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Scott Walker, who has died at the age of 76, became one of the most revered singers in the world of rock and pop before heading off into more avant garde directions and spending the rest of his career avoiding the spotlight.
One of the biggest stars of the 1960s pop scene, who at the height of his success had his own BBC television series, Walker had by the end of the decade become a recluse who steadfastly spurned all efforts to revitalise a career which had once seemed so rich in promise.
Walker’s fan club membership had at one stage exceeded that of the Beatles. By 1969 he had established himself as a songwriter, broken new ground with three highly original and acclaimed solo albums, sung a handful of film themes and developed a growing reputation as a record producer.
All this followed his phenomenal success as lead singer of the Walker Brothers who, in between unleashing a storm of teen hysteria in the mid-1960s, issued three classic singles and a trilogy of memorable albums.
Above all, Walker will be remembered for a golden baritone which could convey sadness, heartbreak, mystery, yearning and joy in equal measures and prompted one critic to exclaim: “Compared to the sincerity in that voice, the robot vocals of Tony Bennett, the now breathless charm of Sinatra, the studied serenity of Andy Williams and the smug sound of most of our big pop names can get lost.”
Despite seemingly having the world at his feet, Walker was never able to build on the triumphs of the 1960s. The hit albums dried up and nervousness eventually put paid to his live performances (in 1971 he told the BBC: “I have stage fright to a great degree … It becomes a terrible thing for me, a live show.”)
Noel Scott Engel was born in the small Mid-West town of Hamilton, Ohio, on January 9 1943, the only child of middle-class parents who divorced when he was six; his father was a manager in the oil industry. Scott was always musical, and his first stage appearance was in a Rodgers and Hammerstein production called Pipe Dream in New York when he was 10.
He subsequently appeared on a televised talent show and cut a few obscure discs as “Scotty Engel” before moving in 1959 to California, where stardom seemed assured when Eddie Fisher, the 1950s heart-throb, saw him singing and offered to become his mentor. Unfortunately, Fisher lost interest in his young protégé when his actress wife, Elizabeth Taylor, ran off with Richard Burton, whom she had met on the set of Cleopatra in March 1962. A disillusioned Engel abandoned his singing career to concentrate on bass guitar.
Soon afterwards he teamed up with guitarist John Maus, a former child television star, and the Walker Brothers was born, the surname coming from Maus’s false identity card which, being under-age, he used to gain admittance to the Los Angeles clubs. Joining forces with drummer Gary Leeds, who had played with the notorious P J Proby in England, Scott and John recorded the Barry Weil/Cynthia Mann song Love Her at RCA Studios. The disc’s dense, Spector-esque emotional feel set the blueprint for what was to follow.
By the time the group’s debut disc was released, the Walker Brothers had embarked on an American counter-invasion of England, as both Scott and John were in imminent danger of being drafted to fight in Vietnam. They landed at a snowy Heathrow Airport in February 1965, quickly landed a management deal and saw Love Her become a moderate hit.
The song that propelled the Walker Brothers to superstardom was the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition Make it Easy on Yourself, which heralded the birth of Engel’s long and fruitful partnership with the celebrated Philips producer John Franz. It also established the group as No 1 pop pin-ups and meant they were constantly forced to move flats to escape the attentions of screaming teenage girls.
The adulation inspired by the Walker Brothers reached fever pitch as further hit singles My Ship is Coming In and The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore) followed, together with the hit albums Take it Easy With The Walker Brothers, Portrait and Images. Shy and withdrawn by nature, Scott Walker was ill-equipped to cope with life in the spotlight.
Afflicted by horrendous stage fright, and wearied by labouring long hours in the studio, he took to heavy drinking. He also became increasingly disaffected by the rock’n’roll antics of his adopted relatives Maus and Leeds, and it was no surprise when the group folded in May 1967.
Tearing himself free from the stifling restraints of teen worship, Walker vowed to shun the latest musical trends and create the records he wanted to make. The series of albums which followed – Scott, Scott 2, Scott 3 and Scott 4 – were hailed as critical masterpieces, and Walker used his 1969 television series to showcase some of his own compositions.
Behind the stark, numeric titles of these albums lurked a lavish world of cinematic drama and dark melancholy, Walker’s obsession with the maverick Belgian songwriter, Jacques Brel, and his doom-laden tales of madness, sex and death. The themes were in stark contrast to mainstream British pop and, after sales plummeted, Walker ended his long association with Philips in 1973.
Following a series of half-hearted experiments with country and western, Walker reformed the Walker Brothers in 1975, an unexpected reunion which yielded the hit single No Regrets. Subsequent albums failed to build on this solitary success, however, and following the commercial failure of the group’s final album, Nite Flights, in 1978, the Walker Brothers disbanded for the final time.
Their disintegration coincided with the end of Walker’s live performances, his last appearance being a disjointed appearance on a Midlands cabaret stage in 1978.
Signed to Virgin in February 1980, the singer saw his earlier work from the 1960s elevated to cult status, but it was not until March 1984 that he ended his self-imposed exile from the recording scene with the release of the critically acclaimed but inevitably poor-selling Climate of Hunter.
Its commercial failure prompted Walker to temporarily sever links with the music industry. He briefly worked as a painter and decorator before undertaking a foundation course in fine arts at a North London college. Walker’s only television appearance at around this time was a cameo role in an orange juice commercial which was a pastiche on the Swinging Sixties.
By 1990, the reappraisal of Walker’s solo career, as well as that of the Walker Brothers, had become extremely fashionable and Phonogram responded to increasing demand by releasing the Scott Walker compilation Boy Child as well as After The Lights Go Out, featuring the group’s best moments on vinyl.
Encouraged by this resurgence of interest, Walker signed a deal with Phonogram’s Fontana label, launching his comeback with the single Man From Reno, which featured on the soundtrack of the French film Toxic Affair in 1993, yet it was to be another two years before Tilt, his first album in 11 years, emerged.
Bleak and nightmarish, owing more to the tropes of avant-garde classical and industrial music than pop, the record drew favourable reviews and sold respectably, but failed to persuade Walker to launch a full-blown return.
In 1999 he produced a full movie soundtrack, experimental in style, for Leos Carax’s eccentric French film Pola X. He remained an eminent figure on the London recording scene, helping to organise the Meltdown Festival of 2000 on the South Bank.
In 2004 Walker signed to 4AD Records, one of the more cerebral labels to have come out of the punk and new wave movement, and in 2006 he released The Drift, which continued in the same vein as Climate of Hunter and Tilt, with its mixture of rock and modern classical tropes and its often dark subject matter – there were songs about Mussolini’s mistress, Elvis Presley’s stillborn twin, the September 11 attacks and the Srebrenica massacre,
There were also collaborations with such artists as Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker and Natasha Khan, the singer known as Bat for Lashes, and in 2007 Walker released a 24-minute instrumental piece, And Who Shall Go to the Ball? And What Shall Go to the Ball?, performed by the London Sinfonietta and a solo cellist to accompany a performance by the CandoCo Dance Company.
In 2012 Walker released his 14th solo studio album, the critically acclaimed Bish Bosch, which Walker described as the third in a trilogy along with Tilt and The Drift. At 73 minutes it was his longest album and like its immediate predecessors it owed much to the avant-garde.
Following his first flush of youthful success, Scott Walker had navigated a singular and highly personal trail through popular music. He once reflected: “I think of myself as a songwriter, but I agree they are maybe not traditional songs. I know what people mean, but what else can you call them?”
He is survived by his partner Beverley, and by his daughter from his marriage to Mette, which ended in divorce.
Scott Walker, born January 9 1943, died March 22 2019