From pop to avant garde

The death of Scott Walker marks the end of a singular career. The singer, born Noel Scott Engel, reached Beatle-mania levels of stardom during the 1960s. Then Walker turned his back on the mainstream to create a run of solo albums which retain their power more than half a century later.

Ohio-born Walker looked to European artists for inspiration, reinterpreting the songs of Belgian Jacques Brel and taking Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal as the cue for one track. Critics and musicians may have long praised Walker’s late ’60s work but critical acclaim and success did not go hand in hand and he entered the 1970s as a cult figure.

An album in the 1980s showed a shift from the traditional, and by the mid-1990s Walker made his mark as a serious composer and performer of the avant garde. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, the late David Bowie was played a recording of Scott Walker wishing him many happy returns. Bowie was reduced to tears by the gesture. That touching moment, we think, says a great deal about how important a cultural figure Scott Walker was.