Scott Walker was part of the superstar 60s crooning band The Walker Brothers - an American band who experienced almost all of their success in Britain with huge singles like The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and Make it Easy on Yourself. As wildly popular as they were with lead singer Scott considered a sex symbol far and wide, he felt uncomfortable with the direction and reputation he had garnered and decided to abandon the lifestyle.
After separating from The Walker Brothers for a while, he discovered a french singer called Jacques Brel and became fascinated with his eccentric lyrics about prostitution, death, sex, and war, with the backdrop of bombastic orchestral arrangements. He released a series of solo albums called Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, etc. with original material and the occasional Jacques Brel cover thrown in for good measure.
I've posted here one such cover called Jackie, where the main character gets so overtaken with his dellusions that he fantastizes about owning countries where he's king, having his own bordello, locking himself inside an opium den surrounded by "Chinamen", all while giving himself different monikers in each verse. Intense stuff.
The second song is another cover - a huge, orchestral version of Toni Fisher's The Big Hurt, which was also covered by Nick Cave (which was how I found out about Scott Walker in the first place).
The more his solo career progressed, the more eccentric and reclusive he became. He stopped talking to the media altogether and spaces between albums grew longer and longer. This year he released the sparse and soundscapey The Drift which has been hailed as a masterpiece. Personally, I think it's balls. Anyway, find the two songs posted below.
Jackie:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/00q58t
The Big Hurt:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/y05zo2
paul
After separating from The Walker Brothers for a while, he discovered a french singer called Jacques Brel and became fascinated with his eccentric lyrics about prostitution, death, sex, and war, with the backdrop of bombastic orchestral arrangements. He released a series of solo albums called Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3, etc. with original material and the occasional Jacques Brel cover thrown in for good measure.
I've posted here one such cover called Jackie, where the main character gets so overtaken with his dellusions that he fantastizes about owning countries where he's king, having his own bordello, locking himself inside an opium den surrounded by "Chinamen", all while giving himself different monikers in each verse. Intense stuff.
The second song is another cover - a huge, orchestral version of Toni Fisher's The Big Hurt, which was also covered by Nick Cave (which was how I found out about Scott Walker in the first place).
The more his solo career progressed, the more eccentric and reclusive he became. He stopped talking to the media altogether and spaces between albums grew longer and longer. This year he released the sparse and soundscapey The Drift which has been hailed as a masterpiece. Personally, I think it's balls. Anyway, find the two songs posted below.
Jackie:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/00q58t
The Big Hurt:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/y05zo2
paul
posted by MTD at 3:06 PM
1 Comments:
Nice post. Hey Paul, have you heard 'Til The Band Comes In, the follow-up to Scott 4? I downloaded it from a blog just like this one a few months ago. It's not so hot but there are two or three great moments including "Thanks For Chicago Mr. James" (real sad) and a cover of Roy Orbison's "It's Over".
As for The Drift, I guess people just like it because they want to -- especially since most of his modern-day fans are people who just discovered him in the past few years (myself included -- and I do like parts of the LP). It's like the Brian Wilson effect, wherein people got so caught up that nobody really called him on SMiLE being kind of a snooze.
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