Scott Walker Speaks to Jesse Garon

I have been focusing my creative laser pretty intently on David Bowie and Brian Eno lately. Two quite interesting innovators in the pop universe. I was inspired to write a "play" based on Bowie's time with Eno in Berlin, and I also came across Scott Walker who it seems was a major influence on them.

Walker was a pop star in the late sixties, early seventies, but his band the Walker Brothers kind of imploded after a few albums - lots of personal demons and over-indulgence.

I get the impression the Walker Brothers were pretty big in England, not so much here. I totally missed them. None of them were really named Walker and they weren't really brothers anyway. They finally broke up and Scott Walker began making solo records. Walker started as a pop star and very soon he took a detour into very experimental music.

There's a really good movie just out on DVD which tells the whole Scott Walker saga called "The 30th Century Man." It's quite good. Walker comes across as a committed, avant garde artist making seriously whacked music.

I found this clip on YouTube. It's kind of a strange incantation. I think Walker is speaking to Jesse Garon Presley, Elvis' still-born twin. Now that's the kind of twisted shit I can really get behind. Listen to Walker's powerful baritone voice, you will hear a little Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Nick Cave, Antony & the Johnsons and then again, Walker is taking his vision to the outer reaches of the musical boundaries.

Totally inspiring, creepy, dark. Strangely beautiful.