Walker, Scott (singer)

Career start

Scott Walker at a young age (late 50s) appeared on television in the program of Eddie Fisher, under his real name and was positioned as an “idol” for a teenage audience, in the image and likeness of other youth stars of that time. Walker knew how to play the bass and played professionally enough for his young age, so that he could perform the work of a session musician in Los Angeles.

The Walker Brothers

After participating in several groups, Scott Walker, together with John Walker (real name John Mouse) and Gary Walker (real name Gary Leeds) organized the trio The Walker Brothers in Los Angeles in 1964. The initiator of the move to London was Leeds, who had recently toured the UK with PJ Probi .

The Walker Brothers appeared in the capital of the United Kingdom in early 1965 and immediately gained popularity there as pop ballad artists. Their first single, “Pretty Girls Everywhere,” featuring John Mouse as the lead vocalist, crawled up the singles table. The next track, “Love Her,” performed by Scott Walker in a deep baritone, immediately hit the singles chart. Representatives of the record company Philips became interested in the new "stray" performers from the USA.

The next single, The Walker Brothers, "Make It Easy on Yourself" - the ballad of Bert Bakarak / Hal David - hit the first place on the British chart and the sixteenth place in the USA in August 1965. After another hit - “My Ship Is Coming In” (# 3 UK, # 13 US), the “brothers” were again in first place on the British list with the single “ The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore ” in early 1966; and soon after that the number of participants in their fan club exceeded the contingent of fans of The Beatles ^[8] , which of course does not indicate the greater popularity of The Walker Brothers at that time. Nevertheless, the trio, and Scott Walker in particular, acquired the status of "pop stars".

The only difficulty was how to create a decent repertoire. As for the musical presentation of the material: they used the “ wall of sound ” technique proposed by Phil Spector in the 60s, with the participation of a symphony orchestra, with the involvement of the best British musicians and arrangers.

On the band's third studio album, Images , ballads dominate. The musical influence of John Mouse on the style of The Walker Brothers ended by this time - he performed only the solo standard “Blueberry Hill” and one composition of his own composition. Creative disagreements and nervousness in the team associated with a constant public presence led to the breakup of the trio in 1967, but the next year, The Walker Brothers got together for a short while on a tour in Japan. The band’s last two singles, Stay with Me Baby and Walking in the Rain, have embarrassed fans and critics with their old-fashioned sound. Low singles on the chart triggered a new breakup.

While on tour in Japan, Scott Walker became the producer of the Japanese rock band The Carnabeats with John Walker as a vocalist. ^[9] After returning from Japan, Scott produced the solo album of jazz guitarist Terry Smith, as well as jazz saxophonist Ray Worley. According to the book “A pipe dream: The story of Scott Walker and the Walker Brothers,” Ray Worley's album, recorded December 13 and released the following year, had little to do with the esoteric progressive jazz that Scott Walker was “driving into” at that time; the result was mediocre music for pleasure instead of jazz fusion ^[9] . In 1968, Scott Walker was also the producer of John Mouse's solo single, “Woman.” ^[9]

Solo work

Scott Walker threw off the "castoffs" of The Walker Brothers and began solo work in the style, glimpses of which were already visible on the last collective album Images . To his own compositions, the singer added rather daring cover versions of the songs of the famous Belgian artist Jacques Brel , the texts of which were translated into English by Mort Schumann (he is also responsible for the popular musical “Jacques Brel is alive and well and is found in Paris”). Brel's influence on Scott Walker's work of that time, of course, is noticeable, but he should not be exaggerated.

In 1968, Walker took up the serious study of modern and classical music; he also visited Quarr Abby Monastery on the Isle of Wight , where he studied Gregorian singing ^[10] . His performing style began to drift towards German leads and other classical musical models.

Scott Walker's early solo career developed successfully in the UK. His first three albums, Scott (1967), Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969), sold out very well and occupied high places in the charts. However, the concentrated attention on the person of the singer began to negatively affect his emotional state. He began to withdraw into himself and move away from his audience. In his work, along with his usual way of performing repertoire for teenagers, more peculiar, sometimes gloomy, motifs began to appear that were already visible on The Walker Brothers' Images album (composition “Orpheus”). Walker skillfully balanced classical ballads, songs of his own composition and works of Jacques Brel. At the peak of his fame, Scott Walker led his program on the BBC, the recordings of which were not completely preserved, since program archives were not always created. The gramophone record of Scott Walker Sings Songs from his TV Series contains records made on this program.

Scott Walker released his fifth solo album, Scott 4, in 1969. This time all the compositions presented in this work were the singer’s own compositions; cover versions of Brel's songs are a thing of the past. The album did not hit the charts. It was believed that this was due to the fact that he was released under the real name of the artist - Noel Scott Engel. All subsequent reprints of the material took place under the stage name of the singer.

In the early 70s, Scott Walker recorded popular movies and country and western songs. The albums The Moviegoer (1972), Any Day Now (1973), Stretch (1973), and We Had It All (1974) do not have songs composed by Walker himself. In the book "30th Century Man," the singer called these years "lost."

The Walker Brothers Reunion

The Walker Brothers musicians reunited in 1975, perhaps because they felt the need for mutual support. Their first single to fly 7th in the UK chart was Tom Rush's version of No Regrets. However, an album of the same name only reached 49th place in the UK. The next two singles, “Lines” and “We're All Alone,” from the 1976 album, Lines did not hit the chart. Interestingly, Scott Walker considers Lines to be the best single of the band’s entire career.

With the ever-growing threat of bankruptcy over the record company, The Walker Brothers set to work that is fundamentally different from their 70s-oriented work on country music. The result was the Nite Flights album, released in 1978 and triggered statistical reports of low sales. Music critics, by contrast, praised this material, especially Scott Walker's contribution to it. The first four songs, Nite Flights, The Electrician, Shut Out, and Fat Mama Kick, were written by Scott Walker, the last four were composed by John, and two songs in the middle of the album were composed by Gehry. The group moved away from the Middle-O-Z-Road format (light music, orchestral ballads, troubles, jazz , soft rock , quiet-storm). Extremely gloomy and unconscious sounding - especially the song “The Electrician” - became a prototype of Scott Walker's future style.

As for the group - it broke up in 1978 completely.

Return to Solo Work

The creative activity of Scott Walker since the late 70s has been sporadic. In 1981, interest in his work spurred the compilation album Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker , containing works by Scott Walker, selected by then-popular artist Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes . This album made it to the 14th place on the UK independent chart. ^[11] Since then, Scott Walker has released four albums: Climate of Hunter in 1984, Tilt in 1995, The Drift ^[12] in 2006 - this album has become one of the most highly regarded music critics. 2006 albums ^[13] , and Bisch Bosh in 2012.

Scott Walker died at 76 in London on March 22, 2019. This was reported by the 4AD record company three days later, reporting that the musician had died of cancer.

Studio Albums

Solo albums

• 1967 - Scott
• 1968 - Scott 2
• 1969 - Scott 3
• 1969 - Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from his TV Series
• 1969 - Scott 4
• 1970 - Til the Band Comes In
• 1972 - The Moviegoer
• 1973 - Any Day Now
• 1973 - Stretch
• 1974 - We Had It All
• 1984 - Climate of Hunter
• 1995 - Tilt
• 2006 - The Drift
• 2012 - Bish Bosch

The Walker Brothers

• 1965 - Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers
• 1966 - Portrait
• 1967 - Images
• 1975 - No Regrets
• 1976 - Lines
• 1978 - Nite Flights