| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 20:55:29
I don't know how many times I heard "The Walker Brothers or Scott Walker from Great Britain...."
USA boys that moved to England and were bigger there than over here during the British Invasion... a great trio and later solo act!!
Scott Walker is still revered and known in the UK i assume, as much as he has been forgotten in the USA!
THE WALKER BROTHERS
The Walker Brothers were an American 1960s and 1970s pop group, comprising Scott Engel (eventually known professionally as Scott Walker), John Walker (born John Maus, but using the name Walker since his teens), and Gary Leeds (eventually known as Gary Walker). After moving to Britain they had a number of top ten albums and singles there in the mid 1960s, including the #1 chart hits "Make It Easy on Yourself" and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)", both of which also made the US top twenty.
Formed in 1964, the three unrelated musicians adopted the 'Walker Brothers' name as a show business touch—"simply because we liked it".[1] They provided a unique counterpoint to the British Invasion in that they were a group from the United States that achieved much more substantial success in the United Kingdom than in their home country, during the period when the popularity of British bands such as The Beatles dominated the US.[2]
Listen and read on....
Make It Easy On Yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZTS9H-l5qQ&feature=related
The Walker Brothers Trio was formed in Los Angeles in 1964, by John Walker (lead vocals, guitar), Scott Engel (bass, harmony vocals), and drummer Al "Tiny" Schneider. Before then, John Walker—who had already been using that name professionally for several years—had performed and recorded several unsuccessful singles with his sister as a duo, John and Judy, and Engel had been bass player with instrumental band The Routers. Walker and Engel, with two other musicians, had also toured the Midwest in 1963 as "The Surfaris", although the group included none of the musicians who played on the Surfaris' records. Dropping the word "Trio", Walker and Engel were signed by Mercury Records, recorded a single, "Pretty Girls Everywhere", and became a leading attraction at Gazzari's Club in Hollywood. They also appeared on the Shindig! TV show developed by Jack Good, and then on a weekly TV show, Ninth Street A Go Go.[3]
Late in 1964, they met drummer Gary Leeds, previously of The Standells, who had recently toured the UK with singer P.J. Proby.[1][4] Leeds – along with club regular Brian Jones[5] – persuaded them that the band's rock and roll and blues style would go down well in "swinging London", where Proby had already succeeded. Before leaving, they recorded their second single, "Love Her", overseen by Nick Venet and arranger Jack Nitzsche, with Scott Engel taking the lead vocal part for the first time—previously John Walker had been the lead vocalist. They also appeared in a film, Beach Ball, and sent demo recordings to record labels in the United Kingdom. With financial backing from Leeds' stepfather, Walker, Engel and Leeds travelled to the UK in February 1965 for an exploratory visit.[3]
Success in the UK
When they landed in England, record producer Johnny Franz was keen to sign them up. In a short time Walker and Engel had secured a recording contract with Philips Records, an affiliate of Mercury, and had played several venues around the UK, with Leeds as drummer. Their first single, "Pretty Girls Everywhere", had little success,[4] but radio stations picked up on the follow-up "Love Her" with Engel's baritone vocals, and it made the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart in June 1965.[6] The song was originally recorded by The Everly Brothers and released as B-side to their single "The Girl Who Sang The Blues" in 1963.[7]
Philips then recorded and released the group's version of "Make It Easy on Yourself", a Burt Bacharach and Hal David ballad previously recorded by Jerry Butler. The song was sung by Engel (by now called Scott Walker), arranged by Ivor Raymonde and produced by Johnny Franz, with a full orchestra augmented by session musicians, very much in the style of Phil Spector's productions.[7] Session musicians on the record included Alan Parker and Big Jim Sullivan. By August 1965, "Make It Easy on Yourself" had entered the UK Top 10 eventually reaching the Number One spot.[6] Later in the year it also made #16 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.[4] The track sold 250,000 copies in the UK, and over one million copies globally, gaining gold disc status.[1]
The Number 3 UK hit "My Ship Is Coming In", originally recorded in 1965 by Soul singer Jimmy Radcliffe, followed, and then in March 1966, The Walker Brothers hit #1 for the second time in six months with "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore".[6] Their popularity in the UK – particularly that of Scott – reached a new high, especially among teenage girls, and their fan club in that country was said to have been larger than The Beatles'. Although "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" also made the US Top 20, they had much less success in their home country.[4]
The Walker Brothers continued to have chart hits in the UK in 1966 and 1967, with Scott taking a more prominent role in their song choices and arrangements, but with diminishing commercial success. They also had to leave the UK for six months in early 1967 because of work permit problems. As pop music moved on, the Walker Brothers began to sound dated. By the end of 1967, the pressures of stardom, internal tensions, and 'artistic differences' began to diminish the group. It sent Scott Walker into depression—he had already reportedly attempted suicide (though accounts differ) and he sought refuge in a monastery by the time his differences with Maus split the band.[7] After a UK tour in late 1967 which also featured Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, and Engelbert Humperdinck, followed by a tour of Japan in 1968, the group officially disbanded.
