Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

No, for me the voice is the main attraction. "Tilt" is really not representative of his main body of work. Even his vocal style has completely changed. It's really not where I would start with him; it's a weird one. Scott 1-4 are all great (espcially 4) and I even like his "country" albums.

Tilt? game over! Insert Coin --> jarvis want to play!

Don't tell the RIAA, now.

I can't wait to hear them.

I've had "...Sings Songs From His TV Series" for ages - I grew up listening to it actually, my dad owned it on old fashioned audio tape and played it to death. It's the most Vegas-y Scott ever got, and I doubt he was very comfortable doing that sort of material, but damn it's great to hear him singing that kind of stuff. The arrangement on "Will You Still Be Mine" is completely over the top.

I'd recommend downloading "Country Girl" first. It'd fit real nicely on "Scott 3." Then download "Maria Bethania" if you really want to be confused.

Oh man, I love that song - apparently it's based on Wordsworth or some such geezer

You better believe it boy - primetime BBC1, Saturday evening(?), 1969(?), much the same set up as similar shows presented by Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Lulu though i don't believe any of those ladies ever sang "My Death".

I wish I was at home right now so I could download it all right away.

Bookmarked it yesterday, I might do some downloading over the weekend but only after I clear everything up on my computer some.

1. Free Again
2. I Get Along Without You Very Well
3. I Think I'm Getting Over You

http://mapage.noos.fr/ckt02/rare.zip

Marcello - thanks, looking forward to that.

RJG, I don't know if you're kidding or not, but if you haven't heard the original version of "Maria Bethania" by Caetano Veloso, you should really really download it. I love it to death. Walker's version is good, but disappointingly faithful to the original.

Libby

there's something off about the idea of a scott box set. how does one excerpt "tilt" anyhow?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scottwalker/message/162

If it's real, it sounds more interesting than the box set!

Amateurist, I'd still be delighted to burn discs for you and propel them across the ocean. Just send me your address.

Anyway, it seems the MP3 downloads are down, "temporarily" but they have been replaced by a video clip from Scott's TV show which is well worth watching. HAHA look at his hair.

The albums are back for download.
I made a single ZIP file for each album.
Each ZIP file is protected by a password.
All I ask of you is to send me an e-mail in order to get the Password for the Zip file, and not telling it. I promise fast replies !
It's the only way I found to keep an eye on the downloads without losing control...
I am glad you can all get the tracks.
Regards
Cedric

http://www.ckthual.net/scott

PS/ Regarding the video : I wish I had the same hair every morning... ;o)

try again

Review by Dave Thompson
The 1990s' rediscovery of Scott Walker, hitherto the Pop Star That Time Forgot, was one of the most gratifying events of the mid 1990s. No man blessed with a voice like that, taste like that, talent like that, should ever have been consigned to the creaky oblivion of oldies radio. But one needs to tread carefully when plunging into the cult. Even at his best, and particularly at his most recent, Walker can be an excruciatingly difficult taste to acquire. Move into the early 1970s mid-point of his output, and oftentimes, it's simply excruciating.

Never regarded among Scott Walker's finest efforts, and a resounding flop when it first appeared in 1971, Til The Band Comes In is, retrospectively, the most shocking of all the singer's early albums. His first four, after all, are dramatic slabs of MOR-noir, crucial experiences for anybody anxious to discover Brel, Bergman and a taste for truly surreal pop tones; by their standards alone, surely album #5 should have traveled even further astray?

It doesn't. Two tracks culled for the It's Raining Today compilation, "Thanks For Chicago Mr James" and "Joe," are this album's sole concessions to such matters as reputation. A year earlier, the BBC gave Walker his own TV series, with the assurance that he would concentrate his tonsils on ballads and standards. He fulfilled the brief admirably, and released a soundtrack album to prove it. Unfortunately, Til The Band Comes In suggests he never got the sacharine out of his system. He even brings TV guest Esther O'Farim back into the action, but morbid curiosity and an incomprehensible fondness for "Cinderella Rockefeller" are surely the only reasons anyone could want to check out her solo contribution to the set.

There is a reasonable rendering of Roy Orbison's "It's Over," aptly closing the album on a merciful note, but while Walker's first four albums remain essential listening, and the TV LP at least has its moments, 'Til The Band Comes In is best left waiting at the stage door. Some "lost classics" were lost with good reason.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 22 July 2004 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link

does anyone have track listings for these???

Someone on Ebay is offering a promo called "Scott on Screen" which appears to compile all of the TV Series album and The Moviegoer minus the last track. The seller says it's done from the master tapes and was ready to go before Walker stepped in, but it seems odd that Fontana would issue the albums in this not-quite-twofer way.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Scott-Walker-Scott-On-Screen-CD-1999_W0QQitemZ290140393933QQihZ019QQcategoryZ1049QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem

Track listing
1. Will You Still Be Mine
2. I Have Dreamed
3. When The World Was Young
4. Who Will Take My Place
5. If She Walked Into My Life (from Mame)
6. To Dream The Impossible Dream
7. Song Is You
8. Look Of Love
9. Country Girl
10. Someone To Light Up My Fire
11. Only The Young
12. Lost In The Stars
13. This Way Mary (theme from Mary Queen Of Scots)
14. Speak Softly Love (theme from The Godfather)
15. Glory Road (theme from WUSA)
16. That Night (theme from The Fox)
17. Summer Knows (theme from Summer of '42)
18. Ballad Of Sacco And Vanzetti (theme from Sacco And Vanzetti)
19. Face In The Crowd (theme from Le Mans)
20. Joe Hill (theme from The Ballad Of Joe Hill)
21. Loss Of Love (theme from Sunflower)
22. All His Children (theme from Never Give An Inch)
23. Come Saturday Morning (theme from Pookie)

Anyone know anything about this?

What in heaven's name is he going on about in "We Came Through"? That song's been a favourite of mine for years and years and I still have no idea whatsoever.

Yeah, I know Scott's not the most straightforward songwriter anyway, but most of the other songs from that era are reasonably easy to parse, though flowery and filled with metaphors. With "We Came Through" I'm just completley lost.

new "lady, if you have to ask..." answers

If Scott Walker was so cutting edge, wouldn't he be ranting about slightly better music than Pulp?

I like parts of Climate of Hunter, and the Scott albums are pretty good but all this great modern brutalist crap that's been piled on his Tilt/Drift albums seems a bit much. That said I've never heard Drift but Tilt put me off insufficiently.

His "ranting" can be summed up in producing one of their albums six years ago, and inviting them to a festival seven years ago; not much there to get worked up over now, especially since the band is, you know, split up. All I've heard him say about producing tho is that it's a good way to earn some cash, and he's pretty upfront about hating pretty much all current music and cinema, predictably enough. Anyway I don't think being a taste maker for current music is something he'd be particuarly interested in, or suited for.

It'd have been pretty easy for him to go the Nancy Sinatra/Solomon Burke/whoever route and make a comeback record with songs by Cocker, Nick Cave, Neil Hannon and who-have-you, too. I'm happy he didn't go that route, tho yeah, I'm not much interested in The Drift, either.

Anyone heard "And Who Shall Go To The Ball And What Shall Go To The Ball" yet? Or seen the dance piece it was written for?

Yeah, I got "and who shall go to the ball," and I can't really get into it. This is also from a person that loves The Drift and Tilt. I think it may be the absence of his voice, but it just isn't as riveting or anything. As weird as it is to say this about such an out there recording, it seems really predictable coming from him at this point.

I'd love to see the show, though. Shame if he doesn't realise how compelling his voice is.

He should work with Harrison Birtwhistle.

I've always thought it quite clear that "We Came Through" concerns the forces of good prevailing against evil in WWII.

Who's the Luther King in this scenario? EMI

If you listen to Scott IV under the proper conditions while the sun is coming up, then it will change your life radically for the better. Just sayin'!

i haven't listened to this record in many months, but it's nirvana right now. ah.

It's just weird when you re-discover a much-hyped record, and then you realize that, yes, this person did have some genius raging inside them that they were able to communicate...

Oh right, like this one.

If you're wondering: "is this a joke?" It is not a joke

haha, yeah that hurt my mind for a brief couple of seconds there. wow!! this is gonna be better than the "having fun on stage with paul stanley" record. i can just feel it in my bones.

nice to hear scott, even if briefly, on the new bat for lashes album's closing song, "the big sleep." i wonder how she talked the old recluse into it

Really? Weird...

