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))).
Man From Reno
Scott Walker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If you could choose
For this next dance you might choose me
I ain't no pussy with the blues
Just step out on the floor and see
Can't follow a man from Reno
Follow a man from Zurich
Can't follow a man with brain grass
Follow his long long eye gas
Follow a man from Munich
Running out of luck
Running out of luck
In the midnight
Zodiac killers drain their hands and wipe away
The shadows from the walls
Neighbours all say he's got no friends
His friends all say you got him by the balls
Look up you might even shred the stars
Look up might even stop the scars
Zodiac killer needs that crack he wants you back
He's waiting in the bars
Zodiac killer needs that crack he wants you back
He's waiting in the bars
Look up you might even shred the stars
Look up might even stop the scars
Can't follow a man from Reno
Follow a man from Izmir
Follow a man from Wyoming
Follow this waving heather
Follow the angry weather
A man from Sarajevo
Running out of luck
Running out of luck
In the midnight
Zodiac killer drains his hands and wipes away
The shadows from the walls
Neighbours all say he's got no friends
His friends all say you got him by the balls
Look up you might even shred the stars
Look up might even stop the scars
Zodiac killer needs that crack he wants you back
He's waiting in the bars
In the midnight
Waiting in the bars
Waiting in the bars
The lyrics to Scott Walker's song Man From Reno are a surreal and twisted meditation on the idea of isolation and the search for connection in a world that often seems indifferent to our struggles. The singer of the song longs for someone to choose him as their dance partner, someone who won't follow a man from Reno, Zurich, Italy, or Munich. He's tired of playing second fiddle to these other men, with their brains full of grass and their eyes full of mystery. He wants to be seen for who he is, not compared to some idealised image of masculinity.
As the song progresses, we get a sense of just how lost and desperate the singer really is. The references to the Zodiac Killer, a real-life serial killer who terrorised the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s, add a sinister edge to the lyrics. The killer becomes a symbol for the singer's own sense of alienation and rage, his hands stained with blood and his eyes fixed on some unreachable goal. He's running out of luck, trapped in a world of shadows and scars.
Ultimately, however, the song ends on a note of hope. The singer urges us to "look up," to shred the stars and stop the scars. He knows that he can't follow these other men, can't compete with their illusions and their lies. But he can still find his own path, can still reach out and connect with others in ways that he never thought possible. And so he waits in the midnight, hoping that someone will come and see him for who he really is.
Line by Line Meaning
If I could loose
If I could let myself go
If you could choose
If you could select
For this next dance you might choose me
For the upcoming dance, you could pick me as your partner
I ain't no pussy with the blues
I'm not easily defeated by sad feelings
Just step out on the floor and see
You'll have to dance with me to find out if I'm any good
Can't follow a man from Reno
It's impossible to track a person from Reno
Follow a man from Zurich
Instead, you could pursue someone from Zurich
Follow a man from Italy
Another option is to chase a man from Italy
Can't follow a man with brain grass
It's impossible to follow a person who's mentally unstable
Follow his long long eye gas
Instead, you could try to follow his gaze
Follow a man from Munich
Or you could pursue someone from Munich
Running out of luck
Things aren't going well
In the midnight
It's very late at night
Zodiac killers drain their hands and wipe away
The Zodiac murderers clean their hands and the walls clean of blood
The shadows from the walls
The dark marks that were left on the walls
Neighbours all say he's got no friends
The people who live nearby claim they have not seen him with any friends
His friends all say you got him by the balls
But his acquaintances claim that he is at your mercy
Look up you might even shred the stars
If you look up, you may perceive the universe's enormity
Look up might even stop the scars
Staring at the sky can even make you forget your past traumas
Zodiac killer needs that crack he wants you back
The Zodiac killer is addicted and wants you to return
He's waiting in the bars
He is awaiting for you to come to him at the bars
Can't follow a man from Izmir
It's impossible to track someone from Izmir
Follow a man from Wyoming
You could try to pursue a person from Wyoming
Follow this waving heather
Another possibility is to pursue a person who is waving heather
Follow the angry weather
You could try chasing the violent weather
A man from Sarajevo
You could pursue someone from Sarajevo instead
Zodiac killer drains his hands and wipes away
The Zodiac killer is cleaning his hands and the walls of blood
In the midnight
It's still quite late at night
Waiting in the bars
He's still awaiting you to go to the bars
Writer(s): Goran Bregovic, Scott Engel
Contributed by Ella L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@ladycharlesmusic
Kind of wild that Scott Walker was low key making more traditional music with his beautiful crooning voice the whole time he was doing his wild 90's and later stuff. He has such a gorgeous voice, it's nice to get to hear these songs so easily now with the internet.
@wellandtrulyjoshed
Beautiful man beautiful voice ❤️ RIP Scott 💔 One of many movie tracks by the outstanding Scott Engel👏
@umbertopili3501
E una canzone molto suggestiva comunque stupenda
@willemvandeursen3105
Never heard this before!
What could have been, but never was...
@trulylovelylady
The most beautiful voice that belongs to scott walker
@erikclarys3033
Scott Walker at his best! R.I.P. 😢
@magone768105
Scott's music is a kind of letter to me. Once upon a time he sang 'Joanna'so sweetly at his concert, but sadly my inferiority complex made me pretend not to notice. As time passed, his music eventually changed, the reason of which I understand and which sometimes made me cry. I thougt all the lost years will never come back... Once when I nealy lost my belief in my life with his music, a little mysterious thing happened to me.
@NobodyCaresALot
@brent h it's a very ego centric comment but we all feel that way sometimes. Plus it's 13 years old.
@magone768105
This film starring Isabelle Adjani was shown in Japan way back in 1993 or 1994. I read someone's posting which said Scott's beautiful voice filled the theater and she was enraptured. It was the first time to have the news about him since the album 'Lines'was released. But I didn't notice it and its soundtrack then. I had decided to stay away from any music and even from the cinema. I needed another decade to watch the videos of this soundtrack and the performance 'Rosary'.
@magone768105
I saw 'light'twice,which completely changed my life. scott showed me one,when he was singing a WB number at the 1968 reunited WB concert in Tokyo.I FELT he waved back to me when I waved to him only once during the show.That was all;nothing else happened.But somehow I felt something changed in my heart,like it lightened my life. As to the other one,it's a little bit persoanl; so,sorry ildobildo,and maybe some of you hate this sort of story, but it was a true and precious phenominon to me.