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Certain things about Scott Walker unsettle me.
When I listen to Scott Walker, or see him young in a trailer with his Fallen Angel face, I think:
“But is it more dangerous to attend a black mass with your family, or to listen alone (perhaps with headphones) and with rapture to some of his old songs?”
I lean towards the latter.
Because his is, in my opinion, a subtle "lyrical satanism". Like the monologues of the Rebel Angel in Milton’s Paradise Lost.
That fascinates.
That desperate, "naive and sweet" sadness sung that is worth a thousand words on the senselessness of human life. That "disturbing and ancestral" melancholy that gives you its solidarity, gives you a rose, pretends to want to push you away, but in the end takes you away, without you noticing.
And when you finally wake up, you find yourself with the rose in your hand, like Coleridge, and you don’t know if you’ve visited paradise or just its memory, which is nothing but hell.
Those of Scott 3 (and perhaps even more certain of Scott 4, like "The Angel of Ashes") for me represent the songs and the sweet voice (yes, the voice, wonderful) of human melancholy and sadness.
Be it the relentless melancholy of a transvestite who prostitutes himself crying under the moon thinking of his impossible love ("Big Louise"), two retirees overcome by memories of youth ("Two Ragged Soldiers"), or simply a lover abandoned by his beloved ("Two Weeks Since You’ve Gone") is not important.
The important thing is not to get too involved.
I swear, much better to participate in a black mass with the whole family, dog (or cat) included (could always come in handy...).
But don’t forget the popcorn!!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
02 Copenhagen (02:22)
Hope for me, I hope for you,
We're snowdrops falling through the night.
We'll melt away before we land,
Two teardrops for somebody's hand.
Follow me into just one more Spring.
Copenhagen, you're the end,
Gone and made me a child again.
Warmed my feet beneath cold sheets,
Dyed my hair with your sunny streets.
Children aren't afraid to love
And laugh when life amuses them.
And our love is an antique song
For children's carousels
03 Rosemary (03:22)
Voices from a photograph
Laughed from your wall
Screamed through your dreams
Wake up rosemary and wipe your teary eyes
Rise and cross the cold bare floor
And watch the moon through frosted glass
Damn that photograph
I'll have to take it down
She hears the boats as they move down the river
She sees a dog straining hard on his leash to get away
She hears the clock and it strikes like a hammer
Pounding the nails one day further in the coffin of her
Youth
Evenings with your mother's friends
Pregnant eyes, sagging chins
Swollen fingertips
Pour antique cups of tea
Who are you and where you been?
Suspended in a weightless wind
Watching trains go by
From platforms in the rain
Look at the photograph
Dream back last summer
Dream back the lips
Of that traveling salesman, mr. jim
He smelled of miracles
With stained glass whispers
You loved his laughter
You tremble beneath him once again
That's what i want
A new shot at life
But my coat's too thin
My feet won't fly
And i watch the wind and i see another dream blowin' by
04 Big Louise (03:10)
She stands all alone
You can hear her hum softly
From her fire escape in the sky
She fills the bags 'neath her eyes
With the moonbeams
And cries 'cause the world's passed her by
Didn't time sounds sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way
She's a haunted house
And her windows are broken
And the sad young man's gone away
Her bathrobe's torn
And tears smudge her lipstick
And the neighbors just whisper all day
Didn't time sounds sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way
06 Butterfly (01:42)
There's a butterfly circling the beach
Searching the rocks where you are
He chooses your hair, and that's where he belongs
For he's lost like a star
Head down, reluctant and warm
You give your thoughts to the sea
Dark rivers your eyes belong to no-one
Like a star
Like a butterfly
08 30 Century Man (01:29)
See the dwarves and see the giants
Which one would you choose to be?
And if you can't get that together
Here's the answer, here's the key
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
I'll save my bread and take it with me
'Til a hundred years or so
Shame you won't be there to see me
Shakin' hands with Charles De Gaulle
Play it cool and Saranwrap all you can
Be a 30 Century Man
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
11 Sons Of (03:44)
Sons of the thief, sons of the saint
Who is the child with no complaint
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own
The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears
The cries at night, the nightmare fears
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own...
So long ago: long, long, ago...
But sons of tycoons or sons of the farms
All of the children ran from your arms
Through fields of gold, through fields of ruin
All of the children vanished too soon
In tow'ring waves, in walls of flesh
Among dying birds trembling with death
Sons of tycoons or sons of the farms
All of the children ran from your arms...
So long ago: long, long, ago...
But sons of your sons or sons passing by
Children we lost in lullabies
Sons of true love or sons of regret
All of the sons you cannot forget
Some built the roads, some wrote the poems
Some went to war, some never came home
Sons of your sons or sons passing by
Children we lost in lullabies...
So long ago: long, long, ago
But, sons of the theif, sons of the saint
Who is the child with no complaint
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own
The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears
The cries at night, the nightmare fears
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own...
12 Funeral Tango (02:55)
Oh I can see them now
Clutching a hankerchief
And blowing me a kiss
Discreetly asking how
How came he died so young
Or was he very old
Is the body still warm
Or is it already cold
All doors are open wide
They grope around inside
At my desk my drawers my trunk
There's nothing left to hide
Some love letters are there
And an old photograph
They've laid my poor soul bare
And now all they do is laugh
Oh I can see them all
So formal and so stiff
Like a seargant at arms
At a policeman's ball
And everybody's pushing
To be the first in line
Their hearts upon their sleeves
Like a ten cent valentine
The old women are there
Too old to give a damn
They've brought along the kids
Who don't know who I am
They're thinking about the price of my funeral bouquet
What they're thinking isn't nice
For now they'll have to pay
Oh I see all of you
All of my phoney friends
Who can't wait for it ends
Who can't wait till it's through
Oh I see all of you
You've been laughing all these years
Now all that you have left
Are a few crocodile tears
Ah you don't even know
That you're entering your hell
As you leave my cemetary
You think you're doing well
With that one who's at your side
You're as proud as you can be
Ah she's going to make you cry
But not the way you cried for me
Oh I can see me now
So cold and so alone
As the flowers slowly die
In my field of little bones
Oh I can see me now
I can see me at the end
Of this voyage that I/m on
Without a love without a friend
Now all this that I see
Is not what I deserve
They really have a nerve
To say these things to me
No girls just bread and water
And your money you must save
For there'll be nothing left for us
When you're dead and in your grave
13 If You Go Away (04:56)
If you go away
On this summer day
Then you might as well
Take the sun away
All the birds that flew
In the summer sky
When our love was new
And our hearts were high
And the day was young
And the night was long
And the moon stood still
For the night bird's song
If you go away
But if you stay
I'll make you a day
Like no day has been
Or will be again
We'll sail the sun
We'll ride on the rain
And talk to the trees
And worship the wind
Then if you go
I'll understand
Leave me just enough love
To fill up my hand
If you go away
As I know you will
You must tell the world
To stop turning, turning
'til you return again
If you ever do
For what good is love
Without loving you?
Can I tell you now
As you turn to go
I'll be dying slowly
'til the next hello
But if you stay
I'll make you a night
Like no night has been
Or will be again
I'll sail on your smile
I'll glide on your touch
I'll talk to your eyes
That I love so much
But if you go
I won't cry
Though the good is gone
From the word goodbye
If you go away
As I know you must
There'll be nothing left
In this world to trust
Just an empty room
Full of empty space
Like the empty look
I see on your face
And I'd have been the shadow
Of your shadow
If it might have kept me
By your side
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