Customer Reviews

Boy Child 67-70

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This music has affected me like nothing I have heard in years, and I listen to A LOT of music. I can safely say that you've never heard anything like this before, EVER.

You'll probably get as far as the first song collected here, "Montague Terrace (In Blue)"(in blue, no less!), where Scott sings in that amazing voice: "We're swallowed in the stomach-room", and you will either automatically hit the "eject" button, or you will forcibly resist that impulse because you literally cannot believe what you are hearing. You'll try to deny it, to laugh it off. You'll swear you could never possibly actually LIKE this stuff, but you'll keep coming back. Scott Walker has you in his grip.

Prepare to do internet searches on Scott Walker to learn more about the originator of this unbelievable music. Prepare to invest in all of his first 4 CD's, only to realize that there are now newly re-mastered editions available with restored artwork and 24-bit sound. Prepare to buy the all of these new versions and end up with 2 copies of all of his early albums. Prepare to invest in his more recent works as well (skip Climate of Hunter, and do not listen to Tilt in the dark by yourself). I know all this, because this is exactly what happened to me. And I'm not even mad about it.

Imagine a rock-and-roll Sartre with Sinatra's vocal chops and backing band, singing songs about man's inhumanity to man, all played entirely WITHOUT irony. I couldn't believe it either, until I finally accepted what I was hearing. Scott Walker is clearly a genius, but definitely not a happy man, and alienation is his primary theme.

If this description does not deter you (and it should deter some of you), I urge you to purchase this collection and fall in love with the pure unbelievable HUMANITY of Scott Walker's art.

BTW: Keep Scott Walker to yourself, your friends will never, ever understand. It's that special.

Tired of the occasionally great yet essentially derivative Walker Brothers formula, Scott Engel kept his stage name in a solo career which whilst eventually sending him off into obscurity, also all too briefly showed a songwriting talent of startling originality and skill. Backed by immense yet bleak walls of orchestrated sound, Scott's heavenly 'croon' (it is often described so, but deserves much more) pours out melancholic lyrics of genuine genius. Believe me- its the real deal, sometimes too intense to bear.
This compilation takes many highlights from his 4 eponymous LPs, as well as rescuing prize cuts from ''Til the Band Comes In'. The perfect place to start before becoming immersed in Scott-dom, almost all of the best cuts are here (from 'It's Raining Today' and 'War Is Over' to 'The Plague' and 'Montague Terrace...and 'On Your Own Again'...and 'Angels Of Ashes'... in fact, i could spend forever listing the highlights, as there is barely a dud track. Just one problem- where's 'Rosemary' form 'Scott 3'?
An acknowledged influence on acts from Pulp and Radiohead to Julian Cope and The Divine Comedy, Scott Walker made some of the most original and touching music of the 60's. THIS is the place to start.

I'll admit Scott Walker is an acquired taste. Here 60's MOR meets the avant-garde. Walker's songs have all the big brass & string production of a vintage Bacharach tune, saddled with lyrics that are closer to Leonard Cohen than Hal David.

Vocally, he comes across like a reluctant Vegas crooner with the heart of Ingmar Bergman sliding off his sleeve. Sinatra or Bobby Darrin with a serious case of literary pretention. If you ever thought The Seventh Seal needed a theme song, you'll find it here. The Plague takes Albert Camus' novel & sets it to a moody dance groove. The results are more winning that you think.

Elsewhere, Walker corners the market on manic-depressive waltzes. Bedsit rainy sundays, carosels & after-hours boulevard ennui are some of Walker's tradmark fare. Among the most effective are Montague Terrace, Copenhagen & It's raining Today.Girls From The Streets takes its cue from Jaques Brel and on Time Operator he comes off like an existential Sinatra.

Most of what Walker's cult status is based on is here. There's always room to quibble, but this is truely a "best of" in my book. Granted, Walker's lyrics can can be a bit too pretentious for their own good. His brand of purple prose isn't for everyone & combined with decidedly dated production values, some songs come off as unintentionally hilarious. Plastic Plalace People being a case in point. But when all is said & done, it's Walker's rich, eerie baritone that lures you in. You could shell out for the poorly packaged Mercury box set, or pick this up. Truth be told, outside of buying Scott's I-IV, this is all you need of his classic years. Though, if you like this, I'd also heartily recommend his album of Jacques Brel covers. All of which may prepare you for the bizarre heights of Climate Of Hunter, Tilt & The Drift. But that's another story.

For those of us who are deep-steeped in the melodrama of burnished velvet orchestral movements and silver-tongued balladry of the accomplished troubadour, this compilation of Scott Walker's earlier solo work is necessitous and elemental. Originally released in 2000, the 20 compositions featured on this album are a tremendous introduction to Walker's work from 1967-1970 (before his flirtation with country/western in the 70's and his more complex exploratories from 1995 on). The tracks, in chronological order, illustrate Walker's progression from structured ballad to insightful narrative and ultimately to the roots of his recondite extractions. The swirling melodies bowed by swelling strings, the distant echoes of lustrous choruses, the unwavering vibrato--it's a thicker liquor that doesn't just get you drunk, it gets you reciting Yeats and Auden before you pass out.

And if this is all too much for you, there are other reasons to buy this CD. Because you like Pulp/Jarvis Cocker/Richard Hawley, Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon pens the introduction in the liner notes), Nick Cave, Serge Gainsbourg, and the like. Because you want an art-tinged credibility to your existing music collection. Because you're tired of predictable pop tarts and mommy-rock and you need something more gourmet and less burger bar. Do yourself a favor--put down the boy band and give the boy child a respectable listen.