SCOTT WALKER
If you have never heard of Scott Walker, it’s probably because you have never lived in England or never listened to completely bizarre, avant garde, recluse music. Nonetheless, Walker and his band The Walker Brothers are considered to be part of the 60s British Invasion (although they were Americans who invaded London.) The Brothers weren’t actually related, yet at the height of their popularity, their fan club was bigger than the Beatles. Here is “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,” very Phil Spector/ Righteous Brothers, yes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q11ium_-Lv8&feature=related
Scott Walker began a solo career in a style clearly glimpsed in Images, the Walkers Brothers' final album. He began recording Jacques Brel songs, translated by Mort Shuman, who had co-translated Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris with Eric Blau. Walker's original songs of this period were also influenced by Brel.
In 1968 Walker studied contemporary and classical music intensively, which included a sojourn at Quarr Abbey, a monastery on the Isle of Wight, to study Gregorian chant.[3] His own songs became more introspective; gradually incorporating Lieder and classical music.
Scott Walker's early solo career was successful in Britain; his first three albums, titled Scott (1967), Scott 2 (1968) and Scott 3 (1969), all sold well, Scott 2 each reaching the top ten in the British charts. However, this concentrated attention was not conducive to Walker's emotional well-being. He became reclusive and somewhat distanced from his audience. During this period he combined his earlier, popular sound with darker, more idiosyncratic music, which had been hinted at in songs like "Orpheus", on the Images album. Walker drove a fine line between classic ballads, his own compositions, and Brel covers.
At the peak of his fame in 1969, he was given his own BBC TV series, Scott, featuring solo Walker performances of ballads, big band standards and introductions of his own and Brel compositions. Footage of the show is currently very rare as recordings were not archived. Walker's fourth solo album was an LP of songs from the TV series entitled Scott: Scott Walker Sings Songs from his TV Series.
Walker released his fifth solo LP, Scott 4, in 1969. This was his first to be made up entirely of self-penned material. The album failed to chart and was deleted shortly thereafter. It has been speculated that the decision to release the album under his birth name, Noel Scott Engel, contributed to its commercial failure. All subsequent re-issues of the album have been released under his stage name.
In recent interviews, Walker suggested that by the time of his third solo LP, a self-indulgent complacency had influenced his choice of material; specifically the latter half of the album, which featured cover versions of popular film tunes and a Country/Western music. The Moviegoer (1972), Any Day Now (1973), Stretch (1973), and We Had It All (1974) feature no original material. In the 2006 documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, Walker describes this period as his "lost years", creatively.
The Walker Brothers reunion
The Walker Brothers reunited in 1975 to produce three albums. Their first single, a cover of Tom Rush's "No Regrets", from the album of the same title, rose to #7 on the UK Singles Chart. However, the album only reached #49 in the UK Albums Chart. The following singles, "Lines" and "We're All Alone", from the next album, also failed to chart. Scott Walker considers "Lines" the the Walker Brothers' best single.
