I've been a fan of Jackie Kashian's comedy for years. One of her podcasts, The Dork Forest, allows guests from different backgrounds to wax enthusiastically in infintestimal detail about a passion of theirs. I'll be recording a chat with Jackie next week about my favorite artist in any medium, Scott Walker. (Edit: here it is if the embedded link doesn't show)At the time of writing this I'm not sure how I sound. I fear I may have been too general during the chat out of nervousness. If the broad strokes peak your curiosity, hopefully the playlists will fill in the details. Small correction-out of nerves I initially referenced Bradey Corbet as a musician when I meant to say director.
After discovering Scott's astonishing creative arc and story in 2016, his often epic, alternately luminous and pitch black baroque music shaved down over time to its spare essential core, kept me close company in these past trying years.
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.
