March 18, 2025 • 30 mins
HP takes a look at the mysterious and influential Scott Walker, the coolest artist you've never heard of. He focuses on the 4 self-titled Walker solo LPs from the late-60's, his favorite songs from those albums, and what makes them special.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Why do certain bands or musicians hit it big, yet
their major inspirations fail to reach those same heights. Why
(00:28):
aren't these forebears spoken of in the same reverend tones
as the ones they inspire. It's a tricky question, for sure,
but it's been on my mind lately. For most The
names David Bowie, Leonard cohen Beck, and Brian Eno need
no introduction. But what if the genius that all those
musical heavyweights cited as a major formative influence? Tonight I'd
(00:52):
like to shed some light on a man whose work
continues to inspire and whose uncompromising ethos continues to challenge
anyone who's been lucky enough to discover his works. Tonight,
I'm pleased to introduce you to Scott Walker. Hello, listeners
(01:16):
to another episode of Noise Junkies. I'm hp this episode,
I'll be discussing the first four solo albums of the
one and only Scott Walker. These are the albums that
put Walker on the map and created a lasting legacy
that resonates to this day. I first became aware of
Scott Walker through a coworker's recommendation way back in the
(01:38):
early two thousands. This buddy shared many of the same
tastes in music that I did. He was a bit
older than me, so occasionally he would hit me to
something from his collection that was before my time. One day,
we were hanging out in his office chatting about Bowie.
At some point, my friend compared Bowie to someone named
Scott Walker, who I asked. He looked at me skeptically.
(02:01):
You've never heard of Scott Walker. He rummaged through his
desk and retrieved the greatest hit CD of Walker's late
sixties albums. Listen to this, he implored, You'll love it.
He went on to cite Scott Walker as an influence
on Bowie, Beck and others. He said, check out these songs.
You'll totally hear the influence. All right, I replied and
(02:24):
took the CD back to my desk in the Cube farm.
Hyping something can be a bit fraught for me. Usually
the more someone tells me you have to listen to
this or you have to watch this, it ends up
having the opposite effect, maybe because it can't possibly live
up to the advanced expectations. But in this case it
(02:45):
was absolutely true. I fell in love with this collection
of songs and with the mystery of this individual I'd
never heard of before, but who so clearly had influenced
many of my favorite acts. Who was this guy? I assumed,
from the avant garde posture, the rich sixties melding of
pop music and baroque, that this guy must be some
(03:06):
British musical giant. As it turns out, I was both
wrong and right at the same time. Scott Walker wasn't
even his real name. He was born Noel Scott Engel
in Hamilton, Ohio, of all places. This guy I mistook
for an erudite Englishman was from the good old American Midwest,
(03:28):
but I wasn't far off. His success came mostly via
the UK, first with the pop act The Walker Brothers,
then later as a solo act. He formed The Walker
Brothers in nineteen sixty one with singer guitarist John Mouse,
who had adopted the fake stage name John Walker so
he could perform in clubs while underage. They added drummer
(03:49):
Gary Leads to the band shortly thereafter, and all of
them took the stage name Walker. Although they had some
success Stateside, their real success came after they emigrated to
the un K. Marketed essentially as a teen pop act,
they scored several top ten albums and singles in the UK,
including the classic The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Anymore Lonely, No, It's the sun Shine.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
The Supposedly, their popularity overseas reached such a peak, particularly
(05:04):
among teenage girls, that their fan club was alleged to
have been larger than that of the Beatles. After several
successful albums, including many more hit singles, internal tensions within
the band came to a head and they broke up
in nineteen sixty seven. Eventually they would reunite, but that's
a story for another episode. As a solo artist, Scott
(05:27):
Walker began to shed his earlier teeny bopper image and
set out to establish a darker, more mature vision of
his music. His first album, simply titled Scott, mostly featured covers,
but did contain several original compositions. The song Montague Terras
in Blue tells the story of an apartment populated with
(05:48):
an assemblage of sad or doomed figures, including the narrator himself.
