Prom 15 - 25.07.17: The Songs of Scott Walker (1967–70)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

22:15 Tuesday 25 July 2017 ON TV
Royal Albert Hall

Jarvis Cocker artist
John Grant artist
Richard Hawley artist
Susanne Sundfør artist
Heritage Orchestra
Jules Buckley conductor

An icon of the 1960s, Scott Walker has travelled from Walker Brothers teen idol to avant-garde contemporary musician, influencing artists from David Bowie and Leonard Cohen to Goldfrapp along the way.
Tonight's Late Night Prom tribute presents tracks from his four self-titled albums with live orchestral backing for the very first time. Among the special guests are Jarvis Cocker, John Grant, Susanne Sundfør and Richard Hawley.

[teamsaint]

Perhaps the build up of excitement for this is somewhere else?

At the risk of being a bit of moaner, I think this has the potential to be a bit of a celebrity non event ,and general missed opportunity, to do something creative with the work, and especially the fascinating later work, of a genuinely interesting and thoughtful musician, who has tried to create vibrant and different music with the resources that he has available.
I really hope I am wrong and that this concert does him justice, but, well, you know.....

At least they managed to get the word " icon" into the puff, so that should help .

[DracoM]

Defies belief for me.
Scott Walker has seemingly gone out of his way to have cultivated the image of a lost soul, hermit-like, writing to save himself form....whatever. Why the heck he is featured on the Proms beats me. Bowie I can just about begin to start to understand a little, but Scott Walker.............???

[bluestateprommer]

Defies belief for me.

It seems to defy belief for Walker himself: https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...proms-accolade

Jarvis Cocker has this interview with Walker via Radio 6: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08yx6vz

[teamsaint]

Upsides. It might be a good night for anybody whose musical ambition is to hear Scott's songs performed live
it may provoke interesting discussion about how to present music like this in imaginative and worthwhile ways.
It may help an appreciation of how well Scott Walker can sing.

Otherwise......I couldn't take more than three songs.
I tried, I really did.

[Richard Barrett]

Personally I prefer Scott Walker's more recent output, but back in the 1960s he was certainly a far better singer than any of the "interpreters" listed here.

[Maclintick]

[QUOTE=DracoM;631207]Defies belief for me.
Scott Walker has seemingly gone out of his way to have cultivated the image of a lost soul, hermit-like, writing to save himself form....whatever. Why the heck he is featured on the Proms beats me. Bowie I can just about begin to start to understand a little, but Scott Walker.............???[/QUOTE

Exactly -- One has to ask -- WHY ???.....searches in vain for relevant emoticon...

[muzzer]

The orchestra was imho fabulous. The arrangements were faithful and were played superbly. It was a large band. The singers had the usual dilemmas around avoiding karaoke and one's view will depend as much on personal preference as performance. Fwiw I thought it was great to hear these songs live and the mood in the hall felt equally to me one of joy and not a little rapture. Very glad to have been there.

[BBMmk2]

Couldn't see the point in having this Prom. David Bowie, yes, Scott Walker?

[french frank]

This where people explain the brilliance of Scott Walker:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/76b1d907-dc01-45e7-9b83-1cd2a0054da3

That said, it's always slightly unnerving to discover that pop artists of one's youth, here today and gone tomorrow, were to become music legends in the future. My memory of Scott Walker was singing You've Lost That Lovin' Feling - which I now discover was the Righteous Brothers . Yes, I do remember The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More, but apparently he did his most interesting stuff later when he was less popular (?).

[teamsaint]

This where people explain the brilliance of Scott Walker:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/76b1d907-dc01-45e7-9b83-1cd2a0054da3

That said, it's always slightly unnerving to discover that pop artists of one's youth, here today and gone tomorrow, were to become music legends in the future. My memory of Scott Walker was singing You've Lost That Lovin' Feling - which I now discover was the Righteous Brothers . Yes, I do remember The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More, but apparently he did his most interesting stuff later when he was less popular (?).

Just one of the things to admire, or enjoy about his music is that, in an era when too many ( it seems to me) retro acts, bands who haven't made a decent record in years or decades, and seemed to run out of creative steam a long time ago trade rather boringly on old hits, Scott Walker, admittedly from a presumably secure financial position, provides a contrasting model of how it can be, as he makes ever more adventurous and ambitious music .

[Richard Barrett]

Just one of the things to admire, or enjoy about his music is that, in an era when too many ( it seems to me) retro acts, bands who haven't made a decent record in years or decades, and seemed to run out of creative steam a long time ago trade rather boringly on old hits, Scott Walker, admittedly from a presumably secure financial position, provides a contrasting model of how it can be, as he makes ever more adventurous and ambitious music .

Quite so. This of course is why the cutoff point for the music presented in the concert under discussion was 1970.

[Beef Oven!]

Couldn't see the point in having this Prom. David Bowie, yes, Scott Walker?

[teamsaint]

You could ash " Why him/her " about all sorts of musicians and composers.

If your musical criteria include some of , interesting, adventurous, successful commercially, thoughtful, varied, influential, widely appreciated " ,then Scott Walker deserved his go .

[french frank]

I'm not sure whether this is what people are discussing, but this is the official video of the recent Epizootics (2012):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ih7KzKLLWA

and these are the lyrics

https://genius.com/Scott-walker-epizootics-lyrics

An online reviewer writes that it is the abstract 10-minute centrepiece of the album Bish Bosch:

The song is a strange and murky formation of nonsensical jazz and absurd funk, featuring the sounds of pounding drums, snaps, claps, waning Hawaiian slide guitars, and trumpet fanfares. While the song may sound like a cacophonous and chaotic mess, the song is a heavily crafted and controlled form of chaos. Walker truly embodies the sound of an artist freely expressing himself …

Wherever you want to 'pigeonhole' him (on the assumption that anyone would want to), it would presumably be a form of 'avant garde'.