Track Listing

1. Mathilde - Scott Walker, Wally Stott
2. Montague Terrace (In Blue) - Scott Walker, Wally Stott, Orchestra
3. Angelica - Scott Walker, Reg Guest
4. The Lady Came From Baltimore - Scott Walker, Reg Guest
5. When Joanna Loved Me - Scott Walker, Wally Stott
6. My Death - Scott Walker, Reg Guest, Orchestra
7. The Big Hurt - Scott Walker, Wally Stott
8. Such A Small Love - Scott Walker, Wally Stott, Orchestra
9. You're Gonna Hear From Me - Scott Walker, Peter Knight
10. Through A Long And Sleepless Night - Scott Walker, Peter Knight
11. Always Coming Back To You - Scott Walker, Reg Guest
12. Amsterdam - Scott Walker, Wally Stott Orchestra

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2360 in Music
• Released on: 2000-06-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 40 minutes

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

Customer Reviews

I'll have 'My Death' played at my funeral
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.

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. A couple of tracks from the end I had to check to make sure I wasn't listening to my mother's Matt Monro album! After a few good tracks (Montague Terrace for instance) it descends into syrupy, string-laden MOR slush. It could be any '60s crooner here - thankfully he developed into the genius we're familiar with today. The difference between this and The Drift is like the width of the universe - not an album I will be returning to any time soon. Not until I'm in my sixties anyway.

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. It helps that he has that towering presence as a vocalist and a voice that sounds as if it's carrying the world. His fondness for Brel's songs is evident from the three compositions included here. While they're well-executed, my preference is for Walker's own three songs. 'Montague Terrace' is surreal yet vivid, couched in a suspenseful arrangement. The lengthy 'Such A Small Love' builds beautifully into a dramatic, passionate ballad. 'Always Coming Back To You' is less distinctive, but good nevertheless. The remaining selections display a wide range of influences, from folk to pop to jazz and ballads, all benefiting from imaginative arrangements. A wonderful album.