Scott Walker – the seminal ‘Scott’ series
Scott – 1967 – Philips Records
Scott 2 – 1968 – Philips Records
Scott 3 – 1969 – Philips Records
Scott 4 – 1969 – Philips Records
Mp3 / 320
This series of seminal albums by Scott Engel came as a shock at the time.
Imagine one of those retards from Boyzone creating a solo LP like Dylan’s “Desire” … and you’re in the ballpark!
These wonderful albums are a galaxy away from the Walker Brothers!
However, they never sold at the time and it wasn’t until much later that accumulated critical opinion put these great albums back on the map!
These albums a must have for true fans of music!
Truly wonderful!
Scott Walker shed the Walker Brothers’ mantle and began a solo career in a style clearly glimpsed in Images, the Walkers’ last album. To this he added risqué recordings of Jacques Brel songs, translated by Mort Shuman (who was also responsible for the hit musical Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris). The influence of Brel is important as regards Walker’s songwriting but should not be over-stated. His vocal style remained consistent throughout this period.
Walker’s own original songs of this period were clearly influenced by Brel as he explored European musical roots while expressing his own American experience. He was also reaching a new maturity as a recording artist.
In 1968 Walker 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 was given his own BBC TV series, Scott, featuring solo Walker performances of ballads, big band standards and introductions of his own and Brel compositions. Footage of the show is currently very rare as recordings were not archived. Walker’s fourth solo album was an LP of songs from the TV series entitled Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from his TV Series.
Walker released his fifth solo LP, Scott 4, in 1969. This was his first to be made up entirely of self-penned material. The ‘standards’ 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 under the name “Noel Scott Engel” rather than his stage name contributed to its chart failure.
In recent interviews, Walker has suggested that by his third solo LP, a self-indulgent complacency had crept into his choice of material. 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 and in fact contain several near-definitive readings of classic songs. The Moviegoer (1972), Any Day Now (1973), Stretch (1973), and We Had It All (1974) feature no original material whatsoever.
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.
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’s 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.
Read all about the great man here: wikipedia/Scott_Engel
Scott Walker performing Mathilde
The Old Man’s Back Again: Scott Walker
from http://www.urbanhonking.com
Ain’t nothin’ like a bonafide legend to inflate a forgotten musician’s historical worth. It’s too often in these cases that it’s an artist’s story, and not their musical legacy, that compels their discography. and there’s hardly a stranger legend than that of Scott Walker.
After several years recording forgotten teen pop songs under his Christian name, Ohio-born Scotty Engel moved out to Hollywood where in 1964 he met aspiring singers John Maus and Gary Leeds. The threesome christened themselves the Walker Brothers for some reason or another, and made the somewhat unprecedented decision to move to the U.K. to try to hit it big. Within a year, they had a number one hit in the England, we’re nearly as big as the Beatles, and became, strangely enough, a part of the British Invasion. A sort of boy band in the traditional sense, the Walkers weren’t really a creative force–rarely playing on their own records, rarely writing their own songs–but with Scott’s comically crooned baritone, the group had half a dozen U.K. hits, though largely ignored in the U.S. They weren’t really much of a rock band, inspired more by passe American crooners than the reckless Brits, but somehow they managed a respectable cult through the mid-sixties.
In 1967, as the Walker Brothers’ stock began to wane, Scott released Scott, his first solo album, to wide critical acclaim and even greater record sales. Weird thing is, Scott is a super dark, morbid, bizarre pop record, filled with covers of his idol, Jaque Brel, like “My Death” and “Amsterdam,” not to mention its ridiculous arrangements, with obscenely over-dramatic strings, horns, and other orchestrations composed merely to support Scott’s deathly croon. Scott, though a little too much to get used all at once, revels itself to be the work of a true eccentricity: that somehow managed to hit #3 on the U.K. charts at the height of the psychedelic era.
For the next three years, Walker continued his solo streak with three more amazing records, Scott 2-4, each release affording him more control than the last. By the time he recorded Scott 4, his first album comprised entirely of originals, Walker had produced three top ten albums (with Scott 2 hitting number one), and gotten more and more obtuse with every release. Scott 4, though widely acknowledged as his greatest work, sold considerably less than his previous solo records. Still, Walker was popular enough for the BBC to give him a short-lived television show, and to remain a very public celebrity, in spite of most of his material reflecting morose subject matter like suicide, prostitution, and, um, Stalin.