The original works of Scott Walker, collected here in this edition, are a magnifecent representation of sorrow and beauty. His writing genius is only matched by his glorious baratone voice, and in the earnest manner of which he carries his own tunes. This collection is a rare look into not only Walker's tarnished soul, but into our own heavnes and hells as well. If you are a fan of Nick Cave, Tom Jones, or Johnny Hartman, I would recommend you pick this up immediately.

Someone has suggested to me that Scott Walker is mad - as nutty as a fruitcake. My answer to that observation is that I don't know if he is or not. All I know is that he is one of the finest male singers of the 20th century.

All the selections on this album are Walker originals - the last four are collaborations with Ady Semel - and come from his first five albums. All show a composer at the top of his game and in tune with the production team who helped create the finished articles.

The great thing about this album is that if someone was looking for a hit single here, they would be out of luck. Just like there are no songs here by one of his great influences, Jacques Brel, there are no chart hits here - just a wonderful collection of songs luxuriatingly swathed in numerous layers of tumultuous strings and voices which, to me, sound as vibrant as they did when they were recorded 30-odd years ago. There is nothing here which sounds dated!!! All the tracks are as good as the next, so it would be useless for me to identify what the strongest are. However, from the five albums which these come from, Scott 3 is my favourite.

Scott Walker is one of those personalities who would rather not be a personality - eschewing as far as he can any public attention and interest in him; a private man in the extreme sense of the phrase.

So what have we got here - a man of mystery, tormented, a perfectionist who didn't go on stage if he didn't feel like it? No doubt all of those things - the books written about him strongly suggest so. However, we have a person who is, in my humble opinion, is a genius, with a most fantastic voice and who writes music which I, and a high number of current recording artists, love and respect.

Now, someone should pull their finger out and get the box-set sorted out.

There is no easy way to classify this music. Rock, pop, even "symphonic lounge music" doesn't convey anything meaningful about Scott Walker. But as I have become familiar with this retrospective collection, a parallel came to mind with Frank Sinatra's "Only the Lonely". The styles, and the men, are quite different, but these two albums share a lot: 1) a running theme of alienation and loneliness leavened with wit and humor; 2) exquisitely sensitive orchestral arrangements; 3) lyrics that demand to be listened to; and 4) great vocalists singing their best. Both albums are the opposite of "easy listening". In fact I would call them "hard listening", not in the sense of difficult or unpleasant, but in the sense of the intensity required to listen to them properly - like playing hard.

Scott Walker is thrilling and exhilarating to listen to. He can be harsh and angry, but when he is gentle, he is as warm as the home hearth on Christmas. His voice has uncommon strength and his rich baritone blasts, shimmers, caresses, threatens and exults. There are some aspects of the orchestral arrangements that are clearly late sixties, especially on the early tracks, but the music and the lyrics are so immediate that they unbind themselves from the age. My favorites are "The Seventh Seal" and "The Old Man's Back Again", and while there are some tracks I don't care for, but they don't drag the collection down.

If you are interested in hearing what the fuss is about, start here. All Scott.

I know this album is to be a showcase of only Walker originals and a separate album of all Brell covers was released but this was a marketing ploy that did not celebrate what I will call the "Walker mystique."

The "Walker mystique," if I may dare lay claim to understanding it, is a world-weary voice that sparkles with experience and cynicism and yet suprises you with moments of beauty that seem almost naive. Walker appears never to have forgotten the wonder of the young child and this is best expressed in his song "Plastic Palace People." I suppose you could argue that song is the embodiment of the "Walker mystique." By turns magisterial in vocal, sweeping in imagery and dark in undertone, the song propels forward a vision at once many things: there is Walker the child who knows the freshness of beauty in the world and manages, mysteriously, to apprehend it, once more, for the first time. There is Walker the cynic who knows there are people in the world who are just "plastic" and conceal themselves. There is Walker the sage who has heard, one too many times, the line, "Billy/ come down from there." He won't come down from there and that is why you need to hear him.

I single out this song because it is signature Walker but is also indebted to his Brell covers. There is nothing plagiaristic here, one need simply to note that these themes are all Brell's too and Walker recasts them in a voice so characteristically his own; original and so devious. Walker can sing ugliness like it is beauty and make the delicate and ethereal seem seedy and adulterated. Brell did this too but Walker's gentleness and meat-cleaver fist can offer a double-fisted assault unique among English language performers.

Having said all of this, I wonder how songs like "It's Raining Today," The Girls From The Streets" and "Big Louise" can be heard without having first listened to Walker sing Brell's "Mathilde," "Jackie," "If You Go Away," "Next" and "Funeral Tango." I am not suggesting Walker is merely a derivative of Brell, not at all. I am only proposing that he has distilled the better angels of Brell's material and let it infuse the very best in his own songwriting. Buy this record as an addendum to the four "Scott" albums. I think you will see what I mean.

Four stars. It almost makes it there and this under-reach is hardly the fault of Scott himself.

Terrific artist deserving of much more fame in the U.S. Followers include David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Nick Cave as well as newer artists like Tindersticks, Arcade Fire, and the Last Shadow Puppets. Good song to start with is 30 Century Man (featured in The Life Aquatic Soundtrack)
Cool info on Scott Walker at baroquepopradio blogspot

Can't wait to see the documentary
[ASIN:B00227A81A Scott Walker: 30th Century Man]]