In Search Of Scott Walker
The Wire's Derek Walmsley and Rob Young go in search of Scotty Engel, also known as Noel Scott Engel, or the man who now goes by the stage name he adopted almost 50 years ago, Scott Walker. To coincide with the publication of No Regrets: Writings On Scott Walker, a collection of essays put together by The Wire magazine in conjunction with Orion Books, we will explore the hidden roots and the strange branches of the work of Scott Walker, from his late 1950s pre-career as a child star in Denver through the epic Scott solo albums and the lost years of 70s MOR through to the apocalyptic visions of his later works Climate Of Hunter, Tilt, and The Drift. We will be playing the eclectic, not to say perverse mix of musics Scott has attempted to synthesise in his music – Jacques Brel, Bartok, anarchist and balladeer Léo Ferré, Gregorian chant – and discussing his strange journey through the worlds of the pop mainstream through light entertainment and Country to carve out an idiosyncratic niche as the author of intense and personal visions mapping the edges of human existence. Drawn together from over 50 years of music and recording, there will be spoken word rarities, interview and TV broadcasts, B sides and dark corners of his career that Scott himself has attempted to forget.
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