The sharply observed lyrics are matched by the dynamic orchestrations
of Angela Morley, who would work with Walker on each
of his first four solo records. Listen to Walker's resident delivery,
the way he clings to the notes and tell me
(06:08):
it doesn't remind you of the distinctive croon Bowie later adopted.
Right around the Young Americans album, Bowie clearly picked up
a trick or two from Walker.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The little clock stop ticking.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Now we're swallowed in the stoma room.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
The onlys sound to tear the night comes from the
man upstairs. His floated belching figure stops.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You may crash.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Through the ceiling suit.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
The window sees trees cry from cold.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And clab the moon.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
But we know.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Don't and will dreams lol.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
O.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
Monic Uari is in Blue.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Another Walker original from his first solo album is the
song such a Small Love. The lyrics interpolate a funeral
with images of coldness and separation. The screeching strings that
feature prominently during the verses add to the disquieting texture
of the song.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Her face penetrates of blue gray morning, Her eyeses.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Regnant pools producity.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Someone should have shouted, you had gone.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
In her ear, that summer was stolen.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Away.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Such a small.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Such a little tear. You would laugh so loud.
Speaker 9 (09:06):
If you could see us see with my.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
One badly presstem.
Speaker 10 (09:22):
Like a child.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Even the covers on the album are decidedly off kilter
and bleak, including three songs from the celebrated Shen song
singer songwriter Jacques brel Rerell would become something of a
north star for Walker's early solo career. Brell's theatrical, darkly
funny songs were a clear inspiration for Walker's own music.
(10:01):
Two of Brell's songs included here, Amsterdam and My Death,
are among the most popular and celebrated of Brell's catalog, and,
in an interesting bit of later influence, both of these
Brell songs would be featured in Bowie's live sets between
nineteen sixty eight and nineteen seventy two. Bowie himself spoke
(10:21):
of the Walker connection in various interviews, such as this
excerpt from the two thousand and six documentary on Walker
Thirtieth Century Man.
Speaker 11 (10:29):
I was dicing a girl who used to go out
with him, and she was very passionate about his music.
So his albums were still there at the apartment and
she would play them a lot, and apart from being
pissed off, which I wasn't at the beginning. Then I
really started to get to Adore's voice. I thought, this
(10:51):
guy's kind of sensational voice.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
His next solo record, Scott two, followed in nineteen sixty
eight and now featured four songs written by Walker. He
continued taking inspiration from Jacques Brel. Not only did this
record feature three more Brell covers, but Walker's own writing
featured themes and characters clearly inspired by those in Brell's
own work. The song The Amorous Humphrey Plug tells the
(11:17):
tale of a suburban husband and father who chafes at
his domestic responsibilities, stepping out with other women while his
wife deals with the screaming kids.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I become a giant.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I phil every stream.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
I dwelt the roof, topsy hunchback, the room stars dance.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
At my feet, leave it all over high.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
Screaming kids on my knee, and the telly swallowing me,
and the name shouting next star, and the subway trembling,
the roller skateboard. I see the fields playing with more life.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
In channing Way, the very I seemed.
Speaker 13 (12:31):
To secure game with the laughter.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
They seemed to say.
Speaker 10 (12:42):
You're already no, so stop a water behind a smile
in channing Way.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
By far the darkest Walker original on this album, and
possibly of his entire sixties output, is The Girls from
the Street. Over a queasy Marshall Waltz, Walker tells the
story of a man out on the town with a
morally bankrupt compatriot. This devilish companion urges the narrator to
(13:25):
escalating depths of depravity, climaxing in a trip to the
red light district seeking prostitutes. The swaying Walt's time, the orchestration,
the vivid description of the knight's sleazy backeral. This is dark,
mature stuff. This is pop music meets theater, pure and simple.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Collapsing next to me, shouts, don't look sad.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Names are so bad, They're just more wrong than rights
BRANDI brilliant voice whispers come with me. I hold the key.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
The cities are to night.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
He's a bomby, slaps her ass.
