The Power Station - The Power Station

Once upon a time the boys in Duran Duran were taking a break, and two of the three Taylors formed a band with Robert Palmer and drummer Tony Thompson who had pounded the literal shit out of the skins on Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance. In the spring of 1985 they dropped an album called The Power Station, named after the legendary New York studio. I'm guessing the guys were having trouble coming up with a suitable band name as they opted to use the same name.

The album opens with "Some Like it Hot" and right off the bat you really get the feeling you're in for a ride. To say Tony Thompson sounds huge on this song is an understatement. At this point in the mid '80s Phil Collin's was sort of the standard bearer for big gated toms and from the get go it's like Tony said to the engineer, "Hold my beer."

Having Robert Palmer front was pretty cool, as at this point in his career he was still better known as that guy who covered "Bad Case of Lovin' You" and had a couple of quirky new wave hits from Looking For Clues. Along with the two Taylor lads the trio wrote a number of the songs on the album that were pretty cool and had an interesting blend of rock and style, and others like "Go to Zero" were right in step with his previous work. 

The album is definitely of its time, and the sounds and production all scream mid '80s, but my goodness when it was good it was really good. I mean, really good. I will admit when this came out I was still very much in my "shit of Duran Duran phase" and "Some Like it Hot" with the front and centre guitars of Andy and the big bass of John I had to rethink some of my prejudices. Like a lot of people I was a little befuddled by their cover of the T. Rex classic "Get It On" although the band wisely called it "Bang a Gong (Get it On) just in case people weren't able to figure out it was the same song. Don't laugh, I remember once looking and looking for "Bang a Gong" and never found it. Um, that's an odd sentence, I think I started off by saying I was befuddled at first, mainly because the boys retooled the song, but still kept the swagger and energy intact. It really is a cool cover.

Now before you think this is all a giant spoogefest to the album, I've really just focused on the parts I like. Other than the two songs I remember hearing on the radio, I'd never heard the album, and to be honest I had sort of hoped for more ... but then again it really is sort of what I expected. I have a few of Robert Palmer's solo efforts and they were always, and generally had a highlight or two that really elevated the entire album.

Same thing here. 

There aren't any terrible songs, but the presence of the two killers really just makes this seem better than it is. When I was doing a little more reading on the album to see what wasn't in the liner notes I found out there were three singles pulled from the album, the two you and I know ... then a third "Communication" which I'm guessing you probably don't remember either. There were better songs they could have pulled. The one I'm thinking of at the moment (because it's playing in the background) is the haunting mid tempo not quite a ballad "Still in Your Heart" that could have done something. It's really good.

The album would go platinum which was pretty impressive, and Robert Palmer knowing a good thing would take what worked here and apply it to his next solo album Riptide that would come out later that same year. When he added in some mannequin looking dancing girls who didn't even know how to hold their instruments the rest as they say was history.

Oddly, with the success of The Power Station, the other three guys from Duran Duran, you know the ones, Simon, Nick and the other Taylor, Roger - not the guy from Queen (man, that never gets old) decided they should put together a side project too ... so they did and they called it Arcadia but that's a story for another time kids, because,

a) I don't have it and
b) I don't want it. 

Although like this one, if it shows up in a bin somewhere and looks passable it'll likely end up on my turntable. Why not?

I also discovered that Power Station did indeed release a follow up album that came out a dozen year after the first, and by that time there wasn't really any juice left.

Sadly both Tony Thompson and Robert Palmer passed away in 2003.