Saw the Scott Walker documentary last month. It's worth checking out if it screens in your town or if it comes out on DVD. Whatever one's thoughts are on his later material, it's pretty fascinating to watch the guy's trajectory from 60s to today.

This looks very interesting!

The SW30 Tribute Album

Lakeshore records. Release date: April 27

“Duchess” Peter Broderick
“Big Louise” Sally Norvell
“World’s Strongest Man” Damon & Naomi
“Manhattan” Saint Etienne
“The Electrician” Laurie Anderson
“The Seventh Seal” Nicole Atkins
“Montague Terrace (in Blue)” Dot Allison
“The Bridge” Bee & Flower
“Rhymes of Goodbye” Stephanie Dosen
“It’s Raining Today” Ulrich Schnauss
“A Lover Loves” Jarboe
“Such a Small Love” Little Annie & Paul Walfisch

Not a soundtrack, but an extension of the work I’ve done with the film, continuing to follow and celebrate the influence of our man Scott. While a few men made the cut, the original idea was to get female voices to attack the songs - just a new way in…the resulting album is an almost eerily calm, nocturnal affair - in stark opposition to the industrial dramatics of The Drift. I could have kept going, vol. 2, vol. 3….well, if we sell enough of these, maybe we’ll get a crack at another.

Does anyone have the unreleased Scott Walker tracks "Free Again"/"I Get Along Without You"/"I Think I'm Getting Over You"?

“The Electrician” Laurie Anderson

Made for her to do?

there's a piss-poor version of 'It's Raining Today' on the new Damian Lazarus album

This tribute album sounds good, but what I'd like to hear more is all these artists singing their own songs in a fake Scott Walker voice. (i.e. Bowie in 1995.)

(My fave Bowie singing voice, by the by.)

such a small love is a beautiful song.

The only Scott Walker album I know is "The Drift", which is a wonder.

Envy me! How I have all that to discover and look forward to.

At some point. No hurry.

WHen they're cheep in fopp....

Pick up Tilt whenever you see it around, it's fantastic and v. similar vibe to The Drift... great album.

I would, but I haven't seen it about for years.

Really have to re-install Spotify, don't I?

Get the old stuff too!

scott 3 is just sublime. you put it on and it takes you over, not forcefully, but like really good weather on a day when you're outside and it seems like you haven't seen weather like that in a really long time.

scott 4 is like that also, but you're hang gliding as well.

they're both really good fall albums. mark you should get them sooner than later!

I doubt they're anything like The Fall.

"Lights of Cincinatierah!"

(soz: Thanks, appreciated)

a boy child rides upon your back-uh

'the old man is back again' has an MES-like bite to it

What's Scott Walker up to now? Apparently, he's writing scores for dance pieces inspired by Jean Cocteau:

http://pitchfork.com/news/42772-scott-walker-writes-score-for-dance-piece/

It'd be more surprising if he didn't do that, I figure!

It's the second dance he's scored. The first one, "And Who Shall Go To The Ball And What Shall Go To The Ball", came out on 4AD not long after "The Drift".

I got the box set earlier this year and it's really mind-bending in a literal way to delve so deeply into Scott's world. I could hear connections to so many things both backwards and forwards, it's like he sat at a musical crossroads for all generations.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again (anticipating the full wrath of the greater ILM community, of course):

please: more crooning, less looning

wonder if this is your first sb.

NEW ALBUM!?!?

http://pitchfork.com/news/46919-scott-walker-at-work-on-new-album/

woohoo

oh yeah

Makes sense -- new decade, new album.

Wait we're not due another Scott Walker album for 4-5 years!

Well maybe he's just finished one song, ten to go.

I can't believe The Drift came out SIX YEARS AGO

Also lol at "I wonder if this is your first sb."

There were some photos from the sessions a few months ago. Totally beyond excited. I don't think it will be all that long from here. Scott seems to take years and years in the gestation of what he wants to do, but not an unusually long time once he starts to execute it.

"Last night at a 4AD event in New York City, the label played one new song, which does not appear to have a title yet. The epically unpredictable suite featured an album's worth of ideas as it went from pummeling drum rhythms to near-a cappella crooning. Its overall effect was unsettling, daunting, thrilling."

omg omg can't wait

Taking advantage of WI recall fallout?

That said, the senator makes me so mad I'll probably end up reflexively passing on this.

Yeah, it would be an opportune time to switch back to Noel Scott Engel!

cf. Joe Budden's return immediately following Joe Biden becoming Obama's running VP.

xpost well it didn't work for the Scott 4 album

You know I never thought about what a ~numinous~ name Noel Engel is...

"Last night at a 4AD event in New York City, the label played one new song, which does not appear to have a title yet. The epically unpredictable suite featured an album's worth of ideas as it went from pummeling drum rhythms to near-a cappella crooning. Its overall effect was unsettling, daunting, thrilling."

oh my god I'm itching to hear this

Yeah right? He's the only one of my big heroes who is still likely to blow me away with new stuff. In all honesty I probably still think about the 'sound world' of Tilt every single day at some point, even though I almost never play it. It's like the dining room table in my memory house.

Wait we're not due another Scott Walker album for 4-5 years!

F U BRO

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A3KS4GNCEAMEgd2.jpg

via

That link is a 404 for me – has he deleted the tweet?

oh huh, seemingly so. it was a list of records released as review copies to a magazine, organised by artist & including Scott Walker. some speculation on the twitter account i linked about what it might be now

no I mean the tweet is a 404, the image is still visible

new Royal Trux record?

New Dinosaur jr, new Schneider TM, new Pelt and new Pet Shop Boys too - is this a leak from 1995?

I see A.R. Kane also, on that list.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bish-Bosch-Scott-Walker/dp/B009CXLS4S/

http://instagram.com/p/Pt6YjsDsWt/

Hugh Burns' 68 custom which has graced Scott Walker's Tilt, Drift & Bish Bosch albums.

3rd December then!

(Cue NSouthall to say 'never gonna happen')

Wh...wha... *faints*

Well then!

Tilt, Drift & Bish Bosch

Bish Bosch!!

loadsamoney!!

haha

https://twitter.com/natashalawes/status/247624773239181312

And according to this there will be a music video soon!!

Bish Bosch is one hell of a title, almost too perfect a summation of late era Walker. I had the same feeling when Nick Cave announced his new album would be called Nocturama.

!!!

We have a Bish Bash falls here in Western MA, please do show there thanks bye

http://hudsonknowsbest.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/scotty-engel.jpeg?w=497

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAUMipyQPKA

Just reading about the song 'Only Myself to Blame' that Scott did for 'The World is Not Enough' Bond film. Poor decison by the director...

Arnold broke tradition by not ending the film with a new song or a reprise of the opening theme. Originally, Arnold intended to use the song "Only Myself to Blame", written by David Arnold & Don Black and sung by Scott Walker and inspired by the failed romance between Bond and Elektra King, who turns out to be a a villain. However, director Michael Apted "felt it it was too much of a downer for the end of the movie" and Arnold replaced it with a techno remix of the "James Bond Theme". "Only Myself to Blame", is the nineteenth and final track on the album

Where's that from? That new book about Bond music?

wikipedia

http://www.allisonschulnik.com/FILM/MOUND/MOUND_SCREENER/MOUND_SCREENER.mov

Does anybody know if the cd version of the 1st 5lps box set was a limited edition. I can't see it being sold reasonably cheaply anywhere suddenly. I had been putting off buying t thinking it was going to be around for a while.

Yeah, it's not even on ebay.

Or on Discogs, even. Weird.

i almost bought that but couldn't justify it just for the pola x stuff (but should've, that pola x stuff is good)

they're not talking about the 5 easy pieces box, they're talking about the recent reissue/remaster of the first five solo albums. But yeah, you should've shelled out for pola x and also for the 2 ute lemper songs, which are incredible. as good as anything on the later albums imo

Rough Trade seems to have copies still.

ohhhh bad reading skills, sorry.

Grabbed one.

It'll come out half-price with a DVD now...

but:

Dear Customer, Unfortunately, we have had to cancel your order for Scott Walker Scott Walker - The Collection 1967 - 1970 CDx5 because it is now out of print and we can no longer obtain it from our suppliers.

Kind Regards,
Rough Trade Shops Customer Service

Found a (more local) place that has it.