Then came the ’70s….between 1970 and 1974, Walker recorded five unsuccessful (both musically and financially) records in a row, scared off by the misfortune of his own songwriting on 4, the records were largely covers, and without the adventuresome morose of his previous output.
in 1975, the Walker Brothers reunited to little fanfare, recording a six minute emo brood called “No Regrets”which, somehow, became yet another inexplicable hit for Walker. Three reunion records followed with little success, despite being celebrated by folks like Eno, Ferry, and Bowie (who famously covered “My Death” in a very Walker-like fashion).
and then Walker simply vanished.
A famed recluse, Walker wasn’t seen in public for nearly twenty years. Releasing a single record in the 80s, 1984′s surprisingly modern Climate of Hunter (an exploration of ambient minimalism), Walker was absent for another 11 years with nary a public appearance.
then it got really weird. In 1995, Walker re-emerged at the age of 52 with a release on Drag City, of all places, called Tilt, which may very well be one of the most alienating pop records ever recorded. Gone is Walker’s rich, full baritone. Gone are the boisterous orchestrations. Gone is any sense of hope whatsoever. In there place are a strained, angry tenor, bloodcurdling sparsity, and the sound of a broken soul. The record, one of the late century’s greatest anomalies, is simply amazing, like a modern day Marble Index. four years later, he recorded the soundtrack to Pola X in much the same vein, and at the beginning of the century, persuaded by Walker-phile Jarvis Cocker to produce Pulp’s most recent record, We Love Life (whose single, “Bad Cover Version,” actually takes a jab at one of Walker’s early records).
The legend of Scott Walker is matched only by his amazingly polarizing discography, so impenetrable, so bizarre, and some how, however briefly, so commercially successful. Scott Walker’s transformation from teen idol to British pop star to bizarro-world Tom Jones to experimental pop senior is a little far fetched, even in the spectrum of the British 60s, but it’s all as true as his title. The Greatest Band of All Time.
Some great Scott pix from Chris Walter here: photofeatures.com/scottwalker
Scott Walker – the seminal ‘Scott’ series
Scott – 1967 – Philips Records
Scott 2 – 1968 – Philips Records
Scott 3 – 1969 – Philips Records
Scott 4 – 1969 – Philips Records
Scott
1. “Mathilde” – 2:39
2. “Montague Terrace (in blue)” – 3:31
3. “Angelica” – 4:02
4. “The lady came from Baltimore” – 1:59
5. “When Joanna loved me” – 3:08
6. “My death” – 4:57
7. “The big hurt” – 2:26
8. “Such a small love” – 4:55
9. “You’re gonna hear from me” – 2:53
10. “Through a long and sleepless night” – 4:12
11. “Always coming back to you” – 2:41
12. “Amsterdam” – 3:04
Scott 2
1. “Jackie” – 3:23
2. “Best of Both Worlds” – 3:14
3. “Black Sheep Boy” – 2:39
4. “The Amorous Humphrey Plugg” – 4:31
5. “Next” – 2:50
6. “The Girls from the Streets” – 4:11
7. “Plastic Palace People” – 6:06
8. “Wait Until Dark” – 2:59
9. “The Girls and the Dogs” – 3:10
10. “Windows of the World” – 4:25
11. “The Bridge” – 2:50
12. “Come Next Spring” – 3:24
http://rapidshare.com/files/39343619/S2.zip
Scott 3
1. “It’s Raining Today” – 4:01
2. “Copenhagen” – 2:22
3. “Rosemary” – 3:22
4. “Big Louise” – 3:10
5. “We Came Through” – 1:58
6. “Butterfly” – 1:42
7. “Two Ragged Soldiers” – 3:06
8. “30 Century Man” – 1:29
9. “Winter Night” – 1:45
10. “Two Weeks Since You’ve Gone” – 2:48
11. “Sons Of” – 3:44
12. “Funeral Tango” – 2:55
13. “If You Go Away” – 4:56
Scott 4
1. “The Seventh Seal” – 4:57
2. “On Your Own Again” – 1:48
3. “The World’s Strongest Man” – 2:21
4. “Angels Of Ashes” – 4:21
5. “Boy Child” – 3:38
6. “Hero Of The War” – 2:28
7. “The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalinist Regime)” – 3:43
8. “Duchess” – 2:50
9. “Get Behind Me” – 3:14
10. “Rhymes Of Goodbye” – 3:04
The B-side, “Amsterdam”, was a cover of the wonderful Belgian songwriter 
