Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

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.

I finally heard Stretch and We Had It All yesterday. I do not come to defend the latter - the put-on southern accent he uses on several of the country numbers is abhorrent. Stretch has some nice bits (Moviegoer is leagues better)

I feel like I wanna hear Any Day Now because I noticed Peter Knight does the orchestrations on that one

Yeah I don't think Stretch is irredeemable by any means. It's been a long time since I heard Any Day Now but iirc it's nice in places although the version of Ain't No Sunshine is not much cop at all.

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!

"Long About Now", "Time Operator", "Joe", "Thanks For Chicago, Mr. James", title track all awesome btw.

Quite like the smooth jazz songs on TTBCI

"Long About Now", "Time Operator", "Joe", "Thanks For Chicago, Mr. James", title track all awesome btw.

― Don't Go Back to Brockville (Tom D.), Friday, March 29, 2019 6:42 AM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

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

yeah, this has been my favorite scott song for the last few years. one of the most devastating songs about aging and death, elevated and amplified by the major-key lounge-jazz sonics

"Jean The Machine" is George Bleedin' Melly, though. Title track slightly spoiled by the backing vocals I think.

Minor gripes. And it's not comparable to later Tom & Jerry ("where they could talk"), never mind what Jarvis says ;)

On the subject of devastating... listening to "Rosemary" and "On Your Own Again" on my commute probably not a smart move. I'd actually forgotten about the killer codas to each of those.

Oddly enough, 'Til the Band Comes In was the first Scott I listened to after his passing. It veers between adventurousness and biding time ("Time Operator," natch), and is very cinematic — moreso really than The Moviegoer in its feel, a bit like a trailer compilation of curios from the era. The overlapping orchestra tracks on the title song convey "one man's descent into madness": spinning camera, multiple exposures. I'm not sure if I'd say that movie looks like great art; it feels maybe a little pretentious (Scott is quoted describing his work this way in the liners for, what, Scott 2?), but it looks cool and I'd check it out anyway. The album also feels special for having been a little harder to acquire than the albums that preceded it (I didn't get ahold of a copy until a 2007 Japanese reissue). Major cult appeal!

"dealer" is one of his very best songs, and "track three" is a banger

it's like the most cracked idea of a popular rock song

What time of the year did Scott Walker go to that farmhouse to write material for "Climate of Hunter"? I’m wondering if the title of that album can be interpreted as a reference to the constellation of Orion. His experiences in the farmhouse surely left their mark on the album’s lyrics; it’s hard not to connect "Rawhide" with, as he mentioned in an interview, his seeing herds of cows grazing while there.

well that was an ill-advised and overemotional full discography listen i did yesterday, but i came away thinking the drift is his masterwork (and he made several albums that qualify). surprised me a little, i sort of expected to love tilt or climate the most at this point but... even though it's slow-hatching nightmare, the drift is surprisingly, perversely catchy? most of the songs lingered in my head from when i spent a lot of time with it in college

\They really do have their own little characters despite all living in the same world. Some days I'm into the more melodic, strangely beautiful elements of Tilt; the brute-force dynamic terror of Drift; or the dark scat humour of Bish Bosch. I've also reassessed Soused lately and while it's certainly not his best sonically, his lyrics come into their own on that one.

scott was also one of the best lyricists to ever do it, i feel like that is often lost in recapitulations of his weirdness and daring

Brad thoroughly otm as usual

I haven’t fully revisited it yet but will put in a mention for Ian Penman’s wonderful and long (~70pp!) essay “a dandy in aspic” in rob Young’s book, it makes a case for those middle years: the moviegoer and songs from his tv show and that. Penman touches on stuff mentioned upthread eg that the originals in til the band comes in go well into the second side, and posits that the reason the received wisdom “SIDE 2 IS ALL BAD!!” was allowed to ossify is that for a long time it was difficult to actually get ahold of the album to check - not to be too on brand but maybe cf twin peaks “SEASON 2 IS ALL BAD!!”