But! It's Getting Very Difficult!

find it weird that a package was given so much build up and exposure pre-release and some big adverts is already out of print within a matter of months.

There's a copy on Amazon for 80 quid if you're desperate.

I got it from Camberley's Rock Box for £23

I'll give you £21, £21, £21

So I'm not the only one who didn't ear that the cd box set was a limited edition. Assuming that it must be since its disappeared from everywhere including the Universal UK website, though the vinyl one is still up there.

hear even

(xxp) NickB Came Through

Like a gothic monster perched on Notre Dame

Well I didn't like to say but...

i bought mine when it came out for £17.28 na na na had no idea it was limited at all or would have bought TWO

yeah, i got mine on pre-release as well ..

but the fact remains, it is a little weird for a major label pressing to have been deleted so quickly.

could it have been that the cost of the sturdy box was too much for a bigger run ?

(kinda like the very heavy duty Roxy Music boxset .. )

Well, the only other place I found had it for $69 plus postage, from a US based place, so hey.

It was one I was going to get, one of these days, but never got round to it.

Still, one of those boxes that had a CD price of "quite reasonable", and an LP box of "How Much!?"

.. and here it is!

Mind you, I wondered into HMV on that Tuesday (of the previous message), and there it was in the rack, £22 or thereabouts.

Was wondering if it might be available through HMV but they don't have mailorder set up on their site yet, or didn't appear to when i was panically looking last week on finding it had gone.
Had already posted a forlorn message about it being gone and how was a man supposed to live and face such times and live without somebody crooning existential angst in a winning baritone? On Facebook so hope somebody in my family doesn't read that and think I better get him that for Xmas then.
Cos in the middle of typing this message the doorbell went and I now have a copy sitting in my lap waiting to be ripped to my hard drive for ease in listening though my computer which is the music source for my living room.
also got a copy of the Pharaoh Sanders anthology 'You've got To Have Freedom' after mislaying my earlier copy some years ago. Bet that turns up as I spring-clean now.

I am in the market for used copies of the previous round of remasters (the mid 2000s ones) if anyone just bought the box and wants to unload them for used prices, BTW. My Scott CDs are all the early 90s editions.

Hints on the SW facebook page about some kind of live event soon to be announced in nyc. I'm hoping it's something like the tilting and drifting thing that was put on in the UK. Fuck, if it's even a ballet performance of And Who... I'll be there in a hot minute.

whoah! i'd go if it's just him shadow boxing with hanging meat slabs

http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/songs-from-montague-terrace-a-tribute-to-scott-walker-december-1st-2013/"> http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/songs-from-montague-terrace-a-tribute-to-scott-walker-december-1st-2013/

Tribute concert w/live strings, no Scott involvement so it won't be as good as tilting & drifting (which was great); it'll be streamed for those who can't make it.

I don't know enough of those artists. Do I really want to hear Adam Green sing Scott Walker????

T&d was great cause it had trained singers doing semi-operatic settings of the songs but you also had to put up with losers like albarn trying to sing farmer in the city

Dang that's rather disappointing. Obv I knew there'd be no actual SW performance but something like tilting & drifting was my hope. Oh well.

yessssssssss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXhD1dDSVj4

Finally got round to playing the box set! Told you I was saving it!

The girls love "Jackie" btw..

'How far have you got?'

Well, I liked 2 better than 1, and I'm halfway through 3 and liking it more than 2..

3 is the generally considered the best. I think there are songs on 2 and 4 as good as any on 3, maybe better, but 3 is the most consistently good and interesting

nah, 4 is next-level

I always wondered why 4 didn't make the chart at all after 3 top ten albums and the fourth ".. Songs from the TV show" only just missing the top ten..

Now, I can sort of understand: three albums in one year? Something's gonna give!

the orchestrations and brel (and original songs) on 3 are all-time but he really comes into his own as a songwriter on 4 which sets it apart imo. xp

Just checked, I'm wrong: Four top ten albums, then totally off!

4 has "the seventh seal," right? that's a point not in its favor IMO.

I mean, I love the music, but the lyrics make want to hide in a corner.

I think he comes into his own as a songwriter w/ 3. actually, I think this is kind of unquestionable.

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "It's Raining Today" 4:02
2. "Copenhagen" 2:22
3. "Rosemary" 3:22
4. "Big Louise" 3:10
5. "We Came Through" 1:59
6. "Butterfly" 1:42
7. "Two Ragged Soldiers" 3:07
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Length
8. "30 Century Man" 1:29
9. "Winter Night" 1:45
10. "Two Weeks Since You've Gone" 2:48
11. "Sons Of" Gérard Jouannest, Jacques Brel, Mort Shuman 3:45
12. "Funeral Tango" Jouannest, Brel, Shuman 2:56
13. "If You Go Away" Brel, Rod McKuen 4:57

i mean he almost--ALMOST--emerged fully formed on the first LP. see "such a small love," above, plus "always coming back to you."

this all makes more sense if you've heard the walker brothers LPs, which are all hit-and-miss but each features a few scott-penned songs that are pretty ambitious and great, at the least "promising."

4 was originally released under the engel name no?

yeah

i think it was only on the spine maybe? it was definitely packaged as some kind of mysterious Statement from the Artiste. he was nothing if not pretentious.

you're an ass

????

i meant it in a good way. scott walker is god.

maybe i should include more emoticons for the benefit of slow joes in the back row.

will try again:

i think it was only on the spine maybe? it was definitely packaged as some kind of mysterious Statement from the Artiste. he was nothing if not pretentious. ;) :) LOL LOVE HIM

God the track list on 3 makes me dizzy.

i, too, love them all and will probably love what i haven't heard yet. 4 is my favorite and i think it compares very favorably to 3. fin

yeah nobody is arguing that 4 isn't awesome. they are ALL awesome (meaning LPs 1-4). hell, I even like the last few tracks on Til the Band Comes In and listen to Stretch for pleasure.

sorry, i take it back

4 has "the seventh seal," right? that's a point not in its favor IMO.

― espring (amateurist), Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:32 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sod the lyrics, it's an amazing starting track to an amazing record. i still have trouble separating and also listening sequentially to the first three albums - they all seem very much part of the same work with strong songs and not so strong songs, but 4 is a different very separate work in my eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XprkIbphGf8

I usually find the Seventh Seal a bit too embarrassing to listen to. Just those opening lyrics are soooo on the nose. And the songs are great...but the arrangement is more conventional that 3, it's almost more genre in a way. I love it but I think it sounds more dated than 3. It trades the romance of much of the first 3 for something a bit more r&b/rock or something.

My Scott Walker playlist opens with Prologue/Little Things That Keep Us Together before going into selections from 1-4 chronologically.

i just listened to 3 all the way through. it's really great but i don't agree that 4 has aged. i find the first three a little bit over-flamboyant in places. guess you could say the same about some parts of 4 though, granted.

Boy Child is the song on 4 that sounds like it would fit on 3.

It was originally released in late 1969 under his birth name, Noel Scott Engel (the name Walker did not appear on the original album sleeve)

Selzer otm

Scott 4 reminds me of Bryter Layter for some reason. Is that strange?

No not at all. Stott's way with the orchestra more overtly eerie tho.

boy child has some amazing grace notes in the string arrangement, hoo boy

makes me think of outer space

He's super-pretentious! Bt that's part of why I love him, I don't think he (or anyone, prob) is capable of fully achieving what he aims at, bt his attempts're wonderful. The Drift is one of the most powerful art experiences I've ever had

yeah, you have to laugh (and so does SW, I think) when these euro-art dudes are slamming sides of beef to get just the right sound of human degradation or whatever. it's almost a parody of self-serious modern composition. but the results are completely awesome.

Just heard "30 Century Man" blimey, no wonder Julian Cope likes him, it sounds more like him than he does!

I know you were using "pretentious" in a complimentary sense but I mean that's his actual name, how is it pretentious to put a record out under your actual name

xps obv

The quote "a man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened" (credited to the French-Algerian writer Albert Camus) appears on the back of the sleeve of the album.

it's not pretentious to use your name; IIRC there was no name whatever on the original front and possibly back cover. sort of like that palace album. but i might be wrong.

i wasn't using pretentious in a complimentary sense, really. i just think his greatness is kind of inextricable from his pretentiousness.

