Four years gone, Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel; January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019)...
I was a moody, alienated outsider of a teen. I didn’t seem to fit in anywhere, or with any of my surroundings. So as one does, I just sort of created my own version of a world in my head. Part of my weekly ritual was going to a discount department store called Woolco & buying cut-outs. Usually records from the previous few years that hadn’t sold well & were punched with a hole through a corner of the cover & sold at a discounted price. Usually 99 cents, sometimes even 49 cents. It was there I discovered many wonders. Among those that appealed to my disaffected, melancholy disposition were albums I bought by The Kinks & The Walker Brothers.
The photo above is of Scott Walker singing “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” with The Walker Brothers, three non-related Americans who moved to the UK in the mid-sixties & started a band with the fictionalized last name of Walker. (Sound familiar Ramones fans?)
Then one day at Woolco, I ran across a Scott Walker solo album called ALONER, with Scott from The Walker Brothers singing moody Jacques Brel ballads (“My Death”) along with a few of his own compositions like “Montague Terrace In Blue”, over some crazy over-the-top orchestral backing. You can hear them both here:
Then more Scott Walker solo LPs showed up at Woolco, SCOTT TWO & then SCOTT 3 with Scott’s surreal interpretation of “The Seventh Seal” (despite what it sez below, you can watch it here at this link: https://youtu.be/ejiWfG-vOXo):
His dark, thoughtful, alienated music fit my teen angst perfectly. I got interested in new bands & performers to follow, started dabbling in creating songs myself, & moved continually on…
Years later in 1981, I was heavily involved in getting into roots music that I hadn’t heard before, & buying every album of old rockabilly, surf, & primitive blues that I could get my hands on. One day, I bought an import album called JUKEBOX AT ERIC’S that was purportedly comprised of the songs on the jukebox at place called Eric’s Club in Liverpool.
(Read about the album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/1995828-Various-Jukebox-At-Erics-Vol-1-Rock-N-Roll). Mixed in between the primitive rockin’ R&B obscurities by the likes of Big Al Downing, Tommy Blake, & Fort Worth’s Ray Sharpe (“Monkey’s Uncle”), was a surf instrumental called “Jungle Fever” by The Playboys that I immediately latched onto:
A couple of years after that, when I’d moved to Austin & started the band Out On Parole with Joe Dickens, we started playing “Jungle Fever” as a closer at the end of our sets. At that time I hadn’t noticed “Jungle Fever’ was written by someone named S. Engel. That is a young teenage Scott Engel & his high school surf band, The Playboys…
Four years gone, Scott Walker (born Noel Scott Engel; January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019). You play the hand you're dealt...