Speaker 14 (14:14):
She shrieks her gold teeth flash with the rapturous.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Still on earthquaking the soddesst grounds.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
He grabs my arm and out.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Into the famished Nah.
Speaker 14 (14:39):
Now too, blazing leaves burning up ground, The tiny walls
of a merry go round, cascading lights for every hot
beat Tonight We'll sleep with the girls from the street.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The song Plastic Palace People is thematically one of the
most unique from this time. The song appears to be
told from the perspective of a child's balloon, refusing to
come down from its floating vantage point despite the repeated
pleadings of the child owner to go home. Interspersed in
this story are various fantastical images that Walker conjures, adding
(15:34):
to the surreal nature of the song.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Over Topsaskilly a stream.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Timeeiti is underway.
Speaker 15 (15:57):
Through cobblest Street to Chary Races and shots Billy come
down from there.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
My mother's calling.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
His boy swimpers a stream, clutched in his tiny hat.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Not till I've seen the sky is not lit up
in tears.
Speaker 9 (16:36):
Child, Try and understand, don't pull a stream, don't bring
me down, don't make me lie.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Plastic Palois People.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Sing silent song, Big dream too, love their memories Just there.
Plastic palis Alice, She steals a cars Tomorrow dealse with
(17:33):
deafening despair.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The final Walker original on this album, The Bridge, dials
back the exaggerated reality of the other tunes to focus
on a simple melancholy ballad concerning the song's sad, alcoholic
narrator helplessly watching the woman he loved from afar, sitting
by a gray, depressing riverbank. It convincingly conjures a cold, shivering,
(18:03):
damp atmosphere. The song owes a particular debt to Brell,
as the lyrics and imagery echo those found in Brell's music.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I've watched her from the river bays.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I knew her way.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
She danced with dreams. Why doves were there to dress
her head? And so it was madaline at night.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
The people's faces dance.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Like curlss colliding on the breas is a fat movie.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Who's thunder laugh was just a thread from crime.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Her sailors stay her cobble stones with wine and kiss.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And death, desire and sometimes blood. For made a whose
laughter was the night.
Speaker 16 (19:23):
Her girls would leave addresses high and breathe the starss.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And kissless skies.
Speaker 16 (19:34):
Cheats mother than with a wistless thing embracements with her side.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Walker's next record, nineteen sixty nine's Scott three, featured an
even higher ratio of originals to covers, ten originals to
three covers, including two more Bro songs, Walker's songwriting continued
to get better and better on this release. The song
It's Raining Today is a story of love lost between
(20:08):
the narrator and the sweet train window girl, with whom
he shared a brief love with. The acoustic guitar strings
in lyrical content conjure the utter melancholy of looking back
at love lost with regret, and it's all sensitively rendered
and detailed.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
It's raining today and I'm just about two full. Get
the tray, window girl. Wonderful day we met. She smiled
(21:08):
through the smoke from my cigarette. It's raining today, But
once there was summer ann and done a little and
(21:43):
sleeping late afternoon. Those moments descend done my.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Window.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Elsewhere on this album is a strange little oddity called
thirtieth Century Man. I couldn't believe my ears when I
heard the song. It's as if Beck time traveled to
nineteen sixty nine. The similarities in tone and production are remarkable.
Speaker 16 (22:22):
See the Dwarfs and see the Giants?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Which one would you choose to be?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And if you can't get that together, he is answer.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You can freeze.
Speaker 10 (22:43):
Lack of good is in may, lack of good is inch.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
Can man, I'll save my breath and take it with me.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Tailor hundred years is so.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Shame you won't be that a seeming.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
Shaken hands with Joles Degau.
