Scottmania, Part Three

By the time Scott Walker released his third solo album, Scott 3 (1969), he had evolved into a great songwriter. On Scott 3 there are ten original compositions and three Jacques Brel songs. Depending on how you see it, you could say this is Scott's best from this period.

This is definitely Scott's most waltz-oriented album. The album is overall very peaceful and slow and many songs are in 3/4 which could be the reasons why the album didn't do as well as the first two albums. Scott 3 doesn't, in fact, make the best possible album for workout or other situations when you wish to draw energy from what you hear. A very different kind of energy emanates from Scott 3: a melancholic, yet hopeful, peaceful and tremendously beautiful feeling.

It's Raining Today represents Scott's appreciation towards both harmony and dissonance. Big Louise is another song that may sound a bit frightening in the beginning but both of these songs are actually perfectly listenable and lovely. Peaceful songs with big arrangements follow one after another and this pattern doesn't really change much until the end of the album where you find the Brel songs.

Actually, there are a couple of times when the album momentarily turns into something else than a peaceful cradle of hopeful melancholy. We Came Through sounds to me like a medieval battle song – glorious! By this song you will also have noticed that Scott's songwriting leans quite a bit on very traditional pop melodies – the kind of material that is still recycled in pop music today.

30 Century Man, a song that carries the same title as the Scott Walker documentary film (which I highly recommend to watch) is different in the sense that it doesn't have anything else for accompaniment than an acoustic guitar. The song is also a bit more... bluesy than the rest of songs. Many of Scott's songs on this album are sweet and short, and 30 Century Man is the shortest: only 1:29.

Scott's every song is filled with extremely fine imagery. His lyrics might even be too cryptic for some people's taste... I don't understand even half of it. Scott's vocals are obviously beyond perfection all through the album, and the arrangements are just as excellent as always. There are wonderful strings, sometimes also beautiful harp, piano and amazing percussions.

In the end of the album there are three Jacques Brel songs. Sons of is a pretty peaceful waltz, yet it is clearly more restless than any other waltz on this album. Funeral Tango is a great song with macabre lyrics – once again about death but from a very fun perspective. Scott even laughs, kind of. I didn't expect to hear that... Finally, there is If You Go Away. All I can say is... I would definitely consider going away if it meant that Scott would sing this song to me...

Listen while watching the rain!

Music from Scott 3 (YouTube):

Big Louise

Rosemary

We Came Through

Funeral Tango

Scottmania, Part Two

Scott 2 is the Scott Walker album that I usually end up listening the most. Scott 2 followed soon after the debut solo effort and was equally successful on the charts. The album has a similar structure as the first album. There are contemporary covers (Hal David and Burt Bacharach's Windows of the World, for instance), film music (Mancini's Wait Until Dark), Jacques Brel songs, and original material.

Now that I think about it, it could be that my affection towards Scott 2 has something to do with the fact that the album contains slightly more dangerous themes than the first album. Jackie is a good example of Scott moving towards more violent topics. In a nutshell the song is a tribute to a decadent and destructive yet exciting lifestyle. Jacques Brel's original version was called Jacky and the song indicates Brel's fascination towards the theme of decadence. The theme also intrigued Scott and he seems to enjoy a great deal putting himself in the main character's shoes. In the end, I don't understand what is wrong with singing about controversial topics. It is just a song... Even though it certainly reveals something about the dark depths of the human soul.

Jackie was released as a single and banned by the BBC. I wonder what BBC would have thought about Next, an even more violent Jacque Brel song from the same album (Scott 2). The lyrical content is in fact so horrifying that the whole thing turns upside down and becomes a pretty entertaining song – at least to me. On the surface it is a classy and dramatic tango, rendered flawlessly by Scott, but the lyrics tell a story that will make your blood turn cold if you think about it to much... Still, highly recommended!

Jackie and Next are just a couple of examples of the wonders this album has to offer. Scott's own compositions are, again, really the coolest material on the album. The Amorous Humphrey Plugg is absolutely fantastic. With the fancy arrangement it sounds like some sort of crooner song but it can also be seen as a perfect baroque pop song. To me, the magic is in the emotional nuances. Scott is a fantastic interpreter of emotions, and definitely not just the negative ones! When it comes to the lyrics, The Girls on the Streets follows the decadence theme but to me just sounds magnificent – the chorus is really quite ecstatic. It is another very slow song, but slower is usually better, I think. The arrangement is fabulous, especially the accordion!

Plastic Palace People is another piece of very intriguing lyrics. The arrangement feels like you are floating in some kind of dream world. It is a simple idea: strings and other instruments moving up and down the scale, but still the is overall feel is completely out of this world. When the strange vocal echo effect comes around, the song claims its place among Scott's most psychedelic songs. The Bridge is the fourth and final Scott Walker composition on the album and a beautifully melancholic tune. You can practically see the autumn leaves falling from trees while listening to the song.

Scott also turns the Tim Hardin song Black Sheep Boy into pure gold with his tender rendition. This was in fact, in my opinion, the first time Scott showed his more natural singing voice on a record (although, to be precise, he already gave a similar performance of Hardin's The Lady Came from Baltimore on the first solo album). Whereas he mostly sticks to the very dramatic vocal style he is known for, in this song his singing sounds more down-to-earth and relaxed. On Scott 4 he used this kind of singing style more than anywhere else during his career.

Something about this album really fascinates me. Again, it must be the balance between very easily listenable pop songs and considerably more grim material. Everything is coated with absolutely perfect, rich arrangements and Scott Walker's voice – the classiest one in the world.

