Remember the Walker Brothers? A second tier Righteous Brothers act with British affectations that hit stateside with The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore and Make It Easy On Yourself? Truth be told ...
They weren't brothers, they weren't British and they weren't worth much more than a passing thought... save for Brother Scott.
Scott Walker had one of the most beautiful, haunting voices in '60's pop music. He moved through the Euro pop of that era, was a devoted Brel interpreter and came out the other side with a very different vision.
Today, he lives largely in isolation, emerges about once a decade with albums filled with heretofore largely unimaginable and often nightmarish soundscapes.
He has been acknowledged as a major influence on David Bowie and Radiohead, has compiled a very strange and iconoclastic oeuvre and is an artist deserving of far wider recognition.
The Jacques Brel period - Jackie 1967
Inspirational verse:
"Because I pitied all mankind/And broke my heart to make things right
I know that every single night/When my angelic work was through
The angels and the Devil too/Would sing my childhood song to me
About the time they called me "Jacky."
"The Plague" based on Camus' novel that was a response, in turn, to the rise of the Nazis.- 1967
I spent many a night laying on my back
Waiting for the dawn to pierce a crack in the ceiling
Hanging from the sky
And I envied the boy who grabbed the toy
And ran away and found the joy
While I stood in the shadows wondering why
Flying towards me, wrapped in laughter
A woman's face, a terrible taste
Of the morning after kisses and goodbyes
I can never seem to catch my footsteps
Have desires they fly away
And every day I've got to fight the Plague
Hanging from the sky
And I envied the boy who grabbed the toy
And ran away and found the joy
While I stood in the shadows wondering why
Flying towards me, wrapped in laughter
A woman's face, a terrible taste
Of the morning after kisses and goodbyes
I can never seem to catch my footsteps
Have desires they fly away
And every day I've got to fight the Plague
How can I live an hour like this
When anguish strikes me like a fist
My nakedness exposed, and I can't stand
Still I try to remember lips on lips
And hits on the hips, and ice and fire
and gloom and glow
When did they leave the man
In the river of the night I see
A face that shimmers down at me
But like a falling star burns itself out
Like a lead leaf scrapes the gravelled ground
My voice cries out, a gravelled sound
But no-one's there to hear me but the Plague
When anguish strikes me like a fist
My nakedness exposed, and I can't stand
Still I try to remember lips on lips
And hits on the hips, and ice and fire
and gloom and glow
When did they leave the man
In the river of the night I see
A face that shimmers down at me
But like a falling star burns itself out
Like a lead leaf scrapes the gravelled ground
My voice cries out, a gravelled sound
But no-one's there to hear me but the Plague
Straining hard to see
Running after me
I keep pounding
Pounding on the door
But it's all so vague
When you meet the Plague
And I keep coming, I keep coming back for more
Running after me
I keep pounding
Pounding on the door
But it's all so vague
When you meet the Plague
And I keep coming, I keep coming back for more
"Dealer" from "Climate of the Hunter"
Shaking
Night-nites for angels
rattling throats up and down on a beam.
rattling throats up and down on a beam.
Cooling the
hearts
cooling the plasma
keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam
cooling the plasma
keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam
The other side
of a prowler
the dead still search the living.
the dead still search the living.
At least there
we did not not fail.
Coming to in
the overcast
tracks are still flowing.
tracks are still flowing.
At least there
he does not wail.
Psalms of your
hands
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.
Gone always
alone to all you are never
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.
The windows are
ringing
shaking dead men for angels
Hissing brains boiling up
press't to the bone
shaking dead men for angels
Hissing brains boiling up
press't to the bone
uncoils the
wire whole night long
bumping out thru the eye in knots.
bumping out thru the eye in knots.
Sweet hot
numbers
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.
Sweet hot
numbers
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.
Psalms of your
hands
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.
Gone always
alone to all you are never
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.
Farmer In the City
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.
Farmer In the City
BBC Documentary 1995
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