It's pretentious in the sense that he's shedding his stage name. No more time for childish things. Like when Johnny Cougar became John Cougar then John Cougar Mellencamp then just John Mellencamp. Same exact thing.

wait until he writes a novel and uses the name J.C. Mellencamp

tbf I think the cougar/mellencamp thing was mostly him trying to gradually get away from a stupid stage name that his manager had foisted on him as a young man

whereas "scott walker" sounds great. or did, until a certain someone was elected governor here.

nah, 4 is next-level

― mattresslessness, Tuesday, 25 March 2014 22:06 (3 days ago) Bookmark

Yep, just listened to 4 for the first time, this ^^

Different level rather than next level... I'm a 3 man meself of course.

The last 3 tracks on 4:

Bob Dylan
Kris Kristofferson
Cliff Richard.

(but, like, really good ones)

i like the songs on "scott 4" where he ends the song by scat-singing. which is, like, half of them. also hard to find a more vicious anti-war song than "hero of the war". most brutal use of "bo diddley" ever.

ha, i never made the bo diddley hand jive connection.

the most brutal line is probably "the emptiness of heroes like your son..."

This was a strange thing to have done, what, couple of years after "Climate of Hunter", did he think his career was over?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2EoduCLKYY

Noh, I got the feeling it was a favour to a friend.

A bit like his song on "Die another day" soundtrack, which was a bit like an old Scott style song/arrangement sung in his more 'recent' vocal style.

Right, I could never work out why he did it. (btw I almost mentioned you in the post because I thought you'd be the only other person who'd remember the ad when it was on).

£££

ha, just about yes.

Yes, but he would surely have had better offers than appearing in a soft drink advert as a hasbeen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuWjITjG2l4

Scott influence, you reckon?

£££

Pretty sure one of the bios, either the documentary or A Deeper Shade of Blue, suggested that Scott has had benefactors over the years that have helped insulate him from the vagaries of the open market.

That said, this discussion makes me think that the really interesting move artistically for Scott right now would be if instead of beating meat with a tennis racket or whatever he took all these tricks he's learned in the last 20 years and put them into a straightforward pop album.

Suspect it would never happen but he's flirted enough over the last decade or so with the mainstream (not only the Bond song but Pulp) that you never know...

I liked the backing vocals he did for that bat for lashes song

xp yeah i'd like him to do something a bit different now. Bish Bosch took the aesthetic about as far as it could go, but Soused was when it started getting parodic.

soused is great

Listening to Soused now. Seems like the Sunn O))) fit is good. The droning power chords in the bgd works for him.

Part of me thinks that Scott was making a point in 1995: that the old chains of the industry and star machine simply weren't conducive to his artistic vision anymore. That for him to grow and explore new areas he needed to explicitly reject his past as an idol.

In a lot of ways, his turn reminds me of John Fahey's, who, like Scott, repudiated the work that made him famous and forged a late-career path that infuriated most of his fans. Fahey seemed to enjoy their anger even. But neither of them totally gave up on their earlier work – Scott as noted upthread but also Fahey, who before he died seemed particularly open to playing acoustic material again, albeit acoustic material informed by the drones and reverberations of his electric work.

In some ways, Scott seems even better positioned to make a new turn toward something that less explicitly rejects his previous oeuvre and maybe even continues to embrace some of his political leanings that have been popping up since Tilt or so, while also recognizing that musically there may not be too much further into the abyss he can go.

But even beyond that, I feel like the world has changed since 1995 – in particular, that star system Scott so resented 20 years ago has pretty much collapsed and this global landscape he tried to hasten of artistic liberty, open collaboration and avant experimentation has been embraced on so many levels. In essence, Scott won – and it's time he acknowledged the victory and maybe changed with it.

Amazing thread revival. Never thought I'd hear Tom Jones doing Spacemen 3.

http://justasong2.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/gillian-welch-elvis-presley-blues.html

.. But I admit you got me.

I think there are many many worthwhile directions he can go still in scott 2.0 mode while still maintaining his 'a man alone, singing', 'no grooving pls', jolt them awake, instrument-selection-as-word-painting core.

I'm not sure Scott has repudiated his old stuff, so much as that he just can't go back there - and I'm not sure that a more conciliatory record would get him many more sales than he has now - plus, this stuff isn't so totally removed from the song form, vocal performance and abstract lyrical content of the 'classic' records, and the operatic quality to his singing is a ,from soup to piece of meat slapped against a tennis racket

also Jon otm

singing is a constant, from

Maybe scott doesnt want to go 'back'

I think if anyone's allowed to settle comfortably(??) into a style it's a dude in his 70s who's already done a complete stylistic shift.

yup

I was just looking up Childhood of a Leader to see if its soundtrack had a release some time soon — the film has played the Venice Film Festival, but I couldn't find any announcement of an album.

http://pitchfork.com/news/66507-scott-walker-to-release-robert-pattinson-film-score-listen/?mbid=social_twitter

Haven't listened to the clip yet, but I'm excited

(Good points about later Fahey, Naive Teen Idol; I've been listening to those albums and shows, calling the results "Faheytronica" on one of the JF threads, but really there are several handsome acoustic outings making their way through the avant garage parade) Main prob so far w Walker, listening to albums of relatively recent decades, is the voice, or vocal approach, this tendency to quaver and ooze, what even a pre-WWW dealer, hyping his wares, couldn't help but call "weird syrupy moments. Though I do mean "approach," not nec the voice itself, which I enjoyed in the Righteous I mean Walker Bros' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore."
But I would like to hear his soundtrack---still hope Tom Waits will do one too, minus his voice. Other voices would prob be okay, and the same can be true at least of older Walker: the late great Amy Farriss's version of "Big Louise" certainly fit the urban country noir canyon of her only (?) album; ditto Neko Case's cover of "Duchess," and I think he influenced her own writing, though not her singing, thank goodness.
Think he influenced The National in several ways, but no prob w the big ol warm plaid vox---as a fan wrote, "also they are good to study to LOL", and interesting jokey balancing act between melancholy portraits-of-a-lady as written and can-play-anythingintensity, in shows I've seen (Spain on YouTune, Austin on ACL) ( w knock 'em dead spin through "Pretty In Pink," and maybe Walker influenced Psy Furs too?)
I need to listen to more of his stuff, though.

The syrupy moments in late Scott are so essential and amazing IMO, the songs would be bereft without them

Had never heard more than the two tracks from The Moviegoer that were on the Easy Pieces box set. Found a vinyl rip of it and am finishing listening to the whole LP now. This is great stuff! It certainly seems like Scott's heart was still in it. A lot of those delectable shivery Scott mk I string arrangements -- actually on "face in the crowd" the intro and outro are as unsettling as anything on Scott 3 (maybe they're adapted from the score of that film? Idk. The effect is echt Scott).

That takes care of the existentialists, for the leftists you get morricone's evergreen Sacco and Vanzetti lament and a groovy country rock Scott 4 style rendition of I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill.

This is absolutely worth having.

yeah i think the common narrative that scott didn't give two shits about his 1970s albums of covers is not accurate. perhaps it was easy for scott to go along with this story once he had made one of his several comebacks, as a kind of way of bolstering his credibility with the folks now interested in his work. but although they aren't all equally good -- and there are a few embarrassing moments on most of those LPs -- they aren't embarrassing IMO. the walker bros album "lines" is pretty mediocre though.

Guy's a pro. Guy's gonna sing well, because that's what he's done for twenty years by then.

Finally got around to watching 30 Century Man in full (I've had a promo copy of that DVD for years) last night, raising a glass to SW on his birthday. Terrific, of course (Ute Lemper being stunned by her own recording might be my favourite moment). Would love to know more of the Virgin years; signed in '79 but didn't record anything under '83? I guess that was when they were trying to get Scott to work with Eno, Lanois, Sylvian, etc? Or was that post-Climate?

I saw Thimble Rigging (featuring Liz Fraser) mentioned in the credits? An early version of Buzzers that was played off tape for a dance performance at Meltdown in 2005, right? Available anywhere?

(Oh, and The Moviegoer highlight for me is John Barry's This Way Mary)

Yes, 74 years old yesterday.

An early version of Buzzers that was played off tape for a dance performance at Meltdown in 2005, right? Available anywhere?

Yes, done by the Richard Alston Dance Company at Meltdown. I've never found an audio version of it though, would love to hear it myself.