With the imminent demise of their record label, the Walker Brothers released an album of original material that was in stark contrast to the country/western style tunes of the previous 1970s albums. The resulting album, Nite Flights, was released in 1978, but sold poorly. Critically, it was well-received, especially Scott's contributions. The Walker Brothers each wrote and sang their own compositions. The opening four songs were Scott's, the fifth and sixth were Gary's and the final four were John's. Scott's four songs, "Nite Flights", "The Electrician", "Shut Out", and "Fat Mama Kick", were his first original compositions since 'Til the Band Comes In. They represented his departure from the sound that he had cultivated since the commercial failure of Scott 4. The extremely dark and discomforting sound of Scott's songs, particularly "The Electrician", foretold the direction of his future solo work. The Walker Brothers disbanded once more after their sixth album, in 1978.
[edit] Return to solo works
Walker's recording activity has been sporadic since the late 1970s. He has released three albums since 1980: Climate of Hunter in 1984, Tilt in 1995 and The Drift in 2006.
Walker has spoken about his lyrical technique; he compares his technique of combining disparate images into short blocks of text to that of "a general, assembling troops on the battlefield". The Wire has noted that the short blocks of white-on-black text presented in the CD insert is reflective of this. The roots of this compositional technique are apparent as early as the Scott Walker tracks on Nite Flites. The lyrics insert for the album clearly feature the technique, albeit with a black text on a white background.[4]
In tangential developments, in 1993 Walker co-wrote and co-performed (with Goran Bregovi#263;) the single "Man from Reno" for the soundtrack of the film Toxic Affair. In 1996, he recorded the Bob Dylan song "I Threw It All Away" under the direction of Nick Cave for inclusion in the soundtrack for the film To Have and to Hold. Three years later, he recorded the David Arnold song "Only Myself to Blame", for the soundtrack of the Bond film The World Is Not Enough. That same year, he wrote and produced the soundtrack for the Léos Carax film Pola X, which was released as an album. Scott Walker wrote and produced two songs for Ute Lemper the following year, and went on to produce Pulp's 2001 album We Love Life (whose track Bad Cover Version includes a mocking reference to Walker's poor covers on "The second side of 'Til The Band Comes In").
Walker has been a continuing influence on other artists, in particular The Last Shadow Puppets, Marc Almond, Douglas Pearce of the band Death in June, Billy MacKenzie of The Associates, David Sylvian, David Bowie, Radiohead, and the Divine Comedy/Neil Hannon. In 2000, he curated the London South Bank Centre's annual summer live music festival, Meltdown, which has a tradition of celebrity curators. He did not perform at Meltdown himself, but wrote the music for The Richard Alston Dance Project item Thimblerigging.
In October 2003, Walker was given an award for his contribution to music by Q magazine. This was presented by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, and Walker received a standing ovation at the presentation. This award had been presented only twice before, the first time to Phil Spector, and the second to Brian Eno. The release of a retrospective box set, 5 Easy Pieces, comprising five themed discs spanning Walker's work with The Walker Brothers, his solo career (including film soundtrack work), and the two pieces composed for Ute Lemper, followed soon after.
The British independent label 4AD Records signed Walker in early 2004 and his first album in 11 years, The Drift, was released on 8 May 2006 to strong reviews. In recent interviews, he appears more at ease with media attention. He reveals a wish to produce albums more frequently and hints at significant changes in material if and when it suits him. Walker mentioned the possibility of touring again with a compact, five-piece band in an interview with The Wire[4] in 2006.
In June 2006, Mojo and radio honored Scott Walker with the MOJO Icon Award: "Voted for by Mojo readers and Mojo4music users, the recipient of this award has enjoyed a spectacular career on a global scale". It was presented by Phil Alexander.
A documentary film, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, was completed in 2006 by New York film director Stephen Kijak (Cinemania and Never Met Picasso). Interviews were recorded with David Bowie (executive producer of the film), Radiohead, Sting, Gavin Friday and many musicians associated with Walker over the years. The World Premiere of Scott Walker: 30 Century Man took place as part of the 50th London Film Festival. When The Independent released its list of "Ten must-see films" at the 50th London Film Festival, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, was among them. A documentary on Walker containing a substantial amount of footage from the film was shown on BBC1 in May 2007 as part of the Imagine... strand, presented by Alan Yentob.
