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))).
Rosary
Scott Walker Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll string along
Oo whaoo whaoo whaoo
Come mornings
My beads on a face
A thread
A thong
We can save it
We can change it
Put it in lines across the room
But we'll never
Stop it bristling
And I gotta quit
With a ribbonless hair
With a wire of snare
Oo whaoo whaoo whaoo
With all the trembling vein
That you can bare
Oo whaoo whaoo whaoo
We can save it
We can change it
Put it in lines across the room
But we'll never
Stop it pimpling
And I gotta quit
Scrape a little pattern
To a sty
I kiss holes for the bullets
In case of thigh
In case of thigh
I kiss holes for the bullets
And I gotta quit
And I gotta quit
The lyrics of Rosary by Scott Walker have a mysterious and ambiguous quality, which can be interpreted in different ways. The phrase "I'll string along" repeated twice in the beginning of the song could suggest a feeling of being disconnected or disengaged from a situation, but willing to participate anyway. The reference to the rosary in the title indicates a spiritual or religious theme, which is echoed in the lines "My beads on a face" and "With all the trembling vein that you can bare". The use of the plural pronoun "we" implies a shared experience or possibly a relationship that is fraying, as the singer mentions the need to "save it" and "change it".
The imagery in the song ranges from the abstract to the surreal, with lines like "Put it in lines across the room" and "Scrape a little pattern to a sty". The repetition of the scat-like refrain "Oo whaoo whaoo whaoo" adds to the enigmatic quality of the song, allowing the listener to fill in the gaps with their own associations and impressions. The final lines about "kiss[ing] holes for the bullets in case of thigh" could be interpreted as a metaphorical allusion to emotional self-defense or a literal reference to danger and violence.
Line by Line Meaning
I'll string along
I will follow along obediently
Come mornings
Early in the morning
My beads on a face
The beads of a rosary on my face as I pray
A thread
A string
A thong
A type of footwear
We can save it
It is possible to save it
We can change it
It is possible to change it
Put it in lines across the room
Arrange it in straight lines across the room
But we'll never
However, we will never
Stop it bristling
Stop it from being prickly or difficult
And I gotta quit
And I must stop doing it
With a ribbonless hair
Without a ribbon in my hair
With a wire of snare
With a wire trap
With all the trembling vein
With all the nerves trembling
That you can bare
That you can tolerate
Scrape a little pattern
Make a little groove
To a sty
To a pig pen
I kiss holes for the bullets
I make openings for the bullets
In case of thigh
In case I am shot in the leg
And I gotta quit
And I must stop doing it
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
tylenolwalrus
His final live performance, to my knowledge! Thanks for re-uploading.
rural dust
@Yan Daneveryone is a critic now and it's ruining art because these people have no taste at all.
Yan Dan
He's playing live, ffs. If only people put as much critcal thought into things that matter.
The Art
@Stewart Brand Totally true, yet there are moments that I can't really define when it sounds like genius and then everything goes to hell again...can't stop listening to it though
Stewart Brand
@The Art don't think any artist will ever capture the ultimate goal of pure insanity. This is closer than most music though.
The Art
@mtmusicman85 I'm not surprised as it would have left most people baffled..I don't know if it was a vocal Rimbaudian piece of vocal art or just pure insanity
Reg Dwight
An artist so ahead of the curve
Will miss him
Always looked forward to a new release from Scott
Amazing artist
Stewart Brand
Not even ahead of the curve cause music hasn't since caught up and probably never will. The fact he was basically the Justin Bieber of his day but decided he cared about the music being great rather than sellable - he is a true fucking artist
Yellow Clouds
You don't have to like this kind of music but the intensity of his words are sublime. Heart filled. Real artistry
Wallace Oscar
One of those songs where you can hear the cries of tortured 16th century monks somehere in the mix