Maybe there's something in the DVD extras; no info on my copy of the disc (and it was 1am when I finished watching the main doc last night), but there should be 40+ min of extra stuff, interviews and studio footage.

What do you know, it seems to be on the ltd HMV version of the DVD!

Music used: Tracks & parts of tracks from before: "Love Her", through most stages of his career, including selections from most of "Drift" (2006). There is also a track: "Thimble Rigging" by Scott Walker with Elizabeth Frazer on vocals.

That's not on my normal dvd, I'm positive. Three for sale, Michael!

I was just thinking 74? He's not that old, surely. And then I remember reading an interview with him at 69 and that was when Bish Bosch was about to come out. Time flies.

He's Too Young

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjjN5VB6R3c

Hmm, that Discogs listing seems to just group the Thimble Rigging track in the soundtrack section, not necessarily the extras. And it is listed in the closing credits of the documentary, but I don't recall hearing Liz F.

Will watch the extras tonight.

Scott looked extraordinarily youthful in the 30CM interviews - he was 63 at the time?

maybe one of those things where you don't age a whole lot if you don't get any sunlight

Would love to know more of the Virgin years; signed in '79 but didn't record anything under '83? I guess that was when they were trying to get Scott to work with Eno, Lanois, Sylvian, etc? Or was that post-Climate?

I think it was post-Climate but not sure. I always wanted to know what it was that supposedly turned him off (of Lanois, I believe).

(Oh, and The Moviegoer highlight for me is John Barry's This Way Mary)

+1 This was the song my wife walked down the aisle to at our wedding (Mary is her given name but she doesn't go by it). It was the most perfect thing ever.

Is that a Scott Walker sample at 16:39? "World's Strongest Man"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8teoKdTPLg

Okay... what? https://open.spotify.com/album/31s1VUlb7OZHKbiqWDcNbb

not the same guy i take it, although spotty seems to say so

Yeah, that cover art does seem off-brand

Apple store doesn't lump this Scott Walker together with the one and only

I would love to hear a Scott Walker dark-techno album

Might be more listenable than his last few records

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08z2x62

This one.

The Proms: Scott Walker. It's on 6Radio tonight, and on BBC4 on Friday. Link above to the TV prog.

Link doesn't work, but holy shit.

Is that from a few years ago or a new proms?

link seems fine here.

prom is TONIGHT, hawley's just been talking about it with maconie.

there've been a couple of walker-centric programmes recently btw

Late Junction Jarvis Cocker Scott Walker mixtape
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08xcxms

Freak Zone Scott Walker Special
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08yx7wt

oh, there's a page with them all on, some recent, some archive, some clips...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0590947

Going to this tonight, extremely excited, although I can already tell that Jarvis is going to be the weak link here. I'm guessing they'll give him some of the more knockabout material though.

if someone can audio capture this i'd be etc etc

i'm in a classical news group that has been capturing all the classical ones but IDK if they'll upload this one

I'm assuming this will be on the telly at some point? I hope.

It's on Radio 3 tonight, I know that.

... 'This programme will be available shortly after broadcast', says the Beeb website.

the max richter show was rather lovely on sunday morning.
he has a lovely radio voice, and his selections were perfect for the hour of the day and my physical state.

like I say, it will be on BBC4 on Friday

Oh right, didn't notice that.

Am I the only one who prefers earlier Scott?
Some of my favourite tunes are on his later records
Like sleepwalkers woman, farmer in the city and Clara but I can't imagine feeling like putting drift on anytime soon. Whereas I'd put on Scott 3 or 4 in a heartbeat

Scott 3, Climate and Tilt are honestly dead even for me, each deeply satisfying to hear all the way through but the parts of me they satisfy are v different

Going to this tonight, extremely excited, although I can already tell that Jarvis is going to be the weak link here. I'm guessing they'll give him some of the more knockabout material though.

... aaaaand he's opened up with "Boy Child", which is about as far from knockabout as you can get. He seems to be doing it as Jake Thackray though and not Scott Walker.

Sound quality rather better on R3 than on R6M for this, FWIW.

Would like to hear Susanne Sundfør have a bash at Scope J. Any time, perhaps.

Another time, perhaps, I meant.

Everyone is doing fine, but only Susanne should go near Such A Small Love.

A friend has posted the programme on FB. No one is doing SASL. Wise.

Yes, if anyone hadn't realized before, these songs are hard to sing.

Going to listen the shit out of this when it surfaces afterwards.

Matt DC I am soo jealous, would love to hear how it was being there!

(didn't i read somewhere that radio 3 were doing lossless streaming (flac) for the proms? Website mentions binaural but not lossless)

29 days left to listen

Enjoying Hawley's very downbeat "Two Ragged Soldiers."

Seems very apt that Jarvis is doing the 'Til the Band Comes In material

Sundfør killin it on "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"

Will check this out later but scanning the track list can't help thinking it's a bit disrespectful to ignore nearly everything post Scott 4. No one's expecting 'SDSS1416+13B(Zercon, a flagpole sitter)', but some acknowledgement of where he is now would have been nice.

Simon Raymonde reflecting on the evening including Scott's presence

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/20265058_10155737913193714_3514232556438195846_n.jpg?oh=c4a470fa0eaa295a68565b479d3d0a7e&oe=59F49F91

This was fantastic. Jarvis was pretty obviously out of his depth but he had a choir to help him with the difficult bits, he's got a way of phrasing that worked with the more downbeat material though. Susanne Sundfor's higher register is astonishing and her voice has WAY more power than I would have expected - there's still something a bit off about her lower register though that I can't put my finger on. John Grant just has the right voice for this and his Seventh Seal was incredible, he can't quite get at the sadness of some of the songs though (his own stuff is extremely sad but there's often a distancing layer there). Whereas Richard Hawley isn't anywhere near as good a singer (and I've never engaged with his solo material) but he got a certain beaten down vibe really well.

Essentially these songs are pretty much never going to be performed like this again and the goodwill in the venue was obvious.

Sundfør killin it on "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"

This was the highlight of the night for me. Listening on the radio, that is.

Frankie Boyle!

I no.

I feel like if cocker were really a fan of these songs he would have un-blagged his way out of this programme but what can you do, he's just about tolerable I guess (speaking as someone who's attended his performance of a song from the drift and experienced the true nightmare of albarn attempting "farmer in the city")

I thought it was all a bit straight, too reverent. Trying to capture the feeling of these songs requires the opposite approach but then again faced with a voice like Scott's what're you going to do? The Old Man's Back Again was fucking awful: Hawley sounded like he was reading it off a piece of paper, and it was missing that "James Jameson in the Eastern Bloc" bassline. Too much separation between the backing musicians and the singers: it felt like they both happened to be in the same place at the same time but didn't really gel.

It felt like a eulogy for a guy who's more alive and creatively present than, say, Jarvis is.

I'd say even Jarvis would agree with that.

It may be heretical to say this, but Sundfors take on 'Angels and Ashes' was just better than the original - each lineverse had differences whereas the original doesn't so much.

Not by much, but.

Jarv was ok, John Grant was the best bloke voice, Richard Hawley managed to get close to a cigar to Scotts voice.

Some songs worked better than others.

And now Reginald..

The arrangement of "The Seventh Seal" might have been better than the original, it had a nice coda. The rest were probably a bit too reverent, John Grant was good but stuck so close to the recorded versions if Scott had sneezed in a song he'd have sneezed too.

but that was on 'The Drift'

just listened to the prom. made me want to listen to all the original versions again...

Oddly, while I could hear the shortcomings of the voices and the overly-reverent arrangements (but still mostly enjoyed it) listening live on R3 on Tuesday, when I watched it the TV version on iPlayer late on Friday night, I found it tremendously moving. It was perhaps only Grant's performances that didn't grab me, as he was the most nearly-Scott; everyone else had to do something different.

But, yeah, Saturday was spent packing boxes to the entirety of the Five Easy Pieces boxset.

gutted i missed this

it's on iplayer, radio and tv

Haven't got a TV license :-/ and the BBC radio app insists I log in now, which is a bridge too far for me

You can skip that login at the moment, look underneath ...

get_iplayer...

you need a tv license

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMnTBzbpGKI

Yeah, its all over YouTube.

ah that's okay then. thanks all

I can find individual links for video (like Susan's) but does a full video version exist on YT?

