in the twilight hours of the 'great rebate' (napster), i downloaded
about thirty songs sung by scott walker. he was a member of the walker
brothers, a pop trio in the 60s. none of them were brothers and none of
them are named walker (the subject of this post was born scott engel). they
didn't do very well in the u.s. but were very succesful in england.
eventually walker went solo.
walker was obviously a big influence on david bowie and bryan ferry (and
sometimes sounds like martin short imitating them). sometimes, he even
sounds like herrman prey, in fact, almost exactly like prey. he recorded a
lot of originals as well as quite a few of jacques brel's songs. most are
fully orchestrated.
it is very difficult to find the right description of this singer's
output. if orson welles had directed 'georgy girl' or if fellini had
directed 'camelot', those might be close. he makes me think of some of the
60s british tv shows, 'the avengers', 'the prisoner'...he's part 'blow up',
part michel legrand on acid. it's hard to say.
his way of singing betrays the possibility of classical training. if
any of you have heard of him, let me know.
mike
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