Dee Palmer is, along with
Ian McDonald of
King Crimson and
Foreigner, a member of that small fraternity of English rock musicians who learned the rudiments of their art as a member of the armed forces. While serving in a cavalry regiment,
Palmer took up the clarinet and later attended the Royal Military School of Music. After returning to civilian life,
Palmer studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Eric Coates Prize -- named for the renowned composer of "light" classics such as the "Knightsbridge March" -- for composing in her senior year.
In 1967, she made her debut as an arranger and conductor in popular recording, with work on the orchestral accompaniment for the
Bert Jansch album
Nicola. One year later,
Palmer was hired by producer
Terry Ellis to write the horn and string parts for the song "Move on Alone" by
Jethro Tull for what would become their first album,
This Was. In those days, there were relatively few trained arrangers or conductors -- other than those directly employed by the record labels, such as producer
George Martin -- willing to work with hard rock bands and treat the work seriously, and
Palmer was one of the more inspired of them. The results on that one song impressed
Ellis and the band sufficiently so that
Palmer was hired again, to write the string arrangement for "A Christmas Song", which appeared on an EP in England and was later included on the double-album anthology
Living in the Past. She also wrote the gorgeous string orchestra arrangement for "Reasons for Waiting" on
Stand Up (1969), which showed a more lyrical and richly melodic side to the group's music than had previously been heard, and pointed the way toward the larger conceptual pieces in their future.
By the time of
Aqualung in 1971,
Palmer's arrangements were nearly as prominent as the keyboard playing of
John Evan, and she had effectively become the sixth member of Tull, in fact if not contractually.
Palmer was kept busy on the group's two progressive rock epics,
Thick as a Brick (1972) and
A Passion Play (1973), and the somewhat more modestly proportioned
War Child (1974), and even played with them on-stage during their 1975 tour. She was a part of the group for the next five years, through
Stormwatch.
In 1980,
Palmer left
Jethro Tull and, along with
Evan and drummer
Barriemore Barlow, tried forming a group called Tallis. She wasn't totally alienated from
Tull-founder
Ian Anderson or his orbit, working with the singer/flautist/composer on a German television appearance in connection with
Anderson's first solo album. And it was
Jethro Tull that led
Palmer to a solo recording career, when she was engaged in the '80s to arrange and conduct an orchestral tribute album to the band entitled A Classic Case. It became the first in a series of such albums devoted to the work of
Yes,
Genesis, et al. She also kept busy writing, arranging, and conducting music for movies and television in the years after leaving
Tull.
Palmer's later orchestral tribute albums have included rearrangements and recordings of the music of
the Beatles and
Queen, and an album of Norwegian pop music standards arranged for orchestra. ~ Bruce Eder