Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

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