about being a top session musician in LA during the 60's. Interesting and quick read.

[Seth Arnopole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earl Palmer's story is worth reading for any student of American popular culture. A childhood performer in vaudeville who grew up in New Orleans, going from tap dancing into drumming, he was a (modernist) jazz musician at heart. He played on groundbreaking sessions with Fats Domino and Little Richard before getting into LA session work and becoming part of the so-called Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of rock & roll, R&B, film, and television sessions. Palmer says that the most challenging sessions were for cartoon music!

[Possiblymaybe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic writing and reporting doing justice to an extraordinary person’s life.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by a musician who had known and worked with Earl Palmer for many years. While this book is a very interesting read, and the only biography of Earl Palmer, it fails to meet the measure of that great man. Earl Palmer was truly one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century yet his name is virtually unknown.

Earl Palmer was the rhythm behind the original rock and roll of New Orleans during the early 1950's. After moving to L.A., he became a first call studio drummer on thousands of recordings, and dozens of chart hits, from Little Richard to Phil Spector, Sinatra and the Beach Boys.

Tony Scherman's writing and research displays his passion for New Orleans and it's musical culture. Yet Palmer's most productive years in L.A. receive short shrift, only 1/3 of the book's contents. As a reader, I felt that Earl Palmer's story had been hijacked by a co-writer who was obsessed with the New Orleans years.

The definitive biography of Earl Palmer has yet to be written.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly readable memoir by one of the greatest drummers in the history of American popular music. Palmer recalls plenty about the last days of black vaudeville, his service in WWII, his monumental role in the development of rock'n'roll and funk drumming, and his career in Los Angeles, where he became one of pop music's most recorded drummers. Back Beat is essential reading for anyone who cares about New Orleans music.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic memoir that gives equal insights into the peak and fall of vaudeville, African-Americans' WWII experience, New Orleans culture, the invention of rock and roll, the heyday of Hollywood's genius studio musicians, and the killing effects of self-contained bands and digital technology, all told from a cool mf's perspective.

[Frode Skjold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories told by a great drummer.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it. But I'm a drummer who worships Earl Palrmer, and the type of music he pioneered.