Scott Walker Biography
Noel Scott Engel, 9 January 1943, Hamilton, Ohio, USA. After relocating to New York during childhood, this precocious talent initially pursued a career as an actor, and also briefly recorded in 1957 under the name Scotty Engel. Moving to Hollywood, he worked on sessions with arranger Jack Nitzsche before joining the Routers in 1961 as a bass player. He next teamed up with singer John Maus as the Dalton Brothers, which gradually evolved into the Walker Brothers with the addition of drummer Gary Leeds. The trio moved to England and found themselves fêted as teen-idols, with a string of hits that established them as one of the most successful UK-based groups of the mid-60s. The group broke up in May 1967 at a time when Scott was still regarded as a sex symbol and potential solo superstar. Yet there was something contradictory about the singer's image. Ridden with angst during the Walker Brothers' teen-idol peak, he was known for his moody reclusiveness, tendency to wear dark glasses and stay in curtain-closed rooms during daylight hours. The classic pop existentialist, Walker was trapped in a system that regarded him as a contradiction. Walker's manager Maurice King encouraged a straightforward showbusiness career involving regular television appearances and even cabaret. Walker, meanwhile, had become a devotee of French composer Jacques Brel and included several of his songs on his debut solo album, Scott. There is no finer example of the contradiction that Walker faced than the incongruous image of the singer performing Brel's "My Death" on BBC television's chirpy Billy Cotton Band Show. Walker's quirky and stylistically diverse vision juxtaposed the brutal visions of Brel with contemporary MOR standards such as Tony Bennett's "When Joanna Loved Me". Walker was also displaying immense talent as a songwriter in his own right with poetic, brooding songs, such as "Such A Small Love" and "Always Coming Back To You". Eschewing young, modern producers, Walker stuck with the lush, orchestral arrangements of Johnny Franz, Reg Guest, Peter Knight and Wally Stott on his subsequent self-titled albums. The results were rendered unique by Walker's distinctive, deep, crooning tone and strong vibrato. On the strength of the Walker Brothers' dedicated audience, Scott's solo albums were chart successes in the UK, but as an artist he remained the great contradiction. Singer-songwriter, MOR entertainer, Brel interpreter and television personality, his entire career dramatized a constant clash between pop star trappings and artistic endeavour. Even his similarly titled hit singles emphasized the grand contradiction: "Jackie" was a racy Brel song that mentioned "authentic queers and phoney virgins" and was banned by the BBC; "Joanna" was pure schmaltz, written by the Tin Pan Alley husband and wife team Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent. Walker's uneasiness about his career was emphasized in a number of confusing decisions and record releases. At one point, he reverted to his real surname Engel, and announced that he would no longer be issuing singles. While 1969's brilliant Scott 4 at last contained solely original material and might have heralded the re-evaluation of Walker as a serious songwriter, the BBC chose that very same period to issue the MOR Scott Walker Sings Songs From His TV Series. Undervalued and apparently uncertain about his direction, Walker's muse grew increasingly weary after the 60s. Reissued in 1996, 'Til The Band Comes In, his 1970 collaboration with manager and songwriter Ady Semel however, is a joy of discovery. Released a year after the Woodstock Festival, Walker could not have been more out of step with musical fashion, yet more than 25 years later the quality of the songs stands up, and above all they feature a voice to weep to. By 1972 he seemed to bow to popular demand by recording an album of cover versions, The Moviegoer. A shift towards country music followed before Scott reunited with Maus and Leeds in the mid-70s for a series of Walker Brothers albums. Thereafter he retreated from the music business. His enigmatic career, remarkable voice and intense songwriting continued to inspire a new generation of performers, however, including Julian Cope (who selected 1981's Fire Escape In The Sky: The Godlike Genius Of Scott Walker), Marc Almond (who provided sleeve notes for 1990's Boy Child) and a number of deep, crooning vocalists, who attempted to replicate that unique vibrato. Walker returned to the studio to record 1984's critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful Climate Of Hunter, a complex and difficult collection of songs that proved too challenging for many ears. After its release Walker returned to his second love, painting, and retreated from the public eye once more. Then, in 1992, he surprised everyone by signing a major recording contract. Three years later he delivered Tilt, the most ear-challenging work he has recorded to date. The album found two distinct camps: one that criticized him for not delivering the smooth ballads of old and the other (a much younger audience) who found this difficult, semi-operatic work intriguing. The record company showed a great sense of humour when they released the title track as a single. In the late 90s, Walker contributed new recordings to several movie soundtracks, including a cover version of Bob Dylan's "I Threw It All Away" for To Have And To Hold, and "Only Myself To Blame" for the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. He also composed the soundtrack for Leos Carax's Pola X, and in June 2000 organised the London South Bank's Meltdown Festival. Rumours of a new album circulated in 2005 and the following year he delivered The Drift. It was dense, it was challenging, it was existentialist; and for some, it was unlistenable.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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