Scott Walker (Noel Scott Engel, January 9, 1943 - March 22, 2019) was an Am… Read Full Bio ↴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 took 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. 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).

From the mid-1980s, Walker revived his solo career while drastically reinventing his artistic and compositional methods, via a series of acclaimed and vividly avant-garde albums. These combined his iconic voice with an unsettling avant-garde approach which owed more to modernist and post-modernist classical composition than to his pop singer past. This 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.

Walker continued to release solo material until his death, and was signed to 4AD Records. As a record producer or guest performer he worked with a number of artists including Pulp, Ute Lemper, Bat For Lashes and Sunn O))).

A Lover Loves
Scott Walker Lyrics

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Corneas misted
Put put put put
Color high
Put put put
Motionless
Put put put put
For seconds at a time
A hand that is cold in another colder

Put put put
And everything
Put put put put
Within reach
This is a waltz for a dodo
A samba for Bambi
Gavotte for the Kaiser
Bolero for Beuys
A reel for Red Rosa
A polka for Tintin
Corneas misted
Put put put
Color high
Put put put
Motionless
Put put put put
One hand that is cold in another colder
Put put put

And everything
Within reach

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Scott Walker's "A Lover Loves" are surreal and abstract, leaving much open to interpretation. The repeated phrases of "corneas misted," "put put put," and "motionless" invoke a sense of stillness, as though the singer is frozen or paralyzed. The line "for seconds at a time" emphasizes the brevity of these moments of stillness, almost as though time is moving too quickly for the singer to keep up.

The image of "a hand that is cold in another colder" is a striking one, suggesting a lack of warmth or intimacy in a romantic relationship. The repeated phrase "and everything within reach" could be interpreted as the singer reaching out for something, but unable to grasp it, trapped in a cycle of repetition and stagnation.

The final lines of the song are a series of dance references, each associated with a different character or figure. These references add to the surreal and dreamlike quality of the song, as though the singer is disconnected from reality and lost in their own thoughts and memories.

Overall, "A Lover Loves" is a haunting and enigmatic song that leaves much to the listener's interpretation.

Line by Line Meaning

Corneas misted
Eyes filled with tears

Put put put put
Sound of footsteps

Color high
Intense emotions

Motionless
Still and frozen in time

For seconds at a time
Only brief moments

A hand that is cold in another colder
Being alone and feeling cold

And everything
All aspects of life

Within reach
Easily accessible

This is a waltz for a dodo
A silly dance for an extinct bird

A samba for Bambi
A lively dance for an innocent creature