Best Scott Walker solo album

"Pola X" isn't a scott walker solo album.

besides that i actually find it very very easy to choose.

captious

No, no. i dare say most people will find it hard to choose but Tilt is probably my favourite album of all time so the choice is easy for me.

(had to look up "captious")

Drift because it's one of the greatest albums ever made

...that most people can't listen to it more than once in a long while

Voted for "Scott 4" as I feel that's where he was finally fully realized, and mainly relying on his own songs rather than Jaqcues Brel's. The later stuff is critically acclaimed, but just too weird for its own good.

for whose good? you mean too weird for you. thankfully.

you are weirder than anything SW has come up with.

3.

for fucking ever.

yeah 3!!!!! stones

maybe 2! such a crazy disc.

greatest moment: the first two tracks of scott. talk about getting your solo career off to a great start.

greatest album: 3. or 4. or 3. or 4. i have not pulled the voting lever yet.

Hey, hold on, where is "Scott Walker Sings Songs From His TV Series"? Only a Top 10 album after all!

3.

2 has some of my fave songs on it, but still a bit too much MOR. 4's a bit inconsistent. 3 is just perfect through and through...and it's the first one I heard...

...so you won't say you didnt see this poll

a toss up between 4 and the drift. i went for the latter.

3

3

I'm a fan of 2. It's got a little bit of everything...

I see there's an hour-long doc on Scott tonight on BBC1. Is this an abbreviated version of the 30th Century Man thing that's doing the rounds at the cinema?

I probably like his Nite Flights songs best of all, but they're not solo I guess. So it's Tilt, edging it over 3 because I'm not overly fond of his version of If You Go Away. (I've never even heard of I Only Came to Dance with You.)

I like "Drift" and played it loads!

Especially that one that's a close cousin of Public Image's "Annalisa"

Marcello, the bbc doc is essentially a chopped down version of 30th Century man with extra yentob bits as far as i can tell from previews that i've read. I'll be going to see the full length version at the Filmhouse on Friday, can't wait.

3. or the drift.

Tilt for me. All-time top 5 no matter when you ask me.

But I'm so happy to see lots of votes for 3. It's totally the best one of his sixties phase. "Two Ragged Soldiers" OMFG. I had the impression 3 was generally seen in the shadow of 4, glad it's otherwise around here.

30 Century Man film: I cornered the director for a minute after one of the nyc screenings. There will be a DVD, apparently, with extra material etc. But go see it if you get the chance.

I wish the two songs for Ute Lemper could be on this poll. They're like the 20 minute Scott Album between Tilt and The Drift.

Those two Lemper songs are beyond incredible.

It's a disgrace that "Lullaby" only appeared on the Japanese version of her CD - otherwise if you want it you have to get the Five Easy Pieces box set.

Thirded with the Lemper songs, particularly Scope J. Astonishing really, and better, I think, than anything on The Drift, although that album is mostly fantastic as well.

I hope everyone has gotten hold of the Scott track on 4AD's newish Plague Songs comp. It's not like anything on Tilt, Punishing Kiss or The Drift...

I must get a hold of that. Apparently he's also recently composed music for a contemporary dance piece. A flurry of activity...

http://www.candoco.co.uk/general.php?tm=16

The thread of cotton. No one else could have thought of that (Plague Songs xpost).

Aieee, that dance piece sounds promising. A "sinister and primal ball". I trust this will be recorded. The performances and rehearsals doubtless publicly funded; all 4AD would have to do is pony up for the recording, I'd think.

Saw the BBC1 documentary last night. Amazing stuff.

The overriding impression I had of Scott - in both the main interview and the footage of him in the studio making The Drift - was of someone who, though undeniably shy, is thoroughly unpretentious, down to earth and genuinely intelligent, which was a sight more than could be said for some of the other nincompoops who popped up.

Other highlights - Angela Morley/Wally Stott (blimey! still alive! how old is s/he?) talking articulately and tellingly about SW's working practices when recording his sixties tetralogy of albums; and especially Eno listening to the 29-year-old "Fat Mama Kick," shaking his head in sorrow and saying "This is embarrassing to listen to...because nobody's gone beyond this...all these crappy little bands you get now who just want to be bloody Roxy Music or Talking Heads...but no one has moved forward from this..." It's not often you see Eno angry but I applauded his words heartily.

