Scott Walker: Through the Walker Brothers

(Repeating myself) One of the best music documentaries out there is Scott Walker: 30 Century Man. It's also something close to necessary if one is looking to gain an appreciation for the artist. His career is so extremely varied that no one album gives a good idea of what his work is about.

Not covered much in the film is Walker's earliest work. He had a run as a would-be teen idol in the late 50s, as Scotty Engel (his real name is Noel Scott Engel). The following are presented more for historical value than entertainment:

For fans, these bring a chuckle just to hear a youthful version of Walker's baritone. They also lay some groundwork for understanding his modus operandus.

Walker was a performer in the style of Bobby Darin in that he was a pop artist, assuming all the styles in the pop world from rock to cabaret. This makes his early albums puzzling to modern ears.

At the end of his first stab at stardom, Walker lived in Los Angeles. He supported himself as a musician-for-hire, playing at Whisky-A-Go-Go-style clubs among other things. He met John Maus, and then Gary Leeds, and formed The Walker Brothers, each taking the "Walker" surname.

The band settled in Britain in the mid-60s and became a big hit playing songs by professional songwriters. For a time, they were one of the many bands lauded as "bigger than The Beatles." Here's their first big hit, "Make It Easy on Yourself:"

After an uninteresting follow-up single, "My Ship is Coming In," The Walker Brothers had their second and last number one hit, "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore."

These two songs show what vein the band was mining, the Righteous Brothers/Wall of Sound style. There are a couple of differences. For one, where the Righteous Brothers are dramatic, The Walker Brothers are bombastic. For another, Scott doesn't have an ounce of soul in his body.

So, it makes sense that The Walker Brothers found success in Britain when they couldn't in the States. The British pop audience doesn't make a fetish of authenticity--a trait that has made their musical output more interesting. If they worried about how "real" a performer was, The Rolling Stones couldn't have played old Chicago blues songs and David Bowie couldn't have assumed so many personas and rock history would be a lot less inspired than it is.

One of the most amusing parts in the documentary is when he tells us that he came to Britain excited that he could now discuss the Ingmar Bergman and French New Wave films. When he arrived, he found that all anyone wanted to talk about was Hollywood westerns.

Scott was a post-beatnik intellectual, full of existential philosophy, avant-garde film and wine. Just as early Dylan dazzled the press with his absurdity and hostility, Walker did the same with his earnest discomfort and good looks. Here's an interview from somewhere around that time:

The substance is less important than watching him self-consciously consider the interviewers questions and answer them as truthfully as he could, all the while with an air of quiet desperation. We can apply red-pill wisdom here:  the more Scott looks unwilling to engage with the public, the more the public wanted to engage with him.

The band was formed by John Walker (nee Maus), who was its original lead singer. The public, though, found Scott fascinating and the power shifted within the band. You can see why in the video for "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore." John, though he appears to think he's hot stuff, isn't nearly as interesting as the slightly uncomfortable moptop with the huge voice.

However, it's unfortunate that so little footage of that period remains, because Scott, while the urbane intellectual that appeared to be above all the hoopla, was deeply enmeshed in the pop idol business. Within a couple of years of his Walker Brothers' time, he had a variety show on the BBC.

It's even more strange to consider Scott as an entertainment figure when one thinks about his material, especially his original work. As The Walker Brothers grew more popular, Scott took a larger role behind the scenes, contributing to the arrangements and song selection. He began writing his own songs, as well.

The only one released as a single was the title track for the film Deadlier Than the Male:

This isn't Scott's typical sound which points to his skill as a songwriter. Tasked with creating a James Bond sound for an action film, he hits the nail right on the head.

The B-side "Archangel" is another Scott original and an unfiltered version of what he was getting at:

It appears that Scott's original Walker Brothers songs are revisions of other tunes they recorded. "Archangel" has the same themes as this great one, "After the Lights Go Out:"

The latter, written by John Stewart, is about facing the night while missing a lover, colored with a lot of mundane details about living in an apartment building.

"Archangel" is the same, only the misery and drama levels have been cranked high. The woman in question is no longer "just a girl/Whose memory will be wiped away with time"--now she's an archangel, whose arrival will "save me from this tomb."

Likewise, Scott's "Mrs. Murphy" is similar in subject matter to the brothers' version of Randy Newman's "I Don't Want to Hear it Anymore:"

Where the former is about a man unwilling to hear the neighbors gossiping about his woman's infidelity, Scott's piece starts with the gossiping, includes a cuckoo-egg baby and quotes the neighbor,"Poor Mr Johnson being married to a wife who should be caged."

In his earliest songs, we already see Scott's perspective emerging. Sex, death, pain and misery are his subjects, and they all ooze forth in everyday life. He takes the perspective of a pump-and-dump lothario in "Orpheus," telling his target, a Mrs. Blear, that he will "harpoon you like a whale / With a bent and rusty nail." When the dalliance is over, "I've already forgotten you."

The band broke up for the usual reasons. Scott's new leadership, co-producing and choosing the songs as well as being the band's face, caused tension with John, the original frontman. Scott went solo. It's there that he made his name.