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))).
Dealer
Scott Walker Lyrics
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Shaking Night-nites for angels
Rattling throats up and down on a beam.
Cooling the hearts
Cooling the plasma
Keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam
The dead still search the living.
At least there we did not not fail.
Coming to in the overcast
Tracks are still flowing.
At least there he does not wail.
Psalms of your hands
Sung into the lateness
Move a circuit on the white
And he can't feel a thing.
Gone always alone to all you are never
He climbs into your mouth
When the windows ring.
The windows are ringing
Shaking dead men for angels
Hissing brains boiling up
Press't to the bone
Uncoils the wire whole night long
Bumping out through the eye in knots.
Sweet hot numbers
Sweet hots
Bumping out through the eye
On a wire of knots.
Sweet hot numbers
Sweet hots
Bumping out through the eye
On a wire of knots.
Psalms of your hands
Sung into the lateness
Move a circuit on the white
And he can't feel a thing.
Gone always alone to all you are never
He climbs into your mouth
When the windows ring.
The lyrics in Scott Walker's "Dealer" are cryptic and abstract, leaving much room for interpretation. At the core of the song seems to be a world of addiction and despair. The lines "cooling the hearts, cooling the plasma, keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam" suggest the numbing effects of drugs, which serve as a temporary escape from the harsh realities of life. The "prowler" and "dead" mentioned in the verse conjure images of death and violence, perhaps suggesting the high stakes of the drug world.
The repeated phrase "the windows are ringing" throughout the song evokes a sense of disorientation and confusion, which could parallel the experience of being high. The line "gone always alone to all you are never" hints at how loneliness can drive individuals to addiction. The lyrics convey a sense of emptiness and existential longing, as though the characters in the song are trapped in a cycle of addiction that they can't escape.
Line by Line Meaning
The windows are ringing
The sound of the windows rattling is heard.
Shaking Night-nites for angels
The windows make a sound so loud that it can wake people from their sleep.
Rattling throats up and down on a beam.
The sound vibrates down everyone's throat and seems to be coming from a single beam holding the building up.
Cooling the hearts
The cold from the windows serves to calm people down.
Cooling the plasma
The cold from the windows serves to calm people down.
Keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam
The cold from the windows helps people who struggle with addiction to stay away from their problems by staying inside where it's colder.
The other side of a prowler
The other side of a prowler, meaning someone who is prowling around, is unknown.
The dead still search the living.
Despite being deceased, the dead still try to find and communicate with the living.
At least there we did not not fail.
At least whatever is being talked about in context did not fail in that situation.
Coming to in the overcast
Waking up in a cloudy atmosphere.
Tracks are still flowing.
Train tracks are still being used, and trains are running regularly.
At least there he does not wail.
At least in that situation, he is not crying out loud.
Psalms of your hands
The actions of your hands during prayer.
Sung into the lateness
Sung into the late hours of the night.
Move a circuit on the white
Alter the environment in a significant way.
And he can't feel a thing.
He is numb and can't feel anything.
Gone always alone to all you are never
Despite feeling lonely all the time, there is always someone around who cares for you.
He climbs into your mouth
He makes himself into something that can be heard.
When the windows ring.
When the windows make noise, he tries to make himself heard.
Shaking dead men for angels
The windows make a sound so loud that it seems to wake dead people as if they were angels.
Hissing brains boiling up
The sound affects the person's mind so much that it feels like it's boiling up.
Press't to the bone
The sound is causing extreme pressure on the person's bones.
Uncoils the wire whole night long
The wire is loosening and moving around all night long.
Bumping out through the eye in knots.
The wire is bumping into the eye and creating knots.
Sweet hot numbers
Entertaining and satisfying moments.
Sweet hots
Exciting and fulfilling experiences.
Bumping out through the eye on a wire of knots.
Entertaining and satisfying experiences are rare and come about unexpectedly.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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