I first came across the name Scott Walker when, in 1981, Julian Cope was responsible for curating the compilation album “Fire Escape In The Sky: The Godlike Genius Of Scott Walker” for Liverpool’s Zoo Records. I didn’t rush out and buy it but made a mental note, as a committed Cope fan, to check Mr Walker out at some time in the future. What I didn’t realise was that I was already a fan via his recordings with 60’s heart throbs The Walker Brothers. I just hadn’t put it together that the Walker that was the voice of “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More” and “Make It Easy On Yourself” was Scott.

I eventually got around to following up on Cope’s compilation in the 90’s when I purchased the CD compilation “Boy Child 1967-70” and I was immediately enthralled. I started buying Scott’s individual albums, re-issues at first but have managed to replace a couple of them with originals and “Scott” is one of them.

There was plenty I was already familiar with here. David Bowie had recorded versions of “My Death” and “Amsterdam”, both songs being (clumsy) translations of songs written by the famed Belgian Chanson singer Jacques Brel. American songwriter Mort Shuman (“Viva Las Vegas”) was responsible for those translations for a musical revue titled “Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris” but lost a lot of the beauty of Brel’s original French in this translations. For example in converting “La Mort” to “My Death” Brel’s original (in French of course) “Death waits behind the leaves, Of the tree that will make my coffin” becomes Shuman’s nonsensical “My death waits among the leaves, In magicians mysterious sleeves”…whatever, Scott sings them both wonderfully. Jacques Brel was a huge influence on Walker and his first three solo albums each contain 3 of Brel’s songs.

“The Big Hurt”, which Scott takes on as a mid tempo Bossa Nova, I knew from a version by Susan Farrar which was big on the Northern Soul scene. Most of the songs are written by others, another by Brel, the military stomp of “Mathilde”, “Angelica” by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Tim Hardin, Dory Previn and others. The only thing that is seemingly out of place is Tim Hardin’s “The Lady Came From Baltimore” which breaks out the guitars in favour of the orchestra and comes across as some weird folk/country hybrid that sounds just like one of Hardin’s better known songs “Black Sheep Boy”.

The real highlights of “Scott” are the 3 Scott Walker (or Scott Engel, as he writes under his real name) originals. After Brel’s “Mathilde” and its almost miltary French style opening “Montague Terrace (In Blue)” smooths things out. It is a recognised Scott Walker classic with shimmering bells ringing through a tale of living in a wretched apartment (a scenario Scott will return to in future for (almost) an entire album) but by the chorus the singer is dreaming of escaping to the idyllic Montague Terrace backed by swelling strings and horns. Scott’s voice is superb throughout. Julian Cope opened that compilation album with “Such A Small Love” which means he must have thought it would grab you from the off. Eerie strings support Scott’s gentle vocal, he’s really showing off his vibrato, until the songs blossoms into a horn backed chorus. “Always Coming Back To You” is the closing song on “Fire Escape In The Sky…” and there’s a cinematic theme tune in the making about its tinkling Harpsichord.

“Scott” presented the singer as a more serious artist than the beat group/soul style he and the Walker Brothers delivered. He got the chance to showcase Jacques Brel to his audience (Walker described Brel as “the most significant singer-songwriter in the world”) and to record his own songs. It may not be for everyone but on a Sunday morning with a good cup of coffee…it’s heaven to me.

Montague Terrace (In Blue) - https://youtu.be/okWihNm-4wg?si=bpuv_YDkDp8AtwZb