Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley

Play someone only familiar with Robert Palmer’s slick 80s hits his 1974 debut and they might struggle to place the crackling funk within – Sly Stone? Dr John?… Stevie Wonder? It no doubt helped that Yorkshire-born Palmer was backed by a band made up of members of Little Feat and The Meters, but those players wouldn’t have suffered any limey fool gladly and Palmer’s 60-a-day blue-eyed wail here is up there with the very best. Palmer growls and moans through an album that mixes originals (the Elton John-like Blackmail, Get Outside’s lascivious swamp groove) with a choice selection of covers (Little Feat’s Sailing Shoes; the title track, originally recorded by Lee Dorsey). Funky, joyous, sexy — from start to finish it’s one of the era’s most overlooked albums.