I liked the tactic of having the celebrity contributors listen to his songs and react spontaneously to them; Richard Hawley in particular was truthful, but also Ute Lemper, listening to the two songs she did with Scott (which SW rightly says are two of the best songs he ever wrote), closing her eyes, nodding her head fervently and saying "oh yes"...

Despite a trace of bitterness over the "20-year hiatus" caused by the commercial failure of Scott 4, SW seemed remarkably free of remorse. The programme sympathetically traced his development and underlined the truth that other musicians talk about advancing and pushing things forward, but SW is one of the very few people who actually does it (and inevitably gets criticised/ignored for doing so, thus exposing the double bluff of everybody else, who are still loitering on the bank where SW discarded his cloak of loneliness forty-odd years ago).

A great artist and a great man. I must try and get to see the full film while it's still playing.

i'm sad to see no votes for 'climate of hunter'. i almost picked it, thinking that no-one else would, but went for scott 4 in the end.

Why was Scott 4 such a failure, chartwise? Was "Scott 3" so bad/uncommercial?

(Yep, you guessed: I missed the doc last night DAMN)

brian eno otm to the max. his anger reminded me of an article i read that suggested it's almost impossible to find a left wing labour MP under the age of 45. said article was not in the daily mail.

Several reasons (Mark G xpost):
a) Scott 4 was not promoted as a Scott Walker album as such; the original issue credits the record to Noel Scott Engel, his real name.
b) It was in direct competition with the Scott Sings Songs From His TV Series album (though until I watched last night's doc I had no idea that said series was pulled after just six episodes).
c) LOUD HEAVY ROCK METAL was taking over generally, thus less room for complex, shadowed singer-songwriters perceived to have one foot in the MoR camp (see also Jimmy Webb, Barry Ryan etc.).
d) Scott 3 (Scott Free - see what he did there?) was a top three album but Scott 4 came out only a few months later so may have been lost in the glut of records he had out at the time, particularly in view of its minimal publicity.

I'm not sure Scott 4 is the masterpiece it's cracked up to be; it has its great moments but there's quite a lot of clumsy, lumbering rockism going on as well.

He did say that had it been a commercial success then Climate, Tilt etc. would all have come much sooner. But then John Franz, his producer at Philips, persuaded him to do "a couple of albums that people want" and then slot one curveball record in thereafter. Of course, that never happened.

The doc was good - I initially thought it was going to veer too far into 'here are some musicians talking about the fact that they once listened to a Scott Walker record' territory, but it actually pulled back from that quite quickly and the people who did most of the talking were the ones who could give actual insights into the creation of some of these records, and the environment in which they were produced. And there was *lots* of the music shown.

I am actually surprised that Tilt scored so highly (I voted for it too), as up until a couple of years ago everyone except me seemed to find it somewhat risible. But it is astounding.

They showed a bit of his performance of "Rosary" from the Jools Holland show. Intense and much more savage than the recorded version. He looked like Derek Bailey's recidivist grandson.

wait... the doc that's doing the cinema rounds *was on tv last night*??!

Only a 60-minute edit of it with added Yentob. Certainly got me wanting to see the whole thing.

It's going to be repeated (right?)

It had better be.

Funny experience watching this with my father-in-law. "Who is this guy?" About 15min in... "I love his voice." Into the '80s/'90s... (in his Virginia drawl) "Yeah, I would say one record in 10 years IS a little slow." Off he goes onto the patio for a smoke. After that the paper is deemed more interesting than whacking a side of beef.

I wonder what my parents made of it.

What did folks think of the Trumbullian visuals for the later stuff? Same director as the Jesse video?

Hopefully BBC Four will repeat it soon. I only caught half of it last night, but it was great stuff. I'd never really given him the time of day before ('He's the 'Sun Ain't Gonna Shine' guy who went weirdo, right?') but jesus, what a voice! Even the schmaltzy crap was good with him singing it.

I couldn't find any sign on a repeat on the BBC4 schedules over the next week or so, though I did spot that Cracked Actor, the Bowie docu from '74, is on after Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars on Saturday night.

I liked how Bowie confessed to getting into Walker via going out with one of Walker's exes who kept playing his records.

