Scott Walker

I am a huge fan and yes, too many people only think of his sugar coated pop stuff. The guy is a tortured genius.

Gordon

I recommend...

I'm a (very) late convert. I was put off back then by the crooning Walker Brothers stuff.

Recently I've fallen in love with Scott 4, not cleaved that much to Scott 3 (too croonery), and really liked the fairly radical Climate Of Hunter.

I then went on to Tilt, which is pretty weird...but I'm coming around to, particularly if I turn my brain round 90 degrees before listening.

On that basis I went for The Drift. Yes, well. Erm...I've managed to sit through it twice without screaming, though only just. I've really no idea what I'd have to do with my brain to get this one. Makes Tilt sound like Abba tune-wise, and then there's the sinister, scary side of it with what sounds like meat being thwacked, the pee-pee stains and the ultra creepy Donald Duck vocals at the end.

Nice packaging though.

well I can see the croonery stuff being toooooo smooth. 4 was where he got interesting to me on his own. Some of what he did in the punk days sounds good, but my gawd, when they got to the end of the interview and I heard that eerie stuff it was suicidal to me. But he did say once he's done the album and heard it thru he never goes back to hear it again.

I'm just amazed I'd not heard of him before, not that I'm the hippest but I"ve listened to many strange things over the decades and usually have a clue. He's way off the deep end. Kind of like treading water on a murky day just beyond the waves and having the Jaws theme you can't get out of your head....

Follow your instincts and get out before it's too late. The best use of his music would be in a Francis Bacon retropective in a museum with low lights. THAT would be an experience.

He had a mythical status when I was a teenager (early eighties)
Julian Cope put together an album called I think "Fire escape in the sky - the god like genius of Scott Walker" and Marc Almond referenced him a lot. No one I knew had the Cope thing and all that was in print (vinyl) was the World of Scott Walker or some such EMI nonsense focusing on the crooner stuff. I bought it anyway. Oh and bought climate of hunter too.
But we were all still none the wiser what he really did on those 4 magical solo albums

Roll on a couple of years to University and someone did have Scott Sings Jacques Brel on cassette which needless to say was copied many times. That gave me a taster...

And then very early nineties Boy Child - best of Scott Walker came out and finally I got a selection of the non crooner stuff - Plastic Palace People, Big Louise, Monague Terrace, etc

And then and at last they re-issued 1 to 4 on CD. Brilliant

And then - after a 25 year wait - 4 men with beards reissued 1 to 4 on Vinyl.

Hate tilt though!!!

Really like tilt!
Drift is quite probably the singular most scary music ever recorded. Listening at night with the lights off may require counselling afterwards. Still at least the meat thumps are very well recorded.

Scott Walker is awesome. His later music (Tilt, Drift, ...The Ball) is extremely challenging but repays the effort. "Farmer In The City" from Tilt is one of the greatest pieces of music of the 1990s.

He's a thoroughly admirable artist. And what a voice!

Anyone wanting an intro to the great man's earlier, more accessible work should check out the magisterial Boy Child compilation.

Thanks guys, this helps a lot, I sent teh DVD back but I'll start with the Boy Child compilation. yeah the meat thumps weirds me out.

quote:

Originally posted by Voltaire:
I am a huge fan and yes, too many people only think of his sugar coated pop stuff. The guy is a tortured genius.

Gordon

I recommend...

You said it all.

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:
I then went on to Tilt, which is pretty weird...but I'm coming around to, particularly if I turn my brain round 90 degrees before listening.

I like a bit of challenging music and I found this for £3.48 on Amazon so I thought I'd try a bit of brain turning.

Not sure I'm quite ready for meat thumping just yet.

quote:

Originally posted by seagull:

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:
I then went on to Tilt, which is pretty weird...but I'm coming around to, particularly if I turn my brain round 90 degrees before listening.

I like a bit of challenging music and I found this for £3.48 on Amazon so I thought I'd try a bit of brain turning.

Not sure I'm quite ready for meat thumping just yet.

If you can get your head around Farmer In The City then the rest of Tilt follows. Figuratively as well as physically.

Played it (Farmer In The City) for The Riders recently and none of them ran screaming from the room (though they took a bit of persuading that it was Scott).

And no Howard, you don't want to go there :-)

quote:

Julian Cope put together an album called I think "Fire escape in the sky - the god like genius of Scott Walker" and Marc Almond referenced him a lot. No one I knew had the Cope thing

I used to have the Fire Escape album, and it was my introduction to Scott Walker. I've now got Scotts 1-4 on CD but none of the later ones. Maybe one day, but they do sound like hard work.

