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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Song / Classic I Thought I Knew a Lot About Scott Walker

Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:12 AM

969e/1236108507-any_day_now__scott_walker_.jpg
But I didn’t know about this gem a friend just brought to my attention: “We Could Be Flying” from the 1973 album Any Day Now, which I’ve never heard, damn it.

This video (embedding has been disabled) rules on many levels. First, Scott is one suave motherfucker. Second, his voice is burnished oak, in perfect equilibrium between Frank Sinatra and Leonard Cohen. Third, the levity of the video and the song is so out of character with Walker's latter-era work, which is some of the darkest and knottiest ever from a former pop star. Fourth, the cheesy flying sequence. Fifth, the fuzzed-out guitar solo. Sixth, Scott’s hair. Seventh, Walker’s inherently heavy moroseness prevails, even amid a party scene and a damned song about flying. He looks just thrilled to be there, right?

Okay—I now realize I need to get the man’s entire discography.

Comments (3) RSS

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I don't recommend the "Five Easy Pieces" box set. It's gotta be album by album, goddammit. Which kind of sucks because it would be nice if the essentials were all in one place. (But also brings up the question how many box sets really are the place to get most of what you need from your beloved artists.)

Posted by Chris Estey on March 3, 2009 at 2:33 PM

Thanks for the warning, Chris. I will painstakingly accumulate the Walker (Brothers) catalog (much of which I lost during you know what)—and, in the process, get this weak economy booming—one piece at a goddamned time.

Posted by segal on March 3, 2009 at 5:00 PM

I think you may want to avoid any of the pre '67 solo stuff. It has a pretty vanilla, almos' Pat Boone quality to it. It think it's only available on comps., so you are pretty safe jus' going with his official solo albums.

Posted by Keekee on March 5, 2009 at 2:02 AM