It’s his birthday today.
I must hand the microphone to my brother Brendan, a Scott Walker scholar if ever there was one. For about a year, I was periodically posting my brother’s music writing, airlifted over from his old defunct blog. His writing is so good and so interesting I wanted to save it, and share it. He didn’t ONLY write about Scott Walker, the intriguing charismatic impossible-to-pin-down singer-songwriter-genius – but he wrote more pieces about Scott Walker than anyone else. So. Scott Walker’s fanbase may be small, compared to other artists, but there is no more devoted and passionate fanbase on the planet. I only wrote one piece about Scott Walker (besides my review of Vox Lux, which featured a score by Scott Walker – an amazing piece of work). Walker wrote a song from Elvis’ perspective, and it involves 9/11 and it involves Elvis’ twin brother Jesse, and … it is a doozy. So I wrote about it. My piece is more Elvis than Scott Walker, the piece is really about how people use Elvis as a launching-off point to their own imaginative fantasies, how he is a conduit, a channel, an access to people’s subconscious, etc. – and how this plays out in Scott Walker’s unforgettable song, which manifests in the shrieking of Elvis’ horror at what has become of the world.
The pieces below are all by my brother, who may very well be the biggest Scott Walker fan in the world, based on the output of writing, at least. People keep finding these pieces in their wanderings through the Internet, leaving comments and observations, so there is obviously a hunger for conversation about this fascinating artist.
Scott Walker Archive
The Old Man, Clara, The Conducator
Blue Bell to Bish Bosch: Engel to Walker
The Strangest Pop Hit Single In History
James Bond and Scott Walker: You Only Live Thrice
Scott Walker In The ’70’s: 8 Years In Easy Listening Hell
Fugitive Kinds: Scott Walker, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams
Dusty Springfield And Scott Walker: Velvet Perfection
I’ll Be Home, Cowboy: Nilsson, Walker, Newman
Time Operator/Answering Machine: Westerberg and Walker
Scott Walker: The Next Great Crooner, The Last Great Crooner
Ingmar Bergman and Scott Walker: The Seventh Seal
SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)
Bowie, Fatima Mansions & Walker Brothers: 3 Versions of Nite Flights: Original/2 Copies
Scott Walker Sings A Show Tune
One Minute Forty One Seconds Of Infinity
Scott Walker Scares An Empty Studio: “Rosary”
Scott Walker and Catherine Deneuve
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
