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Scott Walker (singer)

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Scott Walker

Scott Walker is the stage name of the American singer-songwriter Noel Scott Engel (born 9 January 1943 in Hamilton, Ohio). Walker has long resided in England.

Biography

Originally championed by Eddie Fisher in the late 1950s, Scott appeared several times under his real name on Fisher's TV series as a teen idol type in the vein of Fabian or Frankie Avalon.

Walker was among the first to adopt the electric bass guitar, mastering it to a proficiency to win regular session work in Los Angeles studios while still in his teens.

The Walker Brothers era

After playing in many bands he eventually joined with John Maus and Gary Leeds to form The Walker Brothers in Los Angeles in 1964. Leeds had recently toured the UK with P.J. Proby and was the catalyst to their relocation to London.

The Walker Brothers arrived in London in early 1965 and attained worldwide popularity with pop ballads. Their first single "Pretty Girls Everywhere", with John Maus as lead singer, crept into the charts. It was only when "Love Her", the B side with Scott's deeper baritone in the lead, was picked up for radio play that they made any real chart impact and executives at Philips, their UK record label, noticed the rangy émigré Americans.

The Walker Brothers' next release, "Make It Easy on Yourself", a Bacharach/David ballad, swept to No. 1 in the UK charts on release in August 1965. When their second No. 1, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", shot to the top in early 1966 their popularity and fan base is said to have exceeded The Beatles in the UK and Europe. As lead singer, Scott attained pop star status.

Finding suitable material was always a problem. The Walkers' 60s sound mixes Phil Spector's "wall of sound" techniques with symphonic orchestrations featuring Britain's top musicians and arrangers. Scott Walker claimed authorship of this sound in recent interviews.

Many of their earlier numbers have a driving beat, but by Images, their third album, ballads predominate. John Maus's musical influence clearly wanes by the third album, despite featuring in a solo of the standard "Blueberry Hill" and an original composition.

Artistic differences and the stresses stemming from overwhelming pop stardom led to the break-up of The Walker Brothers in 1967, although they reunited briefly for a tour of Japan the following year. On their return to the UK Scott produced a solo album for the tour's musical director and guitarist Terry Smith. The Walker Brothers' last two singles, "Stay With Me Baby" and "Walking In The Rain", struck fans and critics alike as retro, dated choices, harking back to earlier pop. Their failure to reach the top ten provided Scott with the necessary trigger for the split. It is noteworthy then that producer Johnny Franz and John Walker were keen to release the upbeat "Everything Under the Sun" as the single from Images, but Scott Walker "put his foot down", he later confessed, and scored another miss.

Scott Walker's Emerging Solo Work

Scott Walker shed the Walker Brothers' mantle and began a solo career in a style clearly glimpsed in Images, the Walker's last album. To this he added risqué recordings of Jacques Brel songs, ably translated by Mort Shuman.

Walker's own original songs of this period are influenced by Brel. Walker explored European musical roots while expressing his own American experience. He was also reaching a new maturity as a recording artist.

Scott threw himself into intense study of contemporary and classical music, which included a sojourn in Quarr Abbey, a monastery on the Isle of Wight, to study Gregorian chant. His own songs gradually course into Lieder and classical musical modes.

Scott Walker's early solo career was successful in Britain; his first three albums, titled Scott (1967), Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969) all sold in large numbers, Scott 2 topping the British charts. There were also early indications that this concentrated attention was not conducive to his emotional well being. He became reclusive and somewhat distanced from his audience. During this time, he combined his earlier teen appeal with a darker, more idiosyncratic approach hinted at in songs like Orpheus on the Images album. Walker drove a fine line between classic ballads, his own compositions and Brel covers, all delivered inimitably.

At the peak of his fame in 1969, he had his own British TV series, Scott, featuring solo Walker performances of ballads, big band standards and introductions of his own and Brel compositions. In recent interviews he admitted that a self-indulgent complacency crept into his choice of material and his reliance on slow tempos by his third album.

Walker released his fourth solo LP, Scott 4, his first made up entirely of his own material. The ballads and Brel were gone and the sound was pared down. The album failed to chart and was deleted soon after. It has been speculated that the decision to release the album as "Noel Scott Engel" rather than his stage name contributed to its chart failure.

Starting with 'Til The Band Comes In (1970), the early 70s saw Walker revert to cover versions of popular film tunes and a serious flirtation with the country and western scene. Walker regards these as his lost years as an artist, though others claim the albums of this time are underrated. However, his subsequent albums — The Moviegoer (1972), Any Day Now (1973), Stretch (1973), and We Had It All (1974) — featured no original material whatsoever.

