Scott Walker
Noel Scott Engel (January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019), better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was an American-British singer-songwriter and record producer who resided in England. Walker was known for his emotive voice and his unorthodox stylistic path which took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1990s to his death. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where he achieved fame as a member of pop trio the Walker Brothers, who scored several hit singles during the mid-1960s, including two number ones with "Make It Easy on Yourself" (1965) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (1966). He lived in the UK from 1965 onward and became a UK citizen in 1970.
After the Walker Brothers split in 1967, he began a solo career with the album Scott later that year. Strongly inspired by Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel, Walker moved toward an increasingly challenging musical and lyrical style on late 1960s baroque pop albums Scott 2 (1968), which reached number one in the UK, Scott 3, and Scott 4 (both 1969). After Scott 4 and its follow-up 'Til the Band Comes In (1970) failed commercially, Walker released a number of MOR covers albums, all of which he later disowned, to appease record companies. He reunited with the Walker Brothers in the mid-1970s. The reformed band achieved a top ten single with "No Regrets" in 1975, while their last album, Nite Flights (1978), marked the beginning of Walker's music becoming darker and more avant-garde. During the 1980s, Walker released only one album, Climate of Hunter (1984), spending most of that decade and the early 1990s out of the public eye. His return to more frequent musical work began in the mid-1990s with the album Tilt (1995), which saw Walker's work now fully immersed in a dark and avant-garde musical and lyrical direction. Walker would progress this style through his subsequent albums The Drift (2006), Bish Bosch (2012), and Soused (2014); of this period in his career, The Guardian said "imagine Andy Williams reinventing himself as Stockhausen". In between these main albums, Walker also undertook several side projects during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, including film soundtracks, and songwriting and production for other artists.
Walker continued to record until 2018. His 1960s recordings were highly regarded by the 1980s UK underground music scene, and gained a cult following. He was described by the BBC upon his death as "one of the most enigmatic and influential figures in rock history".
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