Speaker 16 (23:08):
Played col and Saran Rapo, k be a good ist, Sitch.
Speaker 14 (23:14):
Good, May.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
You can freeze?
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Lack of goods ser Main, lack of Thodi is it
good Main?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
The final album to feature his name, Scott four, was
released in late nineteen sixty nine. This time all ten
tracks were written by Scott, no covers at all, and
this last album of the quartet features some of the
most interesting music of his late sixties output. Album Opener
the Seventh Seal is based off of the nineteen fifty
(23:53):
seven Ingemar Bergmann film of the same name. Lyrically, it
recalls the events of the movie, specifically the game of
chess that the Knight plays with death. What's particularly offbeat
is the song has a flamenco flavor, odd considering the
film's Swedish roots. What kind of mad genius comes up
with this?
Speaker 16 (24:16):
Anybody's seen the Night has the sway?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I saw him playing chess.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
With Dad yesterday.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
His crusade was.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
A search for God, and they say.
Speaker 13 (24:48):
It's been a long way to Carrie.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Oh, anybody here.
Speaker 16 (25:00):
A plague in this town.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
The town I've left behind was.
Speaker 13 (25:08):
Burned to the ground.
Speaker 16 (25:12):
A young girl, I'll a steak.
Speaker 13 (25:14):
Her faces framed in flames, cry not a witch.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
God knows my name.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
The night he watched with beer he needed solon.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
He read where he might feel God's bread, And in
the misty church he knew to confess. The face within
the mood was mister Dean.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Another highlight of Scott is the song The Old Man's
Back Again, subtitled dedicated to the Neo Stalinist regime. This
song was about the end of the Prague Spring, the
time of the economic and social reforms of Czechoslovakian First
Secretary Alexander Dupchek starting in January nineteen sixty eight. These
(26:18):
reforms were reversed following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August
nineteen sixty eight. The Old Man of the song's title
referenced stalin and the country's return to hardline authoritarianism. But
for such a heavy historical theme, the song traffics in
a light, funky rhythm section backed by strident strings and
(26:40):
a Russian themed male choir. Walker's imagination and creativity are
truly running wild here the.
Speaker 17 (26:47):
Crowds just here, their faces turned away, and the q
all day black dragons all.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Discussed older women whispering.
Speaker 13 (27:03):
Wondering just what these young hotts.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Wald of us?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And I'll drey.
Speaker 16 (27:12):
He cries with acid, ringwack chimes, his.
Speaker 13 (27:17):
Anti worlds go spin it to his head.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
He burns in his dreams for half a week, they
may as Webb did.
Speaker 13 (27:35):
The Old Man's back again, I See's back again.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Unfortunately, Scott four failed to chart and was considered a
flop at the time. Today, it is rightfully considered one
of Walker's strongest albums and a fitting capper to the
quartette albums that bore his name. If Scott FOV were
the last album Scott Walker ever recorded, his musical legacy
would be well assured. But much like how David Bowie
(28:10):
was able to live many different musical lives in his career,
so too did Walker. Consider this part one of the
examination of Walker's music. Part two will follow in a
subsequent episode, And I guarantee you won't believe where he
goes from here. That's it for this episode of Noise Junkies.
Thank you for indulging me once again. When I'm not
(28:31):
listening to music. You can find me elsewhere on the
Weirding Wade Network. I co host The Night Mister Walters,
a taxi podcast alongside midnight viewings Father Alone, and I'm
an occasional guest on The Culture Cast with Chris Dashu
and I have a band campsite hpmusicplay dot bandcamp dot com.
I've just released a new album called Wired and Waiting.