No surprise that Marc Almond didn't like Tilt, given his own obsession with Brel.

I recorded it, but I did see 10 mins or so. Hopefully there was no more Albarn after the bit I saw...

I thought Tilt would win this, but I guess 4 is no surprise. I don't hear any clumsy lumbering rockism at all - you okay Marcello?

Having just listened to Scott I(or just Scott, or whatever) this morning I wish I'd voted for it instead of 3. Stunning.

I'm going to work my way through everything now...in order.

Probably advisable not to start with Looking Back With Scott Walker, that terrible compilation of his early US teenpop sides.

I haven't got that!

I have never even heard of, let alone heard, I Only Came To Dance With You, which may well be the same record.

IOCTDWY is a cash-in comp, mostly instrumentals(!), I think.

I voted for 4 kind of automatically but then listening to 3 in the hire car back from Whistable (CD player! Low road noise! Good speakers! Not like the Micra where everything basically sounds like Merzbow) I was struck by that flawless opening quartet of songs. Even the Brel padding at the end of that record doesn't do it much harm.

Re: Yentob - loved the Fontana guy's anecdote about the Tilt studio playback; Scott agreeing to switch from full blast through the wall monitors to reasonable volume through the desk speakers cos the label boss was getting the heebie-jeebies, but then SW insisting it be switched back to the big speakers "cos I won't be listening to this again and I want to remember it this way."

I voted for 4 kind of automatically

ILM style. 3 is much better.

the rosary performance is on youtube.

Bollocks, i forgot this was on last night. Maybe it'll be be telewest replay although i fear not. I voted for Scott 3.

"20-year hiatus" caused by the commercial failure of Scott 4

i saw the doc in the theater and agree it was great, mainly because of scott's own ability to talk about his music and his process, and the director's loving attention to the details of the art of making music. that's truly rare in a documentary. but there were some pretty huge holes, like anything at all about his life outside music. not that we need footage of scott partying and carousing, or gardening or whatever, but who is this guy and in what context does he live and make his music? in that context, i think we would have seen that the various hiatuses were the result of quite a bit more than 'the commercial failure of scott 4." obviously scott isn't comfortable talking about this stuff, which is fine. but to conclude that other factors don't exist just because he won't talk about them is silly.

ILM style? Well, no, I've thought for a long while 4 was the best (15 years ago when all I'd heard of Scott solo was the Boychild comp, the title track + Old Man's Back Again were my faves). 3 starts well, sags in the middle and ends with some strong Brel stuff. Just hearing it again in a new context the other day started to change my mind.

but there were some pretty huge holes, like anything at all about his life outside music.

I'm guessing Scott was only willing to participate on the grounds that there was nothing about his private life. From what I've heard, he lives in Chiswick, recently remarried, and has a daughter in her mid-thirties who also lives in London and hangs around the music/club scene.

I don't really see that it matters. In the film there was the usual talk of him sitting in the pub watching or playing darts, or scooting around London on his bike. I can vouch for the latter since when I lived in Chiswick in the mid-nineties I used to see him on his bike all the time.

He lives a normal life and presumably has made enough "fuck you" money from royalties etc. not to have to worry - so what's the big deal?

I don't know what was in the shortened BBC version and what wasn't. But in the full film, one moment that was personally very moving for me was when (the former) Wally Stott described coming in for the first time to do orchestrations for Scott. Scott, trying to describe what he wanted, said "I hear Sibelius here..." Just a little trivial thing, but one of those moments when a link between two of your very few heroes is made explicit, y'know?

Here's where I confess that I am such a douche I cried multiple times during the film (again, BBC-version viewers YMMV!) It was something about for the first time seeing him talk about his work, and him being so free of smugness or self-aggrandizement. He really seems to be in awe of *what he wants to do* rather than his own originality/genius in wanting to do it. Errrr... it's as if he's hunting a great monster, and his awe and admiration is for the monster itself, no thought for his own prowess or the excellence of his equipment. In fact he seems to quaver at whether he can even pull off the next thing.

The footage of him doing a vocal take in the studio... Jeezus. But was anyone else surprised at how small the meat slab was? I was always envisioning a whole side of beef hanging off a butcher's hook!

