Scott Walker (Noel Scott Engel, January 9, 1943 - March 22, 2019) was an American-born singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is noted for his distinctive baritone voice and for the unorthodox career path which has taken him from 1960s pop icon to 21st century avant-garde musician.
Originally coming to fame in the mid-1960s singing orchestral pop ballads as the frontman of The Walker Brothers, Walker went on to a solo career balancing Read Full BioScott Walker (Noel Scott Engel, January 9, 1943 - March 22, 2019) was an American-born singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is noted for his distinctive baritone voice and for the unorthodox career path which has taken him from 1960s pop icon to 21st century avant-garde musician.
Originally coming to fame in the mid-1960s singing orchestral pop ballads as the frontman of The Walker Brothers, Walker went on to a solo career balancing a light entertainment/MOR ballad approach with increasing artistic innovations in arrangement and writing perspective. Despite a series of acclaimed albums, a disastrous drop in sales forced him back into straight Middle of the road recordings with little of his own artistic input. This in turn eventually led to a Walker Brothers reunion in the mid-1970s (although the latter eventually moved, by mutual consent, into more avant-garde areas).
Since the mid-1980s Walker has revived his solo career while drastically reinventing his artistic and compositional methods, via a series of acclaimed and vividly avant-garde albums. These combine his iconic singing voice with an unsettling avant-garde approach owing more to modernist and post-modernist classical composition than it does to his pop singer past. The change in approach has been compared to "Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen".
Walker has been a continuing influence on other artists, in particular The Last Shadow Puppets, Marc Almond, Goldfrapp, Douglas Pearce of the band Death in June, Billy MacKenzie of The Associates, David Sylvian, Julian Cope, Antony Hegarty, Thom Yorke, Steven Wilson, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Trey Spruance, Perry Blake, Radiohead, Noah Lennox, Mikael Åkerfeldt, and the Divine Comedy/Neil Hannon.
In Season 3, Episode 2, of Absolutely Fabulous, "Jackie" was sung in part during the episode by Patsy and also played through the end credits.
Scott Walker's track "Sons Of" played a prominent part in the Baillie Walsh film Flashbacks of a Fool starring Daniel Craig. The song, an English version of Jacques Brel's "Fils de...", was originally released on Scott 3.
A segment of Walker's song "30 Century Man" appears in the 2007 animated feature Futurama: Bender's Big Score, in which a short animated sequence illustrates Walker's lyric "shakin' hands with Charles de Gaulle."
The song "The Electrician", which featured on The Walker Brothers' Nite Flights album, was the opening track for the 2008 film Bronson directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
In professional wrestling, Scottish star Jackie Pallo used Walker's song "Jackie" as his entrance theme and also sang the song while making his entrance.
Walker continued to release solo material until his death, and was signed to 4AD Records. As a record producer or guest performer he has worked with a number of artists including Pulp, Ute Lemper, Bat For Lashes and Sunn O))).
Despite being American, Walker's success has largely been in the United Kingdom, where his first 3 solo albums reached the top ten. Walker has lived in the UK since 1965; he became a British citizen in 1970.
It was confirmed by 4AD that, early in 2014, Walker collaborated with experimental drone metal duo Sunn O))) on a new album. The album, Soused, was released on October 21, 2014.
Originally coming to fame in the mid-1960s singing orchestral pop ballads as the frontman of The Walker Brothers, Walker went on to a solo career balancing Read Full BioScott Walker (Noel Scott Engel, January 9, 1943 - March 22, 2019) was an American-born singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is noted for his distinctive baritone voice and for the unorthodox career path which has taken him from 1960s pop icon to 21st century avant-garde musician.
Originally coming to fame in the mid-1960s singing orchestral pop ballads as the frontman of The Walker Brothers, Walker went on to a solo career balancing a light entertainment/MOR ballad approach with increasing artistic innovations in arrangement and writing perspective. Despite a series of acclaimed albums, a disastrous drop in sales forced him back into straight Middle of the road recordings with little of his own artistic input. This in turn eventually led to a Walker Brothers reunion in the mid-1970s (although the latter eventually moved, by mutual consent, into more avant-garde areas).
Since the mid-1980s Walker has revived his solo career while drastically reinventing his artistic and compositional methods, via a series of acclaimed and vividly avant-garde albums. These combine his iconic singing voice with an unsettling avant-garde approach owing more to modernist and post-modernist classical composition than it does to his pop singer past. The change in approach has been compared to "Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen".
Walker has been a continuing influence on other artists, in particular The Last Shadow Puppets, Marc Almond, Goldfrapp, Douglas Pearce of the band Death in June, Billy MacKenzie of The Associates, David Sylvian, Julian Cope, Antony Hegarty, Thom Yorke, Steven Wilson, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Trey Spruance, Perry Blake, Radiohead, Noah Lennox, Mikael Åkerfeldt, and the Divine Comedy/Neil Hannon.
