Scott Walker. (RIP March 2019)

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

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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.

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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!!”

it's some way the best piece in the book i think

For sure although I like the David Toop interview where (iirc and I may be thinking of a different one) he asks walker about the significance of kabbalistic references in the drift (serifot and kellipot) and Walker has no memory of even coming across the words before, let alone what he meant by their deployment!

I think he said recently one of his songwriting strategies just involved going to an acquaintance’s vast personal library and reading and picking out words

checked out a preview on google and think i'm gonna buy the ebook of the rob young collection. penman otm that til the band comes in is three quarters brilliant one quarter ok. "war is over" is scott 3 quality

I actually like almost all of the songs that fill out side 2, it's just that this record HAS to end with "The War is Over", going from that to "Stormy" etc is just too weird and jarring. Same with Scott 3 though I love those three Brel tunes. Both LPs have a resoundingly clear natural ending point at which they do not end.

i'd like to argue against conventional wisdom here and suggest the three brel tunes are actually the best possible way to end scott 3, the album entering this arch wormhole at the end ("sons of" both creepy and beautiful! "funeral tango" a complete delight and less jarring in the sequence than "we came through" imo) and closes with the most beautiful "ne me quitte pas," can't argue with it ("two weeks since you've gone" would've been a weaker closer)

No way, "Two Weeks Since You've Gone" is gorgeous and heartbreaking and "If You Go Away" is his worst Brel cover by a country mile.

"Have you written enough songs for the album yet?" "Er, almost".

"If You Go Away" is his worst Brel cover by a country mile.

― Angry Question Time Man's Flute Club Band (Tom D.), Monday, April 1, 2019 10:39 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk how you arrived at this opinion but it does not reflect my experience at all

You're NEXT!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0LmWUUVvUM

had never heard this drift-era track (from a 4ad comp called plague songs) until now, it rules

Oh yeah, also has a classic Scott footnote/gloss iirc

(Contrary to the idea many have of his later career he often took pains to clarify what certain songs were about!)

Brad otm about the Brel covers at the end of Scott 3

Man I wish "We Came Through" was just not on that album though!

Wonderful Amazon review for Rob Young's book here. Yikes!

James J. Omeara
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Implicitly White Genius of Scott Walker
February 17, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Even if my review at the Counter-Currents blog hasn't convinced you that Scott Walker is the ultimate White musician and worthy of your attention for that reason alone, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the mechanics of the post-war pop music industry or just some damned fine cultural writing. It’s really quite exciting to see such implicitly White music, both avant garde and MOR, receiving serious critical attention. White Nationalists should be heartened by it, and should encourage this unexpected entry point into the mainstream by purchasing multiple copies for family and friends!
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the jarvis interview from 2017 is awesome for a lot of reasons but i especially liked when walker talked about how much he loved jazz. no one tell james j. omeara

it's almost funny how much effort a human being will put into being racist these days

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0004d8x

Freak Zone tribute show, includes bits of interview where he just sounds charming and funny.