Did the BBC cut feature Julian Cope's arrogant letter to the director?

The Stott/Sibelius quote was in but Cope's letter was out, which presumably explains the latter's gaping absence from the programme.

Cope basically said "no thanks" to appearing in the film, and basically "I am glad that my LP compilation with its simple sleeve design allowed people to hear Scott's original songs free of the dodgy MOR dreck with which he slathered his LPs." Someone asked the director about the letter in the post-screening Q & A, and he said Cope "had the attitude that he (Cope) got there first, planted the flag, and has moved on. Basically what it is is that he's gone off Scott."

In the Q & A, the director said he sensed there were some very definite no-fly zone in his interview session with Scott. One such was the story behind Scott and John's failure to revisit the USA after their move to London (they were dodging the draft). I'm sure his recent private life was another no-fly zone.

Where were Gary and John, btw?

Theres a bit in Cope's book "Head On" / "Reposessed" about talking about Scott to a band member (Donn-eye?). Sid band member went "meh" and Julian got sort of embarassed, and suddenly realised he'd outgrown this stuff.

Which is fair enough.

Bit like how everyone always talks about Prince Charles liking the 3 degrees, whereas he's probably gone off them years ago in favour of, what, Van Morrison? Or was it Tom Waits?

Didn't Cope say somewhere that he played some Scott to some scallies, who ridiculed it, and from then on he couldn't listen to him?

Oh x-post Mark!

Said band member went "meh"... Sid Vicious was not in Copey's band.

xpost

xpost again.

Cope grows out of Scott and goes on to laud Sir Lord Baltimore lolz

"Erm Three Degrees" is a vintage punchline and should never be changed.

so what's the big deal?

no big deal - i LIKED the film! -- except that artists' work tends to be completely affected by other things going on in their lives, so that context will generally make for a better, more rounded, portrait.

No, it's fair enough JC going off SW's music. It's the "planted the flag" attitude that I found distasteful from JC.

He's probably gone off Krautrock by this point too...

Anyway, from what I heard, Bill Drummond had more to do with that compilation than Cope did.

it seems odd to suggest one would "grow out" of scott walker. he's hardly rick astley.

Ah, but once upon a time he was.

it seems odd to suggest one would "grow out" of scott walker. he's hardly rick astley.

It was my phraseology there, not Julian Cope's. But, yeah (xpost marc), Julian was once Rick astley.

I wish Rick Astley had had a megalithic phase and done songs about the phenomenology of Cock.

"Hold me in your arms" wasn't so far away from that!

Coincidentally, last night's scintillating episode of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word featured a cooking contest with James May Out Of Top Gear, who inscribed the word "COCK" on the top of whatever inedible meal he was preparing. Ramsey's rich vein of humour was exemplified by his instantaneous response: "You should have fucking written S, H, I, T on there, yes?"

You can't script that, really, can you?

"rich vein" heh heh

results

In a weighted Top 5 type poll, Climate Of Hunter would do way, way better.

That Cope thing reads more to me like he was a cock who abandoned music he liked because of peer pressure rather than "growing out of it" - which to me is a more natural progression than "oh noes they're laughing at me for liking Scott!"

I dunno, you'll have to read it (from his book, not my version of it)

xpost

Climate Of Hunter may well be his strangest album. Tilt and The Drift can be slotted more easily into the experimental/avant-garde category, but Climate is an uneasy mix of genres, a bit of orch-pop, a bit of 80s fret-wankery, a bit rock a bit jazz... it's interesting and there are some great tracks on it - Rawhide, Sleepwalkers Woman, Dealer... but in the end I don't think it's a total success, it doesn't quite gel. What came before (the 4 Nite Flights tracks) and after (Tilt) are better.

I dunno, you'll have to read it (from his book, not my version of it)

I can't remember that bit from the books. Can't see me ever rereading theme either, entertaining though they were.

I agree, if you put a gun to my head, about CoH not being a total success. But I'd really only demerit maybe 2 or 3 tracks on it. The rest are mongrel creations but great, great, great. Especially the untitled one with Evan Parker on it, good god.

No other dystopian Scott album has the same feeling of UNEASE. Never flowing over into horror, despair or nausea. Just a deep dread.

and Mark Knopler.