Yikes I can't get with Jarvis Cocker on these first few tunes (listening to the YT link). Like a wet rag on those beautiful arrangements.

He provided a number of genuine laugh-out-loud "oh dear" moments esp on "the war is over"

It's a shame Goldfrapp didn't turn up for this. Susanne was perfect, I think that's the best version of that song

Maybe this was talked about in some other thread but Scott has composed the score for Vox Lux, the new film by the guy who directed Childhood of a Leader, which stars Natalie Portman and the young girl from Killing of
A Sacred Deer and sounds possibly pretty awesome as a movie (songs are by Sia and are not SW collabs)

Score album comes out in two weeks!

Part of The Drift also turns up in the new Jean-Luc Godard.

He should do something with Gazelle Twin.

Saw this thread back at the top of ILX and had a mixture of excitement for new material/fear something had happened to Scott. Turned out it was just the Vox Lux news I already knew about, so I'll write this up as a mixed success.
& as long as we're tossing out potential collabs he should absolutely do the hook on an fka Twigs track. Like, I'd 100% take any other sort of collaborative work from them as well, but "Scott hook" strikes me as the platonic form of that hypothetical meetup. Plus as I think I've said before somewhere else "Glass & Patron" is just the Bish Bosch sound design quantized into a vogue beat

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Scott Walker. Scott was 76 years old and is survived by his daughter, Lee, his granddaughter, Emmi-Lee, and his partner Beverly: https://t.co/awaFXWOkja pic.twitter.com/nd6MYVmWaO

— 4AD (@4AD_Official) March 25, 2019

Damn!

Come on mods, do what's needed.

This being one thread where we see it's revival and say "Oh good, what's Scott been up to all these years?" as opposed to....

Oh no. RIP.

Farewell scotty, I love you old man

Jaw literally dropped when I heard the news on the radio just now. Too soon, too soon. RIP.

:-(

Very sad - felt like there was more great music to come from him.

Yeah there were about 3 or 4 new songs in that collected lyrics book iirc. I guess we’ll have to just imagine the music now

RIP. man this really sucks.

Here’s 2006’s ‘30 Century Man’ docu in full, i once saw this with only 2 other fellas in there, at the Cornerhouse in Manchester.

Grab this if you’ve never seen it, it’s amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUj-T3EecBI

RIP. Thanks for producing We Love Life.

RIP Scott. A hero.

No. No no no no...

miserable

Noooooo

Remember seeing the tribute show to his career at Barbican just over ten years ago, Scott humbly smiling at the mixing desk from under a baseball cap while Jarvis and Damon gamely butchered his songs

He had one of the most fascinating career trajectories of anybody, and of course basically the best voice ever. He also seemed like a really gentle, nice dude

The 30th Century Man doc was great for the image of Scott unnerving people by blasting the final master of Tilt at max volume, fully intending to never listen to it ever again after that because it was Finished

That incredible last verse of "the Seventh Seal" always made me feel really intense and overcome with emotion, can't wait to cause myself significant emotional harm by listening to it later

Absolutely brutal to lose two singular artists like him and Mark Ellis so close together.

Mark Hollis, bad time for my brain to fail

Tilt, The Drift and Bisch Bosh are some of the most significant works of art of the last 20-something years. I was hoping we would get some more, especially since it seemed like he was more active than usual in recent years with soundtrack work.

Seriously gutted... RIP

this really sucks ass

“the old man’s back again” was on friday’s episode of THE BLACKLIST and hearing his voice made me hope new stuff was on the way from him soon. a true original.

Scott is — hard to say was — just the greatest example of an artist enduring and making brilliant, challenging music late in life. He seemed to be picking up the pace, and while the recent scores weren't that special, I was looking still so forward to whatever he'd do next.... His passing changes my world, for the worse. He seemed to remain so youthful later in life, but in a way kind of like he was sustaining it on a tightrope... he talked in an interview not long ago about falling off his bicycle a lot, and I felt like I could relate at about half his age. I think I thought he'd just keep living. I am shocked and saddened.

Are you fucking kidding me

Why did my two biggest living heroes die within a month of each other

God damn it

Scott was at the height of his fucking powers

I'm guessing the BBC may dust off the Proms tribute from 18 months ago, onto BBC4 or 6Music or wherever.

when I crossed the river
with a heavy blanket roll
I took nobody with me
not a soul

^via Brando by Tennessee Williams

Scott you giant, brilliant oddity :(

RIP, this is really sad news, such an inspiring figure in music.

i put on scott 3 right away and it was a bad idea if i didn't want to be a mess!!!

Like of course it’s ‘more complicated than that’ but when people ask me my favorite records the instant answer is always laughing stock and tilt.

I know this is what life is, transitory, but can we have a brief break please?

Also god only knows what was still coming from NS Engel, scratch that, god doesn’t even know.

I interviewed him 21 years ago, on the occasion of the Drift being released in the US via Drag City. Given his reputation as not exactly voluble and as a recluse for much of his career, much less vis-a-vis his mordant artistic inclinations, I was delighted to experience a fairly cheerful, not at all obtuse or uncooperative guy, behavior which was quite evident to everyone who saw in the 30th Century Man doc. He told me that he only visited the U.S. once since the Walker Bros emigrated to the UK, when his mother died. Accordingly/appropriately, his was a peculiar, rootless mid atlantic dialect.

Sui generis, all the way.

RIP you wonderful genius. Definitely was expecting more to come, so this is a giant blow.

excuse me the drift came out 13 years ago don't give me a heart attack xp

Oh fuck…I meant Tilt…

lol i figured that out after a second

A wonderful artist, a wonderful life. Listening to Funeral Tango and smiling.

No news yet on cause of death?

rip scott, so sad to hear. it's funny, i've long been a fan of 1-4 and the '70s walker bros albums, but i've never dove into drift or tilt.

Oof well you should. The Drift in particular is such a crazy achievement, no other record like it

I came to Scott quite late, about 10 years ago after a good friend gently kept pushing him on me. One of those artists whose work just crept up on me and burrowed into my subconscious. And all phases of it are amazing, from "Mrs. Murphy" to "Nite Flights" to the latest stuff. An artist who truly forged his own path, though undoubtedly enabled by his early success. I hope in this easy-access-to-everything era that his presence will continue to be felt.

yes voodoo chili - this is urgent

and do not overlook the two long tracks scott wrote and arranged for Ute Lemper on her Punishing Kiss album - they are the way station between tilt and drift.

yeah it's sort of the definition of a "record you should hear before you die", like it or not it's one of the most nuts records ever

“Ride on, Hero”

I actually did listen (possibly for the first time, properly, thanks Spotify!) to "Tilt" about two weeks ago, it's really not as abrasive as you might have reason to expect - definitely a mid-point between Scott4 style orchestration and the heavy song styles of "The Drift".

yeah I don't really think his stuff is difficult to listen to, which makes it a lot more disturbing really

Those lemper tracks are essential

yeah, tilt and drift have been on my list for a while, i just need to dive in and not worry if i'm 'in the mood.'

Tilt starts off with one of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded so it’s definitely not like Walker is going out of his way to be offputting

speaking of the most gorgeous songs ever recorded--the fucking electrician is devastating on a normal day, but today...

do I hear…21…

I don't why anyone ever thought "Tilt" was abrasive or difficult.

I mean some parts are kinda? And the subject matter is often chilling. It’s kinda exactly what the titles tilt and drift suggest - the guy who made climate of Hunter and nite flights wandering further out

Yes, I can only assume a lot of the people who were surprised with it hadn't heard Nite Flights and Climate of Hunter.

Der Spiegel is reporting cancer, but does so at the end of an idiotic "golly gee, shame he went crazy after No Regrets and produced nothing anyone can listen to" article, so...

when tilt came out it was abrasive and difficult

the goal posts moved after that

it is absolutely a more harrowing sound world than nite flights or climate, come on now

Harrowing? I don't find it harrowing.

and do not overlook the two long tracks scott wrote and arranged for Ute Lemper on her Punishing Kiss album - they are the way station between tilt and drift.

― valet doberman (Jon not Jon)

I need to get on this!

you are in for a treat emil.y - they add up to the length of a decent size EP (tracks are "Scope J" and "Lullaby')

Where do the sewers go? They gotta go somewhere

i guess the farmer in the city could be harrowing?

Lol

Put on Scope J just now. This is so good. May very well be the best Scott Walker song.