(28:52):
Please check it out. As always, please feel free to write.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Us, rate us, review us.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 13 (30:01):
Begins the Baking ste
Why do certain bands or musicians hit it big, yet
their major inspirations fail to reach those same heights. Why
(00:28):
aren't these forebears spoken of in the same reverend tones
as the ones they inspire. It's a tricky question, for sure,
but it's been on my mind lately. For most The
names David Bowie, Leonard cohen Beck, and Brian Eno need
no introduction. But what if the genius that all those
musical heavyweights cited as a major formative influence? Tonight I'd
(00:52):
like to shed some light on a man whose work
continues to inspire and whose uncompromising ethos continues to challenge
anyone who's been lucky enough to discover his works. Tonight,
I'm pleased to introduce you to Scott Walker. Hello, listeners
(01:16):
to another episode of Noise Junkies. I'm hp this episode,
I'll be discussing the first four solo albums of the
one and only Scott Walker. These are the albums that
put Walker on the map and created a lasting legacy
that resonates to this day. I first became aware of
Scott Walker through a coworker's recommendation way back in the
(01:38):
early two thousands. This buddy shared many of the same
tastes in music that I did. He was a bit
older than me, so occasionally he would hit me to
something from his collection that was before my time. One day,
we were hanging out in his office chatting about Bowie.
At some point, my friend compared Bowie to someone named
Scott Walker, who I asked. He looked at me skeptically.
(02:01):
You've never heard of Scott Walker. He rummaged through his
desk and retrieved the greatest hit CD of Walker's late
sixties albums. Listen to this, he implored, You'll love it.
He went on to cite Scott Walker as an influence
on Bowie, Beck and others. He said, check out these songs.
You'll totally hear the influence. All right, I replied and
(02:24):
took the CD back to my desk in the Cube farm.
Hyping something can be a bit fraught for me. Usually
the more someone tells me you have to listen to
this or you have to watch this, it ends up
having the opposite effect, maybe because it can't possibly live
up to the advanced expectations. But in this case it
(02:45):
was absolutely true. I fell in love with this collection
of songs and with the mystery of this individual I'd
never heard of before, but who so clearly had influenced
many of my favorite acts. Who was this guy? I assumed,
from the avant garde posture, the rich sixties melding of
pop music and baroque, that this guy must be some
(03:06):
British musical giant. As it turns out, I was both
wrong and right at the same time. Scott Walker wasn't
even his real name. He was born Noel Scott Engel
in Hamilton, Ohio, of all places. This guy I mistook
for an erudite Englishman was from the good old American Midwest,
(03:28):
but I wasn't far off. His success came mostly via
the UK, first with the pop act The Walker Brothers,
then later as a solo act. He formed The Walker
Brothers in nineteen sixty one with singer guitarist John Mouse,
who had adopted the fake stage name John Walker so
he could perform in clubs while underage. They added drummer
(03:49):
Gary Leads to the band shortly thereafter, and all of
them took the stage name Walker. Although they had some
success Stateside, their real success came after they emigrated to
the un K. Marketed essentially as a teen pop act,
they scored several top ten albums and singles in the UK,
including the classic The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Anymore Lonely, No, It's the sun Shine.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
The Supposedly, their popularity overseas reached such a peak, particularly
(05:04):
among teenage girls, that their fan club was alleged to
have been larger than that of the Beatles. After several
successful albums, including many more hit singles, internal tensions within
the band came to a head and they broke up
in nineteen sixty seven. Eventually they would reunite, but that's
a story for another episode. As a solo artist, Scott
(05:27):
Walker began to shed his earlier teeny bopper image and
set out to establish a darker, more mature vision of
his music. His first album, simply titled Scott, mostly featured covers,
but did contain several original compositions. The song Montague Terras
in Blue tells the story of an apartment populated with
(05:48):
an assemblage of sad or doomed figures, including the narrator himself.
The sharply observed lyrics are matched by the dynamic orchestrations
of Angela Morley, who would work with Walker on each
of his first four solo records. Listen to Walker's resident delivery,
the way he clings to the notes and tell me
(06:08):
it doesn't remind you of the distinctive croon Bowie later adopted.
