Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

Well, there you go.

What book is that, btw?

Excellent!

Weird thing is The War Is Over (Sleepers) is on Side 2 and that's one he wrote himself (and it's ace!) so he's got his facts a bit skew whiff.

yeah, the album sort-of finishes it's theme about two-thirds of the way through, and adds a few (not al that terrible) covers at the end.

Then again, so does Scott 3.

The book is Truth And Beauty - The Story Of Pulp by Mark Sturdy, it's an exhaustive book which covers their entire lifespan up until the hiatus.

You can hear a whistle in Scott’s speaking voice on that Jarvis i/v, presumably as a result of busting his teeth from his most recent cycling accident.

nice to hear that interview and him speak at length. early on listening to it I began imagining there could be a creature-comforts-style animation to accompany it.

You can hear a whistle in Scott’s speaking voice on that Jarvis i/v, presumably as a result of busting his teeth from his most recent cycling accident.

― Michael Jones, Tuesday, March 26, 2019 2:58 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not a result of one of his many bar fights?

he always had a slight lisp, did he not. gives his voice some of its alluring character imo.

Lemon bloody cola!

Goddamn this stuff is so good. I intentionally avoid overplaying things I love, to keep them a bit fresh. Listening to "Bolivia '95" on headphones right now, I still hear things that surprise me.

a repeat for jarvis' Late Junction mixtape

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0003rrv

The Electrician
Blanket Roll Blues
Clara
The Plague
Farmer in the City
Opening
It's Raining Today

and here's Scott talking with Jarvis - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000417w

(same as youtube link, i think)

Scott's favourite films:

http://bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/scott-walker-s-favourite-films

and related, an hour of soundtrack work

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/84934

I like how so much of Scott's stuff is a reference to pre-60s societal and cultural ephemera - stuff I know very little about in all honesty

Such as?

It doesn't surprise me that he loved Gertrud.

climate of hunter is soooo amazing

isn't it just?

the billy ocean harmonies on "track three" make it that much more sinister

and then late-'60s scott rears up for the last time on "sleepwalkers woman"

That movie list: I think Chinese Roulette is the first of Fassbinder's movies with Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" on the soundtrack? The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant makes use of the Walker Brothers's "In My Room" – that came out in 1972, which must have been a nadir of Scott Walker appreciation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JOB6BJTh1E

It's here and it's wonderful. I'd never heard him interviewed before and my heart just melted

This was so great, thank you so much for linking it.

Jesus I need to hear his not fit for public consumption Russia story!

I'd been putting off getting the Vox Lux soundtrack but it's time now seeing as it will probably be Scott's last release. It appears there is no CD version, only streaming and relatively pricey mp3 download? Kinda irritating as I've always gone out of my way to buy SW on physical.

Yeah same (he was basically the only artist I bought everything from). It's annoying, I've not seen anything on a physical release.

i found his recent scores to be just sorta lovely but not terribly interesting. and the two corbet films (the most recent in particular) were awful, not that we can blame that on scott. it's understandable why they would work together; they both have similar touchstones. walker just happens to be a great artist and corbet is at best a skilled imitator.

Childhood of a Leader would be nothing w/out the score, for sure.

yeah that was the better of two and it's in large part b/c of the score, which is effective, but not peak scott.

What did you guys think of his ballet score

NYT obit (not vary good imo) says cause of death was cancer. Which I guess matters slightly to me in that it indicates a forewarned departure as opposed to a sudden bolt

Guy in his 70s, smoked a lot of cigs, drank a lot of booze, not really a great surprise.

slapped a lot of pigs

What did you guys think of his ballet score

NYT obit (not vary good imo) says cause of death was cancer. Which I guess matters slightly to me in that it indicates a forewarned departure as opposed to a sudden bolt

The move of putting his new lyrics in the Sundogs book definitely had an air of “might not get to record these”, yeah.

I don't think I've ever seen a photo of Scott Walker smoking/ holding a cigarette.

Always curious about the Sylvian link-up (and my heart sank when someone posted a photo of him on their IG feed recently... as a happy birthday thing thankfully... every time I fear the worst now). In the Guardian DS said they'd kicked around some ideas that might have extricated SW from his onerous Virgin deal, without ever imagining it would come to fruition. Initially DS had sent SW a song that would suit his voice. This was 1990-ish. I wonder what it was. My money's on "Blackwater".

Good guess
Pocket full of change could be too

And... there was a Sound On Sound article on Rain Tree Crow in June '91 in which the SW-DS album was still a thing, supposedly set for spring '92.

ooh i just looked up that article, thanks!

god damn walker bros. "Orpheus" is just so fucking good

never knew "This Way Mary" was from the '71 Mary, Queen of Scots film (Mathis sang it on the soundtrack)

xpost

yeah i think a lot of the SW tracks on walker bros early albums are still slept on!

The LP that’s on (The Moviegoer) is legit a good Scott Walker record even though it comes from the damned period. Especially side 2.

Xpost

After the lights go out was like the 3rd Scott cd I got so those have always been big to me.

I loved this birthday message Scott recorded for Bowie in 1997: https://apple.news/AiTy5wTENS_6z-96Nm_oHEg

Along the same lines, DavidBowie.com with a really nice blog on their relationship: https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2019/3/25/farewell-to-scott-walker-1943-2019

In the Guardian DS said they'd kicked around some ideas that might have extricated SW from his onerous Virgin deal, without ever imagining it would come to fruition. Initially DS had sent SW a song that would suit his voice. This was 1990-ish. I wonder what it was. My money's on "Blackwater".

Oh yeah, that would have worked.

Been trying again with Til The Band Comes In (a friend, counter to all received wisdom, rates this as the best of the Philips period) and the issue isn't that it suddenly drops into MoR covers at the end, it's how wildly uneven it is. I know it's kind of a concept album. practically musical theatre, and at the time (Sgt P, etc) that seemed to mean cramming in as many genres and mood shifts as possible. The Boychild comp lifted the best of this - "Long About Now" is the only other highlight. I'm never going to get on with "Jean the Machine" :)

I know what you mean. I actually really like the first half, but I'm not sure how well it all sits together. I will say that the songs are very 'catchy', not in that they stick in my head, but that after only hearing them once or twice they definitely stick out from the rest of his work as STRONG songs

I agree, I think Til The Band Comes In represents a pretty dramatic drop in quality. I love pretty much everything on Scott 3 + 4, but Til The Band Comes In is really all over the place, and I think the only things I really love are Little Things and The War Is Over. That whole smooth jazz aesthetic must have sounded pretty out of step in 1970!

Actually I'm listening to it right now and am actually enjoying the covers - in a library music kind of way - more than most of the original Scott stuff. Stormy has got some good bass going on!

“Joe” should have been included on the boy child comp.