Her lullaby is so much better than the version on soused as well

LOL (xxp) Ignore me, I don't find any music harrowing.

Apparently, when "Tilt" was coming out, Fontana records held a listening do and invited notable celeb Scott fans (e.g. Marc Almond) but when it came on, most of them fled!

Try Alfred Schnittke's 4th string quartet.

xp

On the freak zone at the weekend, before the news this morning, maconie went from mark hollis solo track into Cossacks Are

Oh god, I'm only a couple of minutes into 'Scope J'... how have I never listened to this before?

Same. Astonishing. Lullaby doesn't seem to be on Spotify

Don't forget in the midst of his latter period work he recorded a Bond song for 'The World is Not Enough'. Why they didn't get him in 67 at the peak of his commercial success is a mystery, would have killed doing the theme for 'You Only Live Twice'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCt4O4gJifQ

If you go away as I know you must
There'll be nothing left in this world to trust
Just an empty room full of empty space
Like the empty look I see on your face
And I'd have been the shadow of your shadow
If you might have kept me by your side

RIP
what a singular artist

I don't why anyone ever thought "Tilt" was abrasive or difficult.

:( rip

Speaking of Bond themes and '67, the Walker Brothers did record the theme song for "Deadlier Than The Male" kind of a 007 knock-off (Bulldog Drummond being the Bond-like hero):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6HSbanREbE

"It's kind of "jump scare," but the moment where the percussion comes in on "The Cockfighter" always sets me off even when I'm anticipating it. That atmosphere is so cold!"

One track on The Drift is very quiet, and then Donald Duck makes a guest appearance. It's the only time an album has made me jump. I can't remember which track because it's one of those albums I listen to in a single go. I'll look it up on the internet.

It's called The Escape, that's what it's called.

On a more serious note, The Guardian's obit repeats the old factoid about Climate of Hunter being the lowest-selling record on Virgin Records. Is that true? It sounds implausible. It got to number sixty and only spent two weeks on the chart, but even accounting for "the long tail" I can't imagine the likes of Chili Charles' 1973 folk-rock obscurity Busy Corner or Comus' second album - from Virgin's early prog period - selling more copies. It had a widespread international release. Also, I'm going to look at Discogs.com and see if people have started selling the LP version of The Drift for £700 yet.

that was brought up somewhere else here recently. the album got released in multiple countries and was reissued not long after the initial release so i doubt it was virgin's lowest-selling record.

Xposts

Lullaby was a bonus track only on the Japanese edition of the Lemper CD.

It and Scope J were also both included on the Five Easy Pieces box set

RIP

Five Easy Pieces does a surprisingly great job of summing up Scott before The Drift with its themed CDs, and it picks up a lot of stray tracks. I believe it makes the Pola X soundtrack redundant for Scott completists, too (ditto for the four Scott tracks from Nite Flights, though I listen to that album whole sometimes anyway).

It's the "This Is How You Disappear" disc of the FEP box I've decided to go for this evening.

I wish I still had that set ☹️

RIP, obv not much to add other than I love his music, especially the later records.

I laughed all over again this morning at those pictures of him with Sunn, there is nothing about his outfit or demeanor that would make you think he was anything other than some weird drone metal dude, he just looks like he's in Sunn

wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about this…but…I co-wrote the notes to the first release of any of his music in the U.S. since the 60s: I think Scott I was released stateside in 67 but none of the others were at the time. it's a compilation of his beloved 60s material. I didn't know anything about him until a few years beforehand…but I was gung ho, eager for discerning americans to appreciate this unique artist from Ohio who had taken off to Europe for an ascetic Ingmar Bergman existence, never to look back.

It made next to no impression, and any significant impression as such was negative. Xgau panned it, and it was clear to me that the Scott I-Scott IV shit was repulsive to his generation of critics and listeners, being that the context in which that music was created was light entertainment, Jack Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, the kind of shit that Xgau and his peers would consider to be what right on rock and roll was supposed to demolish, or at least oppose. The way he sang drove Xgau's cohort crazy and they couldn't get past it. And the Other music/WFMU people who were my peers didn't bite then; that would take place in the 00s, when I suspect many of you guys discovered him.

Yet the 60s shit is what the likes of Jarvis and Marc Almond et al repped for in 30th Century Man: I think neither one of those guys likes the Tilt'/Drift era at all.

the compilation was released in 1996.

The Razor and Tie compilation, yes? I deeply appreciated that release, it was what fully opened the door for me to understand his work after referrals from friends and mentions/covers from other artists. I thank you for it.

Honestly I never understood the Marc/Jarvis/etc revulsion or at least looking askance at the later work. It's on a very obvious throughline, as obvious as Mark Hollis's in a more compact sense.

Cope went off him too

Weird memory I have is of a Canadian friend I had just before the turn of the century who was a real music nut but to my shock had never heard of Scott Walker. I guess everyone has their blindspots but it made me think maybe there really was a big Atlantic divide still going on with him.

Looking at the NYT homepage now and no mention of him, so yeah.

Not where I grew up but generally, yes.

Have a different memory of the impact of that Razor and Tie comp -- it was all over WZBC at the time and that heavy airplay was my introduction to him.

i had already found an import of the Boy Child CD by the time the razor & tie comp came along but I agree it was a heroic shot [with a great booklet ;)]

Seems really rare in this day and age for a cultural figure to have a death that is breaking news on the BBC page yet registers nothing on the NYT page. And vice versa.

I think j cocker likes post-tilt stuff? He performed a song from the drift at that concert and he is the person who came up with the description “blocks of sound” that Walker always used to describe his approach

that's a nice suit

that's a swanky suit

Ha that’s gwb right?

I think it was Jarvis who guest-reviewed Tilt for Select at the time, and gave it something like "10 stars...or 2 stars...who really knows?!"

Ha that’s gwb right?

― A funny tinge happened on the way to the forum (wins), Monday, March 25, 2019 12:59 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know, it's the first thing that comes to mind when i think of scott walker for some reason. i (think i ) know that another lyrics in cossacks are is gwb "I'm looking for a good cowboy"

Yeah iirc both of those are things that gwb said to blair

When the shit Scott Walker got into power, I was talking to a couple of Wisconsinites about it and though they were both into music they had never heard of the good Scott Walker, which was sort of depressing

yeah the razor & Tie one. Marshall Crenshaw was a R&T artist and was the one who pushed the label to do it. I used to work there and helped MC write the notes. I was always trying to get them to do shit that would be competitive with Rhino and Ryko (the Joe Meek comp from 95 was my piece de resistance), but they were not equipped to market stuff like that. But stuff like hair metal hits of 80s? and later Kidz Bop? you bet!

really appreciate that some of you guys liked it, because it landed with a thud from where I sat.

For awhile there was a third Scott Walker who was a WRONG DUDE on Spotify, seems to have gone now

There is also a fourth Scott Walker, a former hockey player who was with the Nashville Predators of the NHL for most of his career (which ended about a decade ago.) And a fifth Scott Walker was a character actor who always seemed to play the bad guy (as in the Muppets Movie.)

the Joe Meek comp from 95 was my piece de resistance

Man, you did that one as well? I doubly thank you! That was also my introduction to that genius.

Come come, everyone knows the former St Mirren centre half, Scott Walker, is the second most famous Scott Walker.

And Alloa, as immortalised in Scott Walker plays for Alloa

So we now have Scott Walkers 1-4 and Scott Til' The Band Comes In.

Scott Scores Goals From His TV Series.

Holy crap @ these two Ute Lemper tracks THANK YOU whoever first recommended them. These are beyond incredible

Also I really like Scott's basic latter-day songwriting "thing": put a bunch of surprising and contrasting sections in a row, then repeat them exactly (with different words), and only once. It's the most distilled form of formal minimalism: it happens, and then it happens once more, then it's over.

Great to see people discovering those xp

The moment when the strings come in on Clara gives me goosebumps every time. So harrowing. RIP old man.

Here is an interview from the 1984

I'm interested to what extent his influence is still present in mainstream UK culture. Do people in the UK karaoke his shit? I would fucking love that; I went to pick up my daughter since my last post and I sang "Jackie" at the top of my lungs in the car…

It is bizarre at this point that there is nothing on this in the NYT; they clearly are asleep at the switch. Is Pareles too busy at Big Ears? It's odd to consider, but Scott is far far too rockist for Caramanica; if Thom Yorke or other 40somethings rep for anything, Caramanica turns up his nose. But Scott is right up Ratliff's alley; it would have been up at like noon if he was still there.