Right around the Young Americans album, Bowie clearly picked up
a trick or two from Walker.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
The little clock stop ticking.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Now we're swallowed in the stoma room.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
The onlys sound to tear the night comes from the
man upstairs. His floated belching figure stops.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You may crash.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Through the ceiling suit.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
The window sees trees cry from cold.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
And clab the moon.
Speaker 6 (07:22):
But we know.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Don't and will dreams lol.
Speaker 6 (07:36):
O.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
Monic Uari is in Blue.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Another Walker original from his first solo album is the
song such a Small Love. The lyrics interpolate a funeral
with images of coldness and separation. The screeching strings that
feature prominently during the verses add to the disquieting texture
of the song.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Her face penetrates of blue gray morning, Her eyeses.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Regnant pools producity.
Speaker 6 (08:30):
Someone should have shouted, you had gone.
Speaker 8 (08:36):
In her ear, that summer was stolen.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Away.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Such a small.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Such a little tear. You would laugh so loud.
Speaker 9 (09:06):
If you could see us see with my.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
One badly presstem.
Speaker 10 (09:22):
Like a child.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Even the covers on the album are decidedly off kilter
and bleak, including three songs from the celebrated Shen song
singer songwriter Jacques brel Rerell would become something of a
north star for Walker's early solo career. Brell's theatrical, darkly
funny songs were a clear inspiration for Walker's own music.
(10:01):
Two of Brell's songs included here, Amsterdam and My Death,
are among the most popular and celebrated of Brell's catalog, and,
in an interesting bit of later influence, both of these
Brell songs would be featured in Bowie's live sets between
nineteen sixty eight and nineteen seventy two. Bowie himself spoke
(10:21):
of the Walker connection in various interviews, such as this
excerpt from the two thousand and six documentary on Walker
Thirtieth Century Man.
Speaker 11 (10:29):
I was dicing a girl who used to go out
with him, and she was very passionate about his music.
So his albums were still there at the apartment and
she would play them a lot, and apart from being
pissed off, which I wasn't at the beginning. Then I
really started to get to Adore's voice. I thought, this
(10:51):
guy's kind of sensational voice.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
His next solo record, Scott two, followed in nineteen sixty
eight and now featured four songs written by Walker. He
continued taking inspiration from Jacques Brel. Not only did this
record feature three more Brell covers, but Walker's own writing
featured themes and characters clearly inspired by those in Brell's
own work. The song The Amorous Humphrey Plug tells the
(11:17):
tale of a suburban husband and father who chafes at
his domestic responsibilities, stepping out with other women while his
wife deals with the screaming kids.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I become a giant.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I phil every stream.
Speaker 12 (11:37):
I dwelt the roof, topsy hunchback, the room stars dance.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
At my feet, leave it all over high.
Speaker 12 (11:54):
Screaming kids on my knee, and the telly swallowing me,
and the name shouting next star, and the subway trembling,
the roller skateboard. I see the fields playing with more life.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
In channing Way, the very I seemed.
Speaker 13 (12:31):
To secure game with the laughter.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
They seemed to say.
Speaker 10 (12:42):
You're already no, so stop a water behind a smile
in channing Way.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
By far the darkest Walker original on this album, and
possibly of his entire sixties output, is The Girls from
the Street. Over a queasy Marshall Waltz, Walker tells the
story of a man out on the town with a
morally bankrupt compatriot. This devilish companion urges the narrator to
(13:25):
escalating depths of depravity, climaxing in a trip to the
red light district seeking prostitutes. The swaying Walt's time, the orchestration,
the vivid description of the knight's sleazy backeral. This is dark,
mature stuff. This is pop music meets theater, pure and simple.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Collapsing next to me, shouts, don't look sad.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Names are so bad, They're just more wrong than rights
BRANDI brilliant voice whispers come with me. I hold the key.
Speaker 6 (14:06):
The cities are to night.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
He's a bomby, slaps her ass.