In Season 3, Episode 2, of Absolutely Fabulous, "Jackie" was sung in part during the episode by Patsy and also played through the end credits.
Scott Walker's track "Sons Of" played a prominent part in the Baillie Walsh film Flashbacks of a Fool starring Daniel Craig. The song, an English version of Jacques Brel's "Fils de...", was originally released on Scott 3.
A segment of Walker's song "30 Century Man" appears in the 2007 animated feature Futurama: Bender's Big Score, in which a short animated sequence illustrates Walker's lyric "shakin' hands with Charles de Gaulle."
The song "The Electrician", which featured on The Walker Brothers' Nite Flights album, was the opening track for the 2008 film Bronson directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.
In professional wrestling, Scottish star Jackie Pallo used Walker's song "Jackie" as his entrance theme and also sang the song while making his entrance.
Walker continued to release solo material until his death, and was signed to 4AD Records. As a record producer or guest performer he has worked with a number of artists including Pulp, Ute Lemper, Bat For Lashes and Sunn O))).
Despite being American, Walker's success has largely been in the United Kingdom, where his first 3 solo albums reached the top ten. Walker has lived in the UK since 1965; he became a British citizen in 1970.
It was confirmed by 4AD that, early in 2014, Walker collaborated with experimental drone metal duo Sunn O))) on a new album. The album, Soused, was released on October 21, 2014.
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Farmer In The City
Scott Walker Lyrics
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
This night you are mistaken
I'm a farmer in the city
Dark farm houses 'gainst the sky
Every night I must wonder why
Harness on the left nail
Keeps wrinkling, wrinkling
Then higher above me
Esau, esau
Can't go by a man from Rio
Go by a man from Vigo
Can't go by a man from Ostia
Hey Ninetto
Remember that dream?
We talked about it so many times
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
And if I'm not mistaken
We can search from farm to farm
Dark farm houses 'gainst our eyes
Every night I must realize
Harness on the left nail
Keeps withering and withering
Then higher above me
Esau, esau
Can't go by a man in this shirt
Go buy a man in that shirt
Can't go by a man with brain grass
Go by his long long eye gas
And I used to be a citizen
And I never felt the pressure
I knew nothing of the horses
Nothing of the thresher
Paolo, take me with you?
It was the journey of a life
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
Do I hear 21, 21, 21?
I'll give you 21, 21, 21
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Scott Walker
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them
Tuan Jim
Probably the ballsiest karaoke request imaginable. lol
Paul Hardin
So my long musical quest has at last led me to Scott Walker. This is a remote place indeed. I'm not even going to bother to tell anyone about this incredible artist.
Vuoto Pneumatico Non Non
They're both about Pasolini but, while Ostia is mainly about his death, this was inspired by Pasolini's poem "Uno Dei Tanti Epiloghi", which is about Pasolini's young lover Ninetto Davoli. This song contains many of the poem's lines.
toomuchrose
A voice that sounds like a sad Angel, almost at the point of heartbreak until it soars into another world. Utterly beautiful and unique.
Del Phillips
It is heart-stopping, it leaves me breathless....And this is probably the most accessible track on the album... Wonderful Anything else said would be pointless
onlyhuman
It sounds like a painting come to life.
kajst
There is something magic in this song. The voice, the lyrics - very captivating.
Bumblebert
@Rosstitutional - if you want to hear recent Scotts voice on more conventional songs he also did vocals for several movie soundtracks in the 90's: "Only myself to blame"(which I think's gorgeous), "I threw it all away" (Bob Dylan cover produced by Nick Cave) and two songs with lyrics by Scott "Man from Reno" (with lyrics that would be reworked for "Farmer in the city") and "Indecent Sacrifice" - all of which can be found on youtube of course. Hope you like them if you havent heard them already.x
andzwe
Most of his contemporaries pale in comparison to what he accomplishes on his latest albums. Innovation is mostly expected from the young generation, but Scott Walker proofs that doesn't have to be so........at all, or on the contrary. He can be this groundbreaking because of all he did (and would like to have done) in the past, I think.
plushsnail
As a sort-of response to this, some of the music that this song puts me in mind of: Olivier Messiaen's 'Harawi' song cycle, Morton Feldman's opera 'Neither', Arvo Part's piece 'My Heart is in the Highlands', Swans' album 'Soundtracks for the Blind', A Silver Mt. Zion's album '13 Blues for 13 Moons', early music like Perotin and Dufay... some of my favorite music, in other words.