Songs for you (YouTube):

The Amorous Humphrey Plugg

Jackie

Plastic Palace People

The Bridge

Scottmania, Part One

A few months ago I experienced strange times. I was wondering how I was ever going to move on from Scott Walker's solo albums 1–4. The reason to this was that I believed finding music that is at least equally good would be really, really difficult. Since then I have moved on, for the most part, but I still haven't found the music that I would need to really break this habit of listening to Scott Walker – and only Scott Walker... I am very much open to any kind of recommendations.

Now I will write some kind of small review-presentations of all these Scott Walker albums. They were released in 1967–1969 and show Scott's fantastic development as a songwriter, poet, and why not as a singer. The first solo album, Scott, was released in 1967 while the Walker Brothers were still around.

It is clear as day that Scott truly spread his wings on the solo albums, right from the start. However, at this point Scott was still mostly singing other people's songs. There are contemporary songs (for example a gorgeous version of Angelica), film music (You're Gonna Hear from Me – showing Scott's crooner side), original compositions, and Jacques Brel songs.

The original material is of course among the most interesting material here. Montague Terrace (In Blue) is a fantastically uplifting composition with a sensational arrangement. Everything on Scott's albums 1–4 is, in fact, incredibly well arranged, thanks to Wally Stott (a.k.a. Angela Morley) who arranged quite a few of these songs. Other original Engel (Walker) compositions include Such a Small Love, a song that features a very typical eerie mood that Scott likes, and Always Coming Back to You, a dreamy song with a hint of desperation.

Looking at the Jacques Brel songs Scott eagerly chose to record in English, the songs actually reveal surprisingly lot of Scott's dark inner world. I think it says a lot that the first song on his first solo album is about a sadomasochistic relationship (Mathilde). Later, there is another Brel song about his own death (My Death)... And it doesn't get much lighter with Amsterdam at the end of the album.

It seems that Scott selected the cover songs carefully to fit the mood he wanted to pursue. That mood could be described to be generally melancholic, or perhaps it is a question of balance between the beautifully melancholic and the almost scaringly dark songs... Still, it confuses me to hear him obviously being on top of the world singing all of this music – even happy?

You see, Scott Walker doesn't seem to be too fond of his own voice. Or maybe he is, but according to what he has said in interviews, he never listens to his own music again after it is finished. On his more recent albums he uses a higher vocal register in order to prevent the listener from getting too comfortable while listening to his singing. All of this sounds strange, but serves some kind of purpose to Scott.

That is enough for now. We will soon return to the mystery of Scott Walker and listen to some Scott 2...

As usual, some song picks for you (YouTube):

Montague Terrace (In Blue)

Mathilde

Such A Small Love

Angelica

The Grand Talent of Scott Walker

I think I might be getting obsessed about Scott Walker. I listen to his first four solo albums from the 60s (Scott 1-4) every day, and if I don't.. Well, then I won't be too happy..

Originally, I had heard one song from Scott Walker's band, the Walker Brothers (The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore). Apart from that, I hadn't spent much time thinking about Scott Walker, or the Walker Brothers... This more recent development began when I saw the documentary film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. The (almost) whole story was there: at first Scott Walker was in the Walker Brothers, a band that was much more popular in the UK than its homeland, the United States. Scott wrote songs for the band and soon went on to record solo albums. After that, his musical ambitions only kept growing. He is still writing new music – and he is definitely not trying to please the big buying audience anymore!

Funnily, the documentary film didn't say much about the first phase of Noel Scott Engel's musical career. Engel, as his real name is, was a teen idol way before his enormous success with the Walker Brothers. To me this is really interesting, as I might consider myself a sucker for teen idols... Scott before his grown-up career sounds quite a bit like himself, only his voice is higher. And, yeah, the music is a bit different, too...

In the mid-60s Scott joined the Walker Brothers, a band in which the members were not really brothers or called Walker. The Walker Brothers were considered to be a boy band, and its popularity was often even compared to the Beatles. The band was a popular subject of gossip and hype. It didn't take long until Scott began to feel anxious being in the band. He wore sunglasses to express the alienation he was feeling at the time.

It seems to me that it wasn't until the solo career when Scott really began to shine. The Walker Brothers performed music that had certain similar aspects to Scott's solo work but as a solo artist there was no need to adjust to the group dynamics. When Scott went solo he began a journey towards his later ambitions. At first he recorded many cover versions, including several Jacques Brel's songs. There were also original compositions right on the first album – with some extremely well-written lyrics. Scott 3 (1969) contained touches of dissonance, indicating the more experimental style that Scott was already interested in at that point. Scott 4 (1969) wasn't as big a commercial success as the first three albums but it was the first to feature only Scott Walker compositions.

Albums Scott 1-4 are in any case must-hear material. There are spectacular orchestral arrangements as well as awesome songs. Then there is Scott's personal instrument... His deep baritone voice. Scott's voice can be characterized by magnificent integrity and expressiveness. He makes singing sound so very easy with his relaxed style and natural vibrato. There is also a lot of emotion. In fact, his style is sometimes quite theatrical.

According to Scott himself, he probably would have started making experimental music earlier if Scott 4 had been more succesfull. After Scott 4 there was little progress for many, many years. Finally, in 1995 came Tilt, the first of Scott's avant garde/experimental albums. The following album, The Drift was released in 2006. These albums are surely interesting as they reveal the more adventurous, ambitious, as well as darker sides of Scott Walker. Nowadays Scott does exactly what he wants, and that is probably the ideal state of mind for a talented artist to be in.

Here is Jackie, a Jacques Brel song from Scott 2 (1968).

Scott Walker website