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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
When Scott Walker recorded this, his first solo album, he was 23 years old and sounded about two hundred. He was rich, handsome, absurdly famous--and he hated it. Though The Walker Brothers, the band his cavernous croon decorated, specialised in lavishly over-produced, heroically lachrymose ballads ("Make It Easy On Yourself", "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"), any subtlety they attempted was being lost beneath the screams of their teenage audiences. Scott Walker took to spending his days in darkened hotel rooms and becoming steadily obsessed with the work of legendarily louche Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel.
On the cover of Scott, a sunglass-wearing Walker stares tetchily at his shoes, as if the merest intrusion of a camera was, by this point, becoming intolerable. He needn't have looked so glum: the sleeve contained a masterpiece. Of the 12 tracks on Scott, three were written by Walker, three by Brel and the rest by other famously consumptive writers such as Tim Hardin and Kurt Weil. Walker sang all of them like they were his valedictory message to humanity, finding greater depths than ever in his awesome voice, and drenching the whole thing in great surges of strings. This is a classic, which generations of self-consciously misunderstood young men have clasped close to their hearts ever since. --Andrew Mueller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have had this album since it's original release in 1967. It is a powerful and perfect reflection of Scott Walkers tremendous talent as a vocalist. The passion and meaning he brings to the songs is breathtaking. No one has come close to achieving the depth of feeling heard in these lyrics. All the songs stand on their own but,for me, Montague Terrace is the one that stands out. For an album nearly 35 years old this is still fantasticly relevant today. An absolute must for anyone who has just encountered this fantastic artist. Buy the next three as well.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I heard my first track from 'Scott' in 1967 when I was 17. He sang on 'The Billy Cotton Band Show', a bizarre choice for the LP's premiere; NME at the time thought so too, describing variety programme'Band Show' as having a "luvverly bunch of coconuts" atmosphere to it and here was Scott Walker singing 'My Death'. Over 40 years ago and I still remember it vividly. I sat alone in the family home,a Lancashire terrace, lights off (we did that in those days, don't ask me why) as I watched the telly. Scott looked almost ready to run for his life. He was always a nervous performer and his hands shook very visibly. At the time I his horror of public exposure wasn't so well-known so I thought then that the shaking hands were due to the overwhelming emotion of singing that song. Maybe it was that too. Certainly it overwhelmed me, the G-forces of hearing something so astonishing ("My death is like a swinging door, a patient girl who knows the score...") pinned me back in my chair. NO-ONE sang about such 'grown-up' subjects in those days. It hit me like a wrecking-ball; I'd been expecting a Walker Bros-style big ballad and got beaten up and bruised by this. When it finished, I just sat there for hours. I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks. Scott Walker has had a continuous effect on my whole life ever since that night. I won't review any other tracks from 'Scott' here. I'll just say some ('Mathilde') are almost as astonishing as 'My Death', some are the quality ballads I got used to before that May night in 1967, some are so-so. For me, 'My Death' will always be synonymous with the'Scott' album. Listen here to the master singer of the 20th Century, a man with a technically near-perfect baritone but, at the same time, with the interpretative skill of Sinatra himself. No other singer I've ever heard comes anywhere near close to Scott Walker in combining BOTH technique and emotional richness within the living body of a single human being. I've never been sure that I like being so totally absorbed by any one subject or person, recognising it as obsessive, maybe even unhealthy, but there it is. I was taken prisoner by Scott Walker in May 1967 and I've never escaped since, never will until MY death.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having played the original LP of Scott 1 till it was unplayable I was intrigued to discover if this cd would rekindle the fond memories I have cherished over the years of the superb baritone of Scott Engel. Yes, it did with a vengeance! Such a wonderful collection of songs with every nuance of Scotts voice and superb diction making you feel the sentiments of each song.
It would be wrong I feel to try and elaborate on this wonderful remastered cd; I can sum it up in two words: SHEER PERFECTION.
It would be wrong I feel to try and elaborate on this wonderful remastered cd; I can sum it up in two words: SHEER PERFECTION.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Late Starter But Better Than Never
i only really got into Scott Walker in a small way sometime around 2001. In 1993 I had heard Bowie cover "Night Flights" and was always curious what the original would sound... Read more
Published 9 months ago by David Bentley Newman
One of my favourite Scott albums
This HDCD of Scott is one of my favourites of his albums. Outstanding songs are 'Such A Small Love', 'My Death', 'Always Coming Back To You', 'Angelica' and the other songs... Read more
Published 11 months ago by john
Great Scott
Had to have this as I have grown up listening to the original LP albums. The wonderful Angelica and When Joanna Loved Me are hard to obtain elsewhere. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Eastneyboy
ONE STAR!!!!!! if I were you I woudn't share your opinions.
To give this album one star is hardly worth commenting on but to advertise such philistinism is ludicrous and demonstrates why freedom of speech should be viewed as a privilige not... Read more
Published 22 months ago by David M. Graves
A Rebirth
Born Scott Engel, in Hamilton, Ohio in 1943, Scott Walker rose to fame in the United Kingdom in the mid sixties as a member of The Walker Brothers, taking the self exiled American... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2009 by The Mancunian Candidate
MOR Is Less
I already had Climate of Hunter and Scotts 3 and 4 and thought they were amazing, so was expecting more of the same with this. Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2007 by AK 1957-05
Majesty, magnificence and intrigue
Scott Walker's first solo album is the first of four fine numbered releases which demonstrate the potential of big orchestral arrangements. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2007 by D. J. H. Thorn
Doomy Masterpiece
I've grown up with this album since hearing my mum's scratchy bargain basement copy and slowly realising that not all her records were hopeless. Read more
Published on 14 July 2002 by J. Skade
Not bad for openers!
This album is so vastly different from his work with the Walker Brothers, it is very much an adult recording - not for teeny boppers! Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2001 by linz1969@aol.com
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