A short musical tribute to the great and now sadly late American-born British singer and composer with that extraordinary baritone voice, from his Walker Brothers pop era to a solo career of great influence, innovation and experiment. It’s impossible to capture the career of the edgy, often difficult but always perfectionist Scott Engel in a snapshot, but here are some sampled great moments.
The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine, written by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio was the title on the Walker Brothers (with fellow Walkers John Maus and Gary Leeds) album of 1966, and became a huge hit, outdoing another version by Frankie Valli, spearheaded by a Phil Spector-style production and most of of all, Scott’s immense voice. My Death, a cover of a song by his idol, Jacques Brel, appears on Scott’s first solo album in 1967 and typifies that level of high drama in his delivery, a tragedy and morbidity of theme, but also with a superb arrangement of tremolo guitar, John Barry-style harpsichord, and those portentous opening trumpets. His various other solo album contain great experimentation that need their own exploration, and of many tracks worth revisiting are The Bridge from Scott 2, and The Seventh Seal from Scott 4, both 1960s landmarks.
After reforming the Walker Brothers in the 70s, which included the single No Regrets, some fans regarded this as a commercial compromise. But equally it’s hard to beat 1978’s Nite Flights and the song The Electrician, which is, rather grimly, about a torturer addressing his victim, but a beautifully eerie composition that’s highly influential, and noted by Brian Eno for example, as one of his favourites.
After that Scott very much went his own way again, but to other territory entirely, away from commercial restraints, producing music that can highly challenging, difficult, but also rewarding, such as Climate of Hunter, Tilt (in particular Farmer In the City, a ghostly tribute to Pasolini), then later The Drift in 2003, his first for 11 years, and Bish Bosch. But his personal favourite from the later years was 2014’s Soused, a collaboration with the experimental drone metal band Sun O))), from which let’s enjoy the uniquely incredible and odd sound of Brando (Dwellers On The Bluff) about the actor. And finally, his overture for the Brady Corbet's 2015 film The Childhood of a Leader about the psychological formation of a fascist dictator in the period after the First World War. It’s music that’s strikingly effective as well as disturbing and dramatic. It could just as easily accompany our current and future situations, created by an undoubted genius.
Loneliness is a cloak you wear
A deep shade of blue
Is always there
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky
The tears are always clouding your eyes
When you're without love
Baby
Emptiness is a place you're in
With nothing to lose
But no more to win
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky
The tears are always clouding your eyes
When you're without love
Lonely without you, baby
Girl, I need you
I can't go on
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
The moon ain't gonna rise in the sky
The tears are always clouding your eyes
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
When you're without love
Baby
The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
Not anymore …
My death is like
A swinging door
A patient girl who knows the score
Whistle for her
And the passing time
My death waits like
A bible truth
At the funeral of my youth
Weep loud for that
And the passing time
My death waits like
A witch at night
And surely as our love is bright
Let's laugh for us
And the passing time
But whatever is behind the door
There is nothing much to do
Angel or devil I don't care
For in front of that door
There is you
My death waits like
A beggar blind
Who sees the world with an unlit mind
Throw him a dime
For the passing time
My death waits
To allow my friends
A few good times before it ends
Let's drink to that
And the passing time
My death waits in
Your arms, your thighs
Your cool fingers will close my eyes
Let's not talk about
The passing time
But whatever is behind the door
There is nothing much to do
Angel or devil I don't care
For in front of that door
There is you
My death waits
Among the falling leaves
In magicians, mysterious sleeves
Rabbits, dogs
And the passing time
My death waits
Among the flowers
Where the blackest shadow cowers
Let's pick lilacs
For the passing time
My death waits in
A double bed
Sails of oblivion at my head
Pull up the sheets
Against the passing time
But whatever is behind the door
There is nothing much to do
Angel or devil I don't care
For in front of that door
There is you
Ah, the wide Missouri
Dwellers on the bluff
Across the wide Missouri
Never enough
No, never enough
Whip-poor-will
Whip-poor-will
Scissoring high
In the trees
A beating would do me a world of good
Sneakin' by
Sneakin' by
I am down
On my knees
A beating would do me a world of good
I took it from Saxon
I took it from dad
From Fat Johnny Friendly
From 3 vigilantes
I took it for Wild One
And then for my sin
I took it from Lizbeth
Again and again
[Chorus]
Ah, the wide Missouri
Dwellers on the bluff
Across the wide Missouri
Never enough
No, never enough
Whip-poor-will
Whip-poor-will
Scissoring high
In the trees
A beating would do me a world of good
Sneakin’ by
Sneakin’ by
I am down
On my knees
A beating would do me
A beating would do me
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