Walker released "Darkness" as part of Plague Songs, an album of songs for the Margate Exodus project, a re-telling of the Book of Exodus, the story of Moses and his search for the Promised Land. Ten singer-songwriters were commissioned by Artangel to write and record a song inspired by one of the ten biblical plagues. Walker's evocation of "Darkness" appears as the ninth.
On 24 September 2007, Walker released And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball? as a limited, never-to-be-re-pressed edition.[5] The 24-minute instrumental work was performed by the London Sinfonietta with solo cellist Philip Sheppard as music to a performance by London-based CandoCo Dance Company. The recording is currently available.
From 13 to 15 November 2008, Drifting and Tilting: The Songs of Scott Walker was staged at The Barbican, in London. It comprised eight songs, two from Tilt – "Farmer in the City" and "Patriot (a single)" – and the rest from The Drift: "Cossacks Are", "Jesse", "Clara (Benito's Dream)", "Buzzers", "Jolson and Jones" and "Cue". Each song was presented in a music-theatre manner, with the vocal parts taken by a number of singers, including Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and Dot Allison.
Walker collaborated with Bat for Lashes on the song "The Big Sleep" from her 2009 album Two Suns.[6]
Walker wrote the score for the ROH2 production of Jean Cocteau’s 1932 play Duet for One which was staged in the Linbury Studio in June 2011.[7]
Walker began recording his next album in 2011, and is also composing the score for another opera to be performed in 2012.
[edit] Popular culture
Scott Walker's track "Sons Of" plays a prominent part in the Baillie Walsh film Flashbacks of a Fool starring Daniel Craig. The song, an English version of Jaques Brel's "Fils de...", was originally released on Scott 3.[9]
A segment of Walker's song "30 Century Man" appears in the 2007 animated feature Futurama: Bender's Big Score, in which a short animated sequence illustrates Walker's lyric "shakin' hand with Charles de Gaulle."[10]
"30 Century Man" also appears in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou directed by Wes Anderson.
Scott Walker's song "The Electrician" featured on The Walker Brothers' Nite Flights album is the opening track for the 2008 film Bronson directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
NO REGRETS..such a fine cover...just brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcRE_XoPT0
Rediscover THE WALKER Brothers again!!
__________________________________
I'm just dead, I'm not gone.
-Jim Dickinson |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| mikelongisland631 |
Posted - 06/08/2013 : 23:25:58
Hi I'm new to the group, and LOVE THE WALKER BROTHERS !
QUESTION:
Would ANYONE help me get a copy of THE WALKER BROTHERS LIVE IN JAPAN on cd...original cd or copy !
Thanks so much !
mikelongisland631 |
| rocker |
Posted - 13/01/2012 : 15:58:12
will do kid..tomorrow I hunt...they are so good...well I like this one...a Dylan cover...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufBtRCe_FlY&feature=related |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 12/01/2012 : 17:10:40
quote:
Originally posted by rocker
Rediscover THE WALKER Brothers again!!
hey these guys are good..always liked them though I didn't get to know all their songs...that 5cd is on my list too...No Regrets...great song!..
For starters, rocker, get
a brilliant compilation of the essence of Scott Walker & the Walker Brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTTR3fI8jjo&feature=related
__________________________________
I'm just dead, I'm not gone.
-Jim Dickinson |
| rocker |
Posted - 12/01/2012 : 14:19:07
And reading the fact that Walker and Engel toured in '63 as the Surfaris makes me wonder if they're the ones singing and playing on that Surfaris hit, 'Image of a Girl'. |
| rocker |
Posted - 12/01/2012 : 14:09:28
Rediscover THE WALKER Brothers again!!
hey these guys are good..always liked them though I didn't get to know all their songs...that 5cd is on my list too...No Regrets...great song!.. |
| lemonade kid |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 21:25:42
I read that the CD release "The Best Of Scott Walker & The Walker Brothers" (2006) made it up to #24 in the UK, so thank you UK for always remembering the great ones..as you did Arthur LEE!!
I'm getting the new 5 CD Box...the complete recordings!!
__________________________________
I'm just dead, I'm not gone.
-Jim Dickinson |
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