Nigel

If you want to explore Scott then may I suggest you don't start with And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? as this may work in performance, but it is very difficult to listen to on record.

Scott Walker is a great artist - he produced the fantastic Tilt, which rewards a few listens: once it clicks in to place, you realise just what a remarkable record this is. The Drift as as good in many ways. These are the work of creative genius at his most creative.

However don't ignore his earlier works: except some dreadful elpees he made in the early 70s (he said they were an embarrassment and they were - almost).

A wonderful introduction to Scott is the five easy pieces collection

CD 1: In My Room
Prologue/Little Things
I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore
In My Room
After the Lights Go Out
Archangel
Orpheus
Mrs Murphy
Montague Terrace (In Blue)
Such A Small Love
The Amorous Humphrey Plugg
It's Raining Today
Rosemary
Big Louise
Angels Of Ashes
Hero Of The War
Time Operator
Joe
The War Is Over (Sleepers-Epilogue)

CD 2: Where's The Girl?
Where's The Girl?
You're All Around Me
Just Say Goodbye
Hurting Each Other"
Genevieve
Once Upon A Summertime
When Joanna Loved Me
Joanna
Angelica
Always Coming Back To You
The Bridge
Best Of Both Worlds
Two Weeks Since You've Gone
On Your Own Again
Someone Who Cared
Scope J
Lullaby

CD 3: An American In Europe
Jackie
Mathilde
The Girls And The Dogs
Amsterdam
Next
The Girls From The Streets
My Death
Sons Of
If You Go Away
Copenhagen
We Came Through
30 Century Man
Rhymes Of Goodbye
Thanks For Chicago Mr James
Cowbells Shakin
My Way HomeLines
Rawhide
Blanket Roll Blues
Tilt
Patriot

CD 4: This Is How You Disappear
The Plague
Plastic Palace People
Boy Child
Shutout
Fat Mama Kick
Nite Flights
The Electrician
Dealer
Track 3 (Delayed)
Sleepwalkers Woman
Track 5 (It's A Starving)
Farmer In The City
The Cockfighter
Bouncer See Bouncer...
Face On Breast

CD 5: Scott On Screen
Light
Deadlier Than The Male
The Rope And The Colt
Meadow
The Seventh Seal
The Darkest Forest
The Ballad Of Sacco And Vanzetti
The Summer Knows
Glory Road
Isabel
Man From Reno
The Church Of The Apostles
Indecent Sacrifice
Bombupper"
I Threw It All Away
River Of Blood
Only Myself To Blame
Running
The Time Is Out Of Joint!
Never Again
Closing

If you work your way through this collection then you'll take in the best of Scott (bar The Drift, which this collection pre-dates)

One of my favourite tracks is The Electrician from the Walker Brothers' Nite Flights - please click here - it is not what you expect.

Yup. The Old Man's Back Again, though he doesn't exactly say much, does he?

I'd forgotten about that as I never play that album (the first one's loads better).

Yeah, it's great that he's done it, as I guess a few more people will look him up now.

I saw him on BBC4 (the best channel on TV?) a while ago, and he seems a top bloke.

quote:

ts great to see a young artist use some one she got from mum and dads music she heard at home at young age.

My mum and dad never used to listen to Scott's Tilt album.

I'd like Ringo to play drums on my next elpee with Keith Emerson on keyboards and Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and Nigel Blackmore on lead vocals/songwriter and Dave Pegg on bass - I'd play a very quiet tambourine in the background.

I saw him on a DVD documentary and din't know him thats why I posted this. yes he seems to be a nice guy, I bet a conversation would be wonderful with him but I'd have to hear the collection from start to finish. But I don't think he likes to talk about himself or his work. He'd probably rather have a walk around town or a park. He said once it's in the can he doesn't listen to them again.

quote:

He said once it's in the can he doesn't listen to them again.

I guess it is a bit like an author who spends 10 years writing a book - when it's done does he/she read it more than once? I think I read Woody Allen never watches his own films.

quote:

He said once it's in the can he doesn't listen to them again.

Good plan?

Well sometimes it is difficult to go back and review. It's all down to personal habits. Some keep going back and fiddling and others are done with it.

I find in my drawings/paintings/etchings I can't go back and pick up where i left off. Most I have stored away tho a few are framed and up.

Starting from scratch is often better than trying to dismember and reorganize, many mistakes are made that way.

One of those artists I never bothered much about but probably should have apart from when he was in the Walker Bros who were one of my favourite 60' bands.