“Scott 3” was Scott Walker’s last solo album to chart until the 1980’s, the end of a Pop heart-throb’s run, and make no mistake Scott was almost the David Cassidy of his day, just light years ahead musically. It may be that some of the more expermental arrangements and surreal lyrics turned his fanbase away. It’s made up of 10 Scott Walker originals and ends on 3 Jacques Brel songs, the final one being US poet Rod McKuen’s English translation of Brel’s "Ne me quitte pas”, considered by many to be Brel’s greatest song, now retitled “If You Go Away”. It is, despite what the teeny-boppers thought, a quite marvellous album.

It begins in seemingly gentle fashion on “It’s Raining Today”, whose eerie background strings are somewhat unsettling, and the slow waltz of “Copenhagen” which feels once more like film music. “Rosemary” and “Big Louise”, which begins with the lyric “She stands all alone, You can hear her hum softly, From her fire escape in the sky” from whence Julian Cope lifted the title for his Scott comp, continue Scott’s series of songs about girls, “Rosemary” an ageing beauty, Louise a study of a prostitute. Both are gorgeous and fitting songs and melodies.

My personal favourite on “Scott 3” is the thunderous cavalry charge that is “We Came Through”. It starts at the top of its game and never lets up. Marching drums, a lyric mentioning Notre Dame and Dr Martin Luther King and a crescendo of horns and firework explosions at the end leave you breathless. Scott didn’t record many bangers but this is certainly one.

Side 2 kicks of with the acoustic, folky "30 Century Man" with bizarre lyrics including references to dwarves, giants, Charles de Gaulle and clingfilm ! Finally it settles into those 3 Brel songs and Scott’s delivery of the closing “Ne me quitte pas” as “If You Go Away” is beguiling and he really does make it his own.

All that praise and we didn’t even mention (until now) “Butterfly”, “Two Ragged Soldiers”, “Winter Night” or “Two Weeks Since You've Gone” all of which are worth more attention than we’ve given them here. “Scott 3” is a lush orchestrated thing and Scott’s voice sounds as good as it ever has. Apart from the numerous compilation albums that are available it may well be as good a place to start for the Scott-newbie as anywhere.

We Came Through - https://youtu.be/BnzmioTGCcw?si=Oqu0TU5C365pFcWm