Walker Brothers Reunite

Perhaps for mutual protection, the Walker Brothers reunited in 1975 to produce three albums. Their first single, No Regrets, from the album of the same title climbed to No. 7 on the British charts.

However, follow up singles, Lines, and others from the second album failed to chart. Walker regards Lines as the best single the Walkers released.

With the imminent demise of their record label the Walkers collaborated on an album of original material that was in stark contrast to the country flavoured tunes of the first two albums. Personal issues intervened for John and they split once more, a move he says he now regrets.

Return to Solo Works

Known for being private and reclusive, Walker's recording activity has been sporadic since the late 1970s. He has released just three albums since 1980: 1984's Climate of Hunter, the darker Tilt in 1995 and The Drift in 2006. Critical acclaim for The Drift placed it as high as No. 2 on the Metacritic chart on release in June 2006. It was still listed at No. 12 at the end of September 2006.

In tangent developments in 1993 Walker co-wrote and co-performed (with Goran Bregović) the single "Man From Reno" for the soundtrack of the film Toxic Affair. In 1996 he recorded the song "I Threw It All Away" under the direction of Nick Cave for inclusion in the soundtrack for the film To Have And To Hold. Three years later he recorded the David Arnold song "Only Myself To Blame", for the soundtrack of the Bond film The World Is Not Enough. That same year he wrote and produced the soundtrack for the Léos Carax film Pola X, which was released as an album. Scott Walker wrote and produced two songs for Ute Lemper the following year, and went on to produce Pulp's 2001 album We Love Life.

Walker is a continuing influence on other artists, in particular Marc Almond, Billy MacKenzie of the Associates, David Sylvian, the Divine Comedy/Neil Hannon, and cult performer Glyn Styler. In 2000 he curated the London South Bank Centre's annual summer live music festival, Meltdown, which has a tradition of celebrity curators. He did not perform at Meltdown himself, but wrote the music for The Richard Alston Dance Project item Thimblerigging.

The Drift (2006)

In October 2003 Walker was given an award for his contribution to music by the British music magazine Q. This was presented by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, and Scott received a standing ovation at the presentation. This award has been presented only twice before, the first time to Phil Spector, and the second to Brian Eno. The release of a retrospective box set, 5 Easy Pieces, comprising five themed discs spanning Walker's work with The Walker Brothers, his solo career (including film soundtrack work), and the two pieces composed for Ute Lemper, followed soon after.

The British independent label 4AD Records signed Walker in early 2004 and his first album in 11 years, The Drift, was released on 8th May 2006 to strong reviews. In recent interviews he appears more at ease with media attention. He reveals a wish to produce albums more frequently and hints at significant changes in material if and when it suits him.

In June of 2006 MOJO Magazine and Radio honoured Scott Walker with The MOJO Icon Award: "Voted for by MOJO readers and Mojo4music users, the recipient of this award has enjoyed a spectacular career on a global scale". It was presented by Phil Alexander.

A documentary film, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, was completed in 2006 by New York film director Stephen Kijak (Cinemania and Never Met Picasso). Interviews were recorded with David Bowie (executive producer of the film), Radiohead, Sting, Gavin Friday and many musicians associated with Walker over the years. The World Premiere of Scott Walker: 30 Century Man took place as part of the 50th London Film Festival. Ironically, a phrase from the opening track of The Drift: “You could easily picture this in the current top ten…”, proved prophetic when The Independent released its list of "Ten must-see films" at the 50th London Film Festival- Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, was among them. A documentary on Walker containing a substantial amount of footage from the film was shown on BBC1 in May 2007 as part of their Imagine... strand, presented by Alan Yentob.

Most recently Walker released Darkness as part of a CD compilation of the Margate Exodus project, a re-telling of the Book of Exodus, the story of Moses and his search for the promised land. Ten singer-songwriters were commissioned by Artangel to write and record a song inspired by one of the ten biblical plagues. Walker’s evocation of Darkness appears as the ninth. Stephen Kijak's critical comment is: "I’ve just heard...DARKNESS. More like a blast of BLINDING LIGHT...Breathtaking. This is no Drift b-side, have not heard the likes of this from [Scott Walker] before."[citation needed]

Discography

The Walker Brothers

Solo

Selected compilations

As producer

Tribute Albums

Quotation

"I've become the Orson Welles of the record industry. People want to take me to lunch, but nobody wants to finance the picture...I keep hoping that when I make a record, I'll be asked to make another one. I keep hoping that if I can make a series of three records, then I can progress and do different things each time. But when I have to get it up once every 10 years... it's a tough way to work." —in an interview for The Independent, April 1995.

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