Fwiw Le Monde published an excellent obituary this morning.

Er, this afternoon. Still.

I can't remember whether it was Mixing It on R3 or Radcliffe's Hit The North on R5 where I first heard "Boychild". Summer 1990 and Fontana had just put out that compilation (savaged by Steve Sutherland in Melody Maker, while praising the Brothers' hits). That was the moment for me. I recall the strange fuss about his 3-sec appearance in that Britvic ad (which wasn't long after Climate) - as if he'd been missing for decades.

I (a yank) learned about Scott from Roni Sarig's book The Secret History of Rock and Roll, a U.S. publication that I bought while studying abroad in England in 2001. That book introduced me to some other acts too — Serge Gainsbourg, Swell Maps, Young Marble Giants.

People have been posting the more difficult bits on Facebook but hearing The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore on the news was just epic.

i can't even process this news. have been a fan since drag city released tilt in... 1996?

maybe because SW basically started his career over several times, he seemed particularly youthful. so this really comes as a shock.

This morning in my room

A little swallow was trapped

It flew around desperately

Until it fell exhausted on my bed

I picked it up

So as not to frighten it

I opened the window

Then I opened my hand

The cracking voice on the last line is devastating.

the Joe Meek comp from 95 was my piece de resistance

oh, my partner and i bonded over this being in both of our collections. we both know all the songs by heart. it's fabulous. i've gotten several joe meek compilations (even a big box set) since and it's just too much of a good thing... the CD you put together is a perfect distillation of his work. so thank you!!!!!

Heartbroken.

Scott Walker was, and is, the greatest for me. My lone, and only spirit animal. We all try to hold or clutch onto things or people. For me, it was him. His presence in my life is a meandering red line stretched from playing old Walker Bros lp's of my mum that I put on the turntable when alone in the living room, curious to hear who and what were behind that corny cover; up to me echoing his dilly-dally yet incisive poetry of the latter works in my daily life.

That's a nice suit, that's a swanky suit.

There isn't a single artist that made me feel so completely at home in music, in a mind like my own, like he did. Who bridged two very different worlds - his 60s and his reinvention starting in the 80s - in which I both feel completely, utterly at home, at peace, at rest. No other musician, nor any human being, encompassed this feeling: that someone out there knows your dreams, the romance, the love, the foolishness, and - it's seems not to have been mentioned on first glance but damn - the humour! He made me feel there was someone out there I could identify with, especially in his/my growth. This is like losing a parent, in some way, for me.

A compass unlike any other. Scott Walker was my constant. And my constant he will remain.

The cracking voice on the last line is devastating.

― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Monday, March 25, 2019 11:43 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fitting. I wanted to quote this, too. It's been in my head all day since I heard the news.

does anyone have a link where i can read the entire le monde editorial? the version i found requires a paywall to read beyond the first few paragraphs.

Scope J is really immense, I think it's my favourite Scott moment from the later era and he's not even on it! I think I read in an interview that it was originally slated for his next album (which would have been The Drift) but he gave it to Ute Lemper when she asked for a song. Would have loved to have heard a Scott version of it though!

That 1984 interview posted upthread is great. It's amazing to me that it appeared not in some niche publication but in a mass circulation weekly. How times change...

I forgot to mention that it is indeed behind a paywall. Sorry GG.

xp

One track on The Drift is very quiet, and then Donald Duck makes a guest appearance.

iirc, yelling "what's up doc?" which is actually Bugs Bunny's line!

I believe it makes the Pola X soundtrack redundant for Scott completists, too

no fuckin way man (uh, imo)

pola x sdtk has some of his most conventionally lovely cues, almost debussy-like

All 11 Scott pieces from the Pola X OST are on the Five Easy Pieces boxset.

really? i gave the discogs page a glance and thought otherwise. sorry.

Walker was haunted by the spectre of encroaching fascism and mass brutality in America and the history leading up to it, Tilt / Drift / Bisch Bosch were urgent on this front when no one was really talking about the subject seriously. that trilogy sounds even more terrifying now

— bernie slanders (@naxuu) March 25, 2019

xp - still, would be interested to hear the Smog & other non-Scott stuff on that. I picked it up and put it down a few times in shops that year... was always something crazy (for 1999) like £18.99. Maybe it was only an import.

Just for some levity: when singing 'Boy Child' in an impressionist's Scott-voice, I often change the line following "City after city/" with "/Had your fill with quadrilles" (from Roxy Music's 'Do the Strand').

I wrote this obit from the POV of a non-fan.

i like your comments on climate of hunter and on his voice, alfred. you have more to say about this guy whose music you don't know well than many do of music they can sing backwards and forwards.

i do think this might be a bit overstated :

In Walker’s later music it would have been a principle betrayed

his music, even the later stuff, has its own sort of hooks, and he isn't afraid of a good climax if he wants one. he just hardly does so consistently. i really don't think that, as contrarian as much of his late work may seem, he was being determinedly "weird" or working systematically counter to the usual expectations. it's a cliché but i genuinely think he was just kind of following his own path.

I always thought the line was "I opened the window / then I opened my head" and was a reference to Satie ("Ouvrez la tête")

Anyway re-listening to first-four-albums selections this morning got me in my sads again about Angela Morley also, what a fucking genius duo, the two of them

Love Angela Morley
Watership Down OST imo

i can't seem to find the link but there's a radio show from a few years ago, where jarvis cocker interviews scott for over an hour about those early records (which SW didn't often talk about) and they talk about his arrangers quite a bit. worth a listen or two.

also i don't recall scott doing much press around the time of tilt (when i first discovered him), so his relative accessibility to journalists and others in the 21st century came as a pleasant surprise, as did the fact that he was a totally unpretentious and mellow dude. i gues when i first heard his music i expected him to be like an antonin artaud type or something...

xp Oooh I would love it if you could track down the link, or I'll try to

I rate Angela's work as highly as Nelson Riddle or Mary Lou Williams, she wrote effortlessly

I do remember a Scott walker cover issue of the Wire I think around the time of tilt.

I have that issue under the bed somewhere

good wank material?

sorry, that was disrepectful in a RIP thread.

listening to "You're All Around Me" right now, hadn't locked on the Roy Orbison debt before

xp
That issue had an interview with the same journalist as the 1984 interview linked upthread. It's here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130405163815/https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/scott-walker_tilting-at-windmills

xpost

that's (orbison) a reference pt i hadn't thought of!

SW himself in the '60s declared himself influenced by jack jones, a name that mostly conjures up the word "huh?" now. but you can kind of hear it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAELtJgD6A

i think walker's singing on the early records is more bombastic in the orbison mold and lacks the conversational intimacy of sinatra, who he is sometimes compared to. sinatra never wrote something like "big louise," though.

Sinatra didn't write, period.

do you intend "bombastic" as description or criticism? Orbison's choice of approach on "It's Over," "Running Scared," "In Dreams" is appropriate to the songs he wrote.

that's my point!

xpost

description, not criticism. i adore orbison and sW!

I remember Jack Jones popping up on aging WW2-generation-friendly TV variety shows in the '60s and '70s. His dad Allan was the boring musical relief in the Marx Brothers' two best MGM movies.

With that record I mentioned I hear Orbison in the arrangement just as much.

yeah jack jones was one of those slightly younger guys who seemed to appeal to the greatest generation, like maybe bobby darin.

The Jones of "Jolson and Jones" references Jack Jones's dad Allan. It shares lyrics with Jones's Donkey Serenade

!!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/GD6qtc2_AQA/maxresdefault.jpg

and Jack Jones did the Love Boat theme

that song has the most musical use of a donkey's braying since the opening of au hasard balthazar.

xpost lol

alternate universe where scott walker sings the love boat theme

Jack Jones also had the lead role The Comeback, a slasher flick directed by British sleaze merchant Pete Walker - Jones definitely sounds quite Scott-like at about the 47s mark in this trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdFiw-tOCU

Some talk of Jack/Allan Jones in this Scott interview: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/scott-walker-not-easy-on-himself-6101790.html

jones kinda has a face made for radio tbh

“You’re all around me” is a great tune. It actually gets stuck in my head constantly even though I haven’t listened to it in years. I like the part where he thinks about the pigeon.