Speaker 14 (14:14):
She shrieks her gold teeth flash with the rapturous.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Still on earthquaking the soddesst grounds.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
He grabs my arm and out.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Into the famished Nah.
Speaker 14 (14:39):
Now too, blazing leaves burning up ground, The tiny walls
of a merry go round, cascading lights for every hot
beat Tonight We'll sleep with the girls from the street.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The song Plastic Palace People is thematically one of the
most unique from this time. The song appears to be
told from the perspective of a child's balloon, refusing to
come down from its floating vantage point despite the repeated
pleadings of the child owner to go home. Interspersed in
this story are various fantastical images that Walker conjures, adding
(15:34):
to the surreal nature of the song.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Over Topsaskilly a stream.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Timeeiti is underway.
Speaker 15 (15:57):
Through cobblest Street to Chary Races and shots Billy come
down from there.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
My mother's calling.
Speaker 6 (16:16):
His boy swimpers a stream, clutched in his tiny hat.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Not till I've seen the sky is not lit up
in tears.
Speaker 9 (16:36):
Child, Try and understand, don't pull a stream, don't bring
me down, don't make me lie.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Plastic Palois People.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Sing silent song, Big dream too, love their memories Just there.
Plastic palis Alice, She steals a cars Tomorrow dealse with
(17:33):
deafening despair.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
The final Walker original on this album, The Bridge, dials
back the exaggerated reality of the other tunes to focus
on a simple melancholy ballad concerning the song's sad, alcoholic
narrator helplessly watching the woman he loved from afar, sitting
by a gray, depressing riverbank. It convincingly conjures a cold, shivering,
(18:03):
damp atmosphere. The song owes a particular debt to Brell,
as the lyrics and imagery echo those found in Brell's music.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I've watched her from the river bays.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
I knew her way.
Speaker 6 (18:20):
She danced with dreams. Why doves were there to dress
her head? And so it was madaline at night.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
The people's faces dance.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Like curlss colliding on the breas is a fat movie.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Who's thunder laugh was just a thread from crime.
Speaker 6 (19:00):
Her sailors stay her cobble stones with wine and kiss.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And death, desire and sometimes blood. For made a whose
laughter was the night.
Speaker 16 (19:23):
Her girls would leave addresses high and breathe the starss.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And kissless skies.
Speaker 16 (19:34):
Cheats mother than with a wistless thing embracements with her side.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Walker's next record, nineteen sixty nine's Scott three, featured an
even higher ratio of originals to covers, ten originals to
three covers, including two more Bro songs, Walker's songwriting continued
to get better and better on this release. The song
It's Raining Today is a story of love lost between
(20:08):
the narrator and the sweet train window girl, with whom
he shared a brief love with. The acoustic guitar strings
in lyrical content conjure the utter melancholy of looking back
at love lost with regret, and it's all sensitively rendered
and detailed.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
It's raining today and I'm just about two full. Get
the tray, window girl. Wonderful day we met. She smiled
(21:08):
through the smoke from my cigarette. It's raining today, But
once there was summer ann and done a little and
(21:43):
sleeping late afternoon. Those moments descend done my.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Window.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Elsewhere on this album is a strange little oddity called
thirtieth Century Man. I couldn't believe my ears when I
heard the song. It's as if Beck time traveled to
nineteen sixty nine. The similarities in tone and production are remarkable.
Speaker 16 (22:22):
See the Dwarfs and see the Giants?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Which one would you choose to be?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
And if you can't get that together, he is answer.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
You can freeze.
Speaker 10 (22:43):
Lack of good is in may, lack of good is inch.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
Can man, I'll save my breath and take it with me.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
Tailor hundred years is so.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Shame you won't be that a seeming.
Speaker 13 (23:04):
Shaken hands with Joles Degau.
Speaker 16 (23:08):
Played col and Saran Rapo, k be a good ist, Sitch.
