| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8837 Registered: 05-2005 |
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/m ar/25/scott-walker-experimental-pop-hero -dies-aged-76 Listening to Joanna right now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUSmO1tt MvY | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1555 Registered: 10-2006 |
Good lord. The beautiful, difficult, golden-voiced Scott. New harmonies in heaven. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8838 Registered: 05-2005 |
This is a piece I wrote for The Irish Times about him in 2001 or 2002. Cult hero: Scott Walker By Pádraig Collins THEY weren’t Walkers, weren’t brothers, and definitely not British, yet The Walker Brothers were one of the most successful British-based groups of the mid-60s. Noel Scott Engel was born on January 9th 1943 in California, the only child of a wealthy oil tycoon. Perhaps it was his solitary upbringing that led to him later calling his band The Walker Brothers (he was by then known as Scott Walker, having briefly recorded as Scotty Engel). Moving to Hollywood in the early 60s he played sessions with arranger Jack Nitzsche before teaming up with singer John Maus as the Dalton Brothers, which evolved into the Walker Brothers with the addition of drummer Gary Leeds. They moved to England in February 1965, immediately got a record deal, had a string of hits and found themselves treated as teen-idols. Just over two years, and three albums, later it was all over due to that old chestnut ‘musical differences’. There was more to the story, of course. Unable to handle the sudden fame and constant attention of starstruck girls and hangers-on, Scott Walker had become an alcoholic and attempted suicide. John and Gary had some solo success before fading away. Scott, with his deep sonorous vibrato, emerged as the major talent in the band, if a somewhat incongruous teen-idol with his reclusiveness and tendency to wear dark glasses and stay in curtain-closed rooms during daylight hours. His manager Maurice King wanted him to pursue a straightforward showbiz career with regular TV appearances and even cabaret. Walker compromised, to a point. He appeared on BBC’s chirpy Billy Cotton Band Show, but performed Belgian composer Jacques Brel’s My Death. The hits dried up, John and Gary got back in touch and The Walker Brothers reformed in 1975 for the No Regrets album. The title track was an awesome six-minute version of the Tom Rush classic. It was a Top 5 single, but further releases failed to recapture their old commercial popularity. Walker rarely releases anything anymore (his last album was 1995’s ‘difficult’ Tilt) and almost never gives interviews. He was last seen hosting the Meltdown Festival in London in 2000 and producing the We Love Life album for Pulp last year. Another album is promised, but don’t hold your breath. He remains a recluse and an enigma. His singing style and demeanour became a huge influence on a generation of British singers from Julian Cope to Morrissey to Marc Almond. Another band called themselves Scott 4 after his best solo album. The person who could have learnt most from him though, didn’t. If Kurt Cobain had dealt with fame the way Walker did, ie run far away from it, he would be alive today. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4115 Registered: 03-2005 |
Geez. In connection with our game of verbal charades on another thread I actually thought "I wish she'd duet with Scott Walker." Probably like most people who loved Scott Walker's classic records, I always hoped he'd relent and do just one "normal" album again. While I attended college, my high school music buddy David Propp spent his post-high school time travelling around the central part of California hitting all the drug and dime stores to comb through the cut-out record bins. On one of these expeditions he blundered onto Scott Walker's first album. This would have been in about 1975 or '76. The Walker Brothers were never very big in the U.S. and if Scott Walker as a solo act was known anywhere in the U.S. he certainly was not known in California. We were blown away by "Montague Terrace in Blue" and "My Death" and "Such a Small Love" and most of the other songs. We both thought this was the most brilliant record ever made bar none, never mind Pet Sounds. A couple years later I scored a copy of Scott 2. Seriously, his records were that rare here. It was a big deal. Over the years I tried to turn people onto Scott Walker. It was briefly easy during the early 80s when a number of new pop stars cited him as an influence and that fabulously-named compilation--"The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker"--was released. But I ran into a lot of resistance from people I'd thought would be naturals for the classic Walker albums: theater music fans. As recently as ten years ago I lovingly curated a single CD sampler of Walker's best songs for a friend of mine who was going through a dreadful period in his career. He never even played the disc. I love your piece Padraig. He wasn't born in California though. I thought he was born in Texas, but apparently it was Ohio. I'm surprised you didn't name the first person I think of as a Walker acolyte (okay, maybe after Marc Almond): Cathal Coughlan. It's Cathal's solo records that serve to provide my fix for multi-dimensioned Walkeresque music in this century. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 8839 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks, Randy. I didn’t realise Walker was so utterly unknown in the US. I love the story of your friend going to the drug and dime stores for cut-out records. Reminds me of... me. I realised just after I posted the piece above that I had his birthplace wrong. And you’re right, I should have mentioned Cathal Coughlan. |