Thinking about it now, I guess I find all his later stuff a bit unsatisfactory - Tilt drags a bit in the middle to my ears, The Drift is a bit too long as well. They're still brilliant of course, maybe their imperfections somehow add to the brilliance.

For me imperfect rarely equates to unsatisfactory. I do like a mess, the feeling that things have been released in the work that the artist could not fully retain authority over.

Can't agree on Tilt though. It may be too long to listen to in one sitting very often, but I wouldn't remove a thing.

I guess it's Bolivia '95 that drags a bit for me. Haven't listened to the album for a while though.

Yay, i was pleasantly surprised to find that last night's Imangine doc was available on demand - it seemed to go on for ages, in the best possible way. I've also got my ticket for the first showing of 30th Century Man at the Filmhouse.

Oops, that should be Imagine.

i'm listening to 3 right now and................

</3 </3 </3

saw the cinema fillum tonight. really worth it but GOD DAMN if that LATER... footage isn't included *in full* on the dvd there'll be hell. there was only a clip and that's his only live performance in front of an audience for what? decades? and it's *there* sitting unloved in the bbc's cans!

There's a great DVD-R doing the rounds of Walker rothers performances that has the whole thing on (and other oddities like the Britvic commercial). Not the best quality, but...

"Brothers"

Disappointed neither 'Til The Band Comes in' or 'Climate Of Hunter' got any votes, I thought I was doing my contrarian part by voting for Scott 2 (my actual favourite anyway).

the later footage is on Youtube last I checked.

yeah but rotten quality. man that clip... man alive. i wonder what had got into him beforehand.

Cope grows out of Scott and goes on to laud Sir Lord Baltimore lolz

Such are the perils of a professional record collector

In actual 1970 no doubt the Copemeister was grooving to the acid tones of White Plains and Cuff-Links.

Hey don't be dissin' White Plains, dude

Yeah, funny how you never see J.Cope and B.Gillespie in the same photo circa 1970.

THEY MUST HAVE BEEN IN DIFFERENT PLACES!!!

As I understand it B Gillespie was ejected from the studio by Sir Lord Baltimore after he tried to use their drum riser as an Orange mace.

yeah but rotten quality. man that clip... man alive. i wonder what had got into him beforehand.

I think proximity to Jools is upsetting to sensitives and seers. Seem to recall MES made some sort of threat when he appeared on the show as well.

v late realization that climate of hunter >>>>>>>>>>>>

it's not not the dark side of a walk across the rooftops

He is shaking to wash the murder away

Pleased to get Climate Of Hunter CD in an HMV sale today for £3. The clerk said it was proving popular, LOL because someone on one of these threads said it was the lowest volume selling Virgin release of all time.

Partly recorded at Sarm West, Climate Of Hunter would have made sense and probably found an audience as a ZTT album. Actually Nite Flights sounds to me like it must have been an influence on Trevor Horn.

Climate of Hunter, Tilt, and something else just got a vinyl reissue as well. Well Tilt seemed to still be in print from Drag City, so now there are two out there; the new one is 2 LPs.

2 lp Tilt eh?

today years old when I learned that Billy Ocean sings on Climate of Hunter

I played it again last week and can confirm that in 2022, Tilt still sounds like the future.

otm

"Bolivia '95" is one of my morning-walk songs.

My favourite Scott albums have been on re-shuffle for a long time, but Tilt has to be the one.
I've been reading a lot of Ligotti recently too, so Soused has kind of edged its way up the ranks - I'm not sure if there is a reason I associate Soused with Ligotti, maybe the lyrics of the last track?
Til The Band Comes In might be a curate's egg but I prefer the good part of it to even Scott 4 these days. Hugely underrated.
Also underrated is Climate of Hunter which is its own vibe and really makes me wish Scott had had more of a chance to flex his muscles in the new wave era.

"Tilt" is far and away the best album he put out in the latter part of his career.

They should just cut the crap and release this as a compilation: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2D03FX9s32oNhy3VxHvE00?si=396c58c17b8f49d4

It should include this b-side from 1972, an outtake from Til The Band Comes In that would have been better than "Prologue" or the covers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seRkrBsAkyE

today years old when I learned that Billy Ocean sings on Climate of Hunter

"Stump of a Drowner (No More Love on the Run)"