i started watching 30th Century Man last night and i'm pretty much astonished that i don't know more about this songwriter.

someone posted a 1969-themed mix with The Old Man's Back Again on it, which i thought was interesting but never really dug deeper.

he almost seems like a proto-peter gabriel, going from pop to reclusive art rock genius. a crooner from the darkside...the lizard king and lee hazlewood fucked into one person. i'm not sure what to make of him yet.

so on this friday morning, can you obner folk help me wrap my head around scott walker?

feel free to post album reccs, links and youtubes to essentials, opine, theorize, speculate, ad infinitum...


i must know.

I have and enjoy Scott Walker 2 and Scott Walker 3. He's very oddball in that he has more in common with Sinatra than his contemporaries. It's not something I listen to regularly but it definitely has it's place. 2 and 3 is all I have but I think that's the place to start.

...and I only have Scott and The Drift, which are separated by a good 39 years. I much prefer The Drift, but Scott is kind of interesting for what it is. It predates his true weirdness but does foreshadow it just a little bit.

hoping to learn a thing or two in this thread too, as i'm similarly mystified. love the drift, and the total other direction of the crooning scott records too. reminds me that i have a copy of tilt that i haven't even opened, despite feeling dark fairly frequently!



the drift

thanks jsh! i'll spend some time with that this weekend

so if we had to put scott walker on a 3-artist bill, what would make the most sense? not as in "your dream bill" or "people who would be really interesting with scott walker," but rather "other artists who appear to have gone down a similar or parallel path"...

this is an association exercise for my benefit

Leonard Cohen & Brian Eno?

wow

lightbulbs...

30th century man is what got me into scott walker, too. my stepmother actually had a few walker bros singles that i'd heard when i raided her record collection in college, but i'd only ever heard a handful of other songs by him until 2-3 years ago.

i like the 4 scott albums. i really enjoyed seeing his recording process for the more recent stuff as it's shown in the documentary, but i haven't gotten around to listening to those albums in full. the recordings of hitting the meat? awesome.

random thought...i think steve buscemi would play a good latter-day walker if they made a movie about his life

Brel's 'Mathilde' and 'Montague Terrace in Blue' off of 'Scott' are worth listening to .. the horns on that album just get it done.

oh, absolutely cosigned on the horns with "mathilde" especially.

"Next" is all about syphilitic sailors.

I just adore Walker and his magnificent, baroque pop. If you can find Five Easy Pieces, do yourself a solid and pick it up. It's got everything you need in there and then some.

It's Raining Today is another classic Walker track.

I have Scott 1-4 and can up if interested

definitely interested ducky

sorry for abandoning the thread yesterday, i only worked half a day

i'll check these reccs out and probably muse some more on monday

here's Scott 2

just listened to Scott 2 in its entirety.

god damn, i'm so conflicted on this. the weepy strings and horns a la "special sale on aisle 3" are really not my cup of tea (makes me think of old spinsters with vast collections of glass figurines and beehive hair), but when he sings about gonorrhea in the same suede croon sinatra sings Only The Lonely, it just kinda blows my mind

Scott 4


Scott


I probably listen to 4 the most. I see what you're saying. The oddness of the lyrics are appealing, especially with this style of music. I can see how it might not appeal to some people though.

sweet...i'll suckle on these tomorrow

listening to scott (s/t) atm

maurice jarre with john ashcroft tripping balls

no mention of TILT...probably his best.

turns out there's a hipinion version of this thread as of yesterday

i'm gonna assume it's coincidence

point is, there are some links there too