Scott Walker

Scott Walker was, is and always will be an enigma. Born in America, he was one of Britain's biggest talents with his work with the Walker Brothers and his solo material in the 60's. He is one of the few people, however, that truly spit in the face of success with his career after the Walker Brothers. His signature crooning style never left him, yet he began to cover and write songs that were morose and heartbreaking, instead of taking his Frank Sinatra/Tony Bennett voice to the bank. After a string of increasingly gutsy solo albums (entitled Scott 1-4), he worked sparingly, before re-emerging with some of the darkest material ever put to music. 1984's 'Climate Of Hunter' and 1995's 'Tilt' enraged certain fans with their morbidity and absolute subjectivity, yet fascinated those on the cutting edge of art and music, who deemed these gothic masterworks. My opinion of these albums and 2006's 'The Drift' are that they are breathtaking, yet are punishing to listen to. You feel as if you've spent time in a mental institution by the time they're over. The voice is this there however, and the writing is absolutely stunning, but you can tell he doesn't give a fuck about pleasing his old Walker Brothers fans a bit. 

The two examples I have for you, show the juxtapositions in the two era's in his career. The first is off 1967's 'Scott' (which got to number 3 on the U.K. charts at the time) and it's his cover of Jack Segal's "When Joanna Loved Me." I don't even want to track down the original because these lyrics might as well have been made by God for him to sing. The string arrangements are very representative of his work at the time and his other albums in the 'Scott' series are much like this.

The second is a fan made video put to "Cossacks Are" off 2006's 'The Drift.' The difference is pretty drastic, like I said. Yet the subject matter he chose for his solo albums were always a little dark, but this is just fucked! Very cerebral and cinematic however, with strong writing and vocal intonation. The fan-made video fits well, as it shows an old snowy town, inter-cut with war footage from 1907 and is edited in the Soviet Montage style to be in rhythm with the music.