Speaker 14 (23:14):
Good, May.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
You can freeze?
Speaker 10 (23:18):
Lack of goods ser Main, lack of Thodi is it
good Main?
Speaker 1 (23:33):
The final album to feature his name, Scott four, was
released in late nineteen sixty nine. This time all ten
tracks were written by Scott, no covers at all, and
this last album of the quartet features some of the
most interesting music of his late sixties output. Album Opener
the Seventh Seal is based off of the nineteen fifty
(23:53):
seven Ingemar Bergmann film of the same name. Lyrically, it
recalls the events of the movie, specifically the game of
chess that the Knight plays with death. What's particularly offbeat
is the song has a flamenco flavor, odd considering the
film's Swedish roots. What kind of mad genius comes up
with this?
Speaker 16 (24:16):
Anybody's seen the Night has the sway?
Speaker 3 (24:33):
I saw him playing chess.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
With Dad yesterday.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
His crusade was.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
A search for God, and they say.
Speaker 13 (24:48):
It's been a long way to Carrie.
Speaker 8 (24:53):
Oh, anybody here.
Speaker 16 (25:00):
A plague in this town.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
The town I've left behind was.
Speaker 13 (25:08):
Burned to the ground.
Speaker 16 (25:12):
A young girl, I'll a steak.
Speaker 13 (25:14):
Her faces framed in flames, cry not a witch.
Speaker 7 (25:21):
God knows my name.
Speaker 6 (25:26):
The night he watched with beer he needed solon.
Speaker 8 (25:33):
He read where he might feel God's bread, And in
the misty church he knew to confess. The face within
the mood was mister Dean.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Another highlight of Scott is the song The Old Man's
Back Again, subtitled dedicated to the Neo Stalinist regime. This
song was about the end of the Prague Spring, the
time of the economic and social reforms of Czechoslovakian First
Secretary Alexander Dupchek starting in January nineteen sixty eight. These
(26:18):
reforms were reversed following the Warsaw Pact invasion in August
nineteen sixty eight. The Old Man of the song's title
referenced stalin and the country's return to hardline authoritarianism. But
for such a heavy historical theme, the song traffics in
a light, funky rhythm section backed by strident strings and
(26:40):
a Russian themed male choir. Walker's imagination and creativity are
truly running wild here the.
Speaker 17 (26:47):
Crowds just here, their faces turned away, and the q
all day black dragons all.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Discussed older women whispering.
Speaker 13 (27:03):
Wondering just what these young hotts.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Wald of us?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
And I'll drey.
Speaker 16 (27:12):
He cries with acid, ringwack chimes, his.
Speaker 13 (27:17):
Anti worlds go spin it to his head.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
He burns in his dreams for half a week, they
may as Webb did.
Speaker 13 (27:35):
The Old Man's back again, I See's back again.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Unfortunately, Scott four failed to chart and was considered a
flop at the time. Today, it is rightfully considered one
of Walker's strongest albums and a fitting capper to the
quartette albums that bore his name. If Scott FOV were
the last album Scott Walker ever recorded, his musical legacy
would be well assured. But much like how David Bowie
(28:10):
was able to live many different musical lives in his career,
so too did Walker. Consider this part one of the
examination of Walker's music. Part two will follow in a
subsequent episode, And I guarantee you won't believe where he
goes from here. That's it for this episode of Noise Junkies.
Thank you for indulging me once again. When I'm not
(28:31):
listening to music. You can find me elsewhere on the
Weirding Wade Network. I co host The Night Mister Walters,
a taxi podcast alongside midnight viewings Father Alone, and I'm
an occasional guest on The Culture Cast with Chris Dashu
and I have a band campsite hpmusicplay dot bandcamp dot com.
I've just released a new album called Wired and Waiting.
(28:52):
Please check it out. As always, please feel free to write.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Us, rate us, review us.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose.
Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time.
Speaker 13 (30:01):
Begins the Baking ste
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