Richard William Palmer-James (born 11 June 1947) is an English musician with more than 500 credits on discogs.com. He may be best known as one of the founder members of Supertramp, writing lyrics for several songs by the progressive rock group King Crimson in the early 1970s, and for writing lyrics for the 1985 hit "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" by Sandra.
Palmer-James was born in Meyrick Park, Bournemouth, where he got his start in the music business playing in various local bands: The Corvettes, The Palmer-James Group (formed with Alec James), Tetrad, and Ginger Man, all of which included John Wetton on bass and vocals. He was a founding member of Supertramp, playing guitar and singing vocals, as well as writing the lyrics for their self-titled debut album under the name Richard Palmer. He also co-wrote the lyrics of "Goldrush", a song written during his days in the band but not recorded until their 2002 album Slow Motion.
Palmer wrote lyrics for three of King Crimson's albums: Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black, and Red. He did not participate in any of King Crimson's recordings, but worked with John Wetton and David Cross after Robert Fripp disbanded the group in 1974.
Palmer has lived in Munich since the early 1970s. In 1978 he was visited by John Wetton and W.J. Hutcheson, his bandmates in Tetrad. Over 10 days, with the German drummer Curt Cress, they recorded, as "Jack-Knife", an album of songs from the early days called I Wish You Would. He wrote the English lyrics for La Bionda the Italo Disco inventors. Palmer-James also wrote lyrics for the La Bionda-associated disco group D.D.Sound in the late 70s.
In 1997 he released a CD with former bandmate John Wetton, "Monkey Business", a compilation of unreleased material including some songs that were recorded for the first time in studio, including a King Crimson tune called "Doctor Diamond".