Last year was pretty difficult to focus. I think most of us can relate. Still, between everything going on (check a few posts prior to this one), I'm glad to have accomplished something.
Personally, I'm beginning to come out of the fog. I used my pandemic assistance to purchase a powerful gaming type pc that's up to more complex animation tasks, and with my bonus rewards, the entire Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, a year paid in advance. Also a GoPro 360 Max. It's a incredibly useful 360 degree camera, a tool I plan to utilize for rotoscoping and more. I'm working on a friend's song for a music video with edited and enhanced GoPro footage. More on that later.
Here are the supplementary chronological playlists I'll be linking from the show--spanning his sixty year career. There's a Spotify playlist paired with a Youtube for each era. Recently some tracks have been pulled from streaming sites (namely a few from Tilt as of writing this) but the youtube sites are still intact and more thorough. Scott's lost period is Youtube only, as he did not allow re-releases from this era on the main streaming sites.
Scott Walker chronological playlist 1957-1970: teen idol to portrait of the artist as a young man The recordings start with Scotty Engel (Noel Scott Engel), former child actor from television and Broadway, emerging as a teen idol. After his stint as Eddie Fisher's protégé and guest on his television show, Scott took a backseat to spotlight in favor of supporting other acts, playing as a session musician and occasionally writing his own music. After pairing with friend and fellow musician John Maus in different lineups, they settled on The Walker Brothers and changed their stage names accordingly. Once Scott's baritone was highlighted in a single, he eclipsed John as the lead singer and band leader. Though successful-with a fanbase that had rivaled The Beatles, Scott became restless and broke away in order to find his path beyond conventional rock/pop. Starting in a series of solo work, Scott recorded the first English translations to the dark humored, sexually explicit, seedy stories in Belgian Jacques Brel's songs. Brel also influenced Scott's writing, a shaded lens to filter his own autobiographical memories and observations. By 1969 was the release of Scott 4, a gorgeous and ambitious work of all self-penned originals, the peak of Scott's early period. Possibly due to the release under "Noel Scott Engel" instead of his stage name as well as the not quite rock n roll 3/4 tempo of his previous release-setting it apart from the times, the album commercially tanked.
Scott Walker - lost & hiding in plain sight 1970~1976 Following the commercial failure of Scott Walker's most vulnerable and personal album SCOTT 4 (now recognised as the peak of his early period and a masterpiece) was a creative limbo, a "wilderness" period of working off of record company contracts, his songwriting reined in, discouraged, and then ceased altogether in favor of MOR adult contemporary covers. Scott later disavowed this period of work, blocking reissues when he could. Even though his heart was not committed to this work, it still contains strong interpretations of standards, and explorations in country music. His self labled fallow period was followed by a rebirth and startling originality, starting with his contribution (the first four songs) on The Walker Brother Nite Flights, to 2018.
Scott Walker Chronological Overview 1978-1995 Reemergence and Revolutions Through the odd luck of his record company going out of business, Scott was released from further artistic and stylistic restraints. He leapt over his imposed easy
listening covers, often designated in the early to mid 70's as "your parent's
music", to writing and producing original dangerous, unsentimental, disturbing,
and often challenging songs. His four contributions to his reunited Walker Brothers "Nite Flights" album influenced the sound of the
80's and beyond, particularly goth-rock. Dark themes dominated with a vengenance, often circling on
the abuse of power, oppression, and death. Tilt embraces both classical and
industrial rock (Nine Inch Nails cited as an influence) to dress Scott's lyrics.
Scott Walker 2000-2018: Outer Orbit Scott continuing on his themes of violence, sadomasochism, addiction, abuse of power, and death in his lyrics, dressed accordingly to sound on albums The Drift, Bish Bosch, and Soused (with drone metal band Sunn O))) ). His concluding life's work was orchestrated soundtracks to Brady Corbet's films Childhood Of A Leader (2016) and Vox Lux (2018). Childhood of a Leader is about the making of a fascist, and Vox Lux about the relentless machinery of our news and pop media, spawning and churning a cycle of superficial glitz, notoriety and violence in a quest for immortality.
Here's a couple of clips and a series of stills from David Huntsberger's upcoming comedy animation special, "Big Nothingness". I'm eager to see the complete special with the contributions from the other animators. Sorry about the wonky formatting if you're on a smartphone. Blogger is weird sometimes.
