SCOTT   -   Scott Walker

YEAR:  1967
LABEL:  Philips/Fontana
TRACK LISTING:  Mathilde,  Montague Terrace (In Blue),  Angelica,  The Lady Came From Baltimore,  When Joanna Loved Me,  My Death,  The Big Hurt,  Such A Small Love,  You're Gonna Hear From Me,  Through A Long and Sleepless Night,  Always Coming Back To You,  Amsterdam
IMPRESSIONS:  After (actually still during) the phenomenal success of the Walker Brothers, Scott Walker continued that success with his legendary first four solo albums of which this is the first.  Far from the teen idol bluesy heartthrob releases of the "Brothers", Scott's solo material is something like an absinthe-drinking Tom Jones singing the theme from "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS"!  It has been labelled "baroque pop" and I suppose that's as good a name as any to describe the sometimes gothic but always moody and atmospheric songs Scott placed on his first solo album.  Nearly all handpicked covers with a smattering of original compositions like raindrops on a London street, SCOTT is certainly an album to spin on grey days or deep, dark nights of the soul.  Walker's fondness for Jacques Brel emerges on the opening track which comes off like a demented dark carnival featuring strings occasionally evoking Bernard Herrmann's PSYCHO stings and the sudden appearance of mariachi-type brass; all provided by the wonderful Wally Stott's arrangements and conducting.  The next song is an operatic and dramatic original Scott Walker composition which has all the bleakness of a hard-boiled detective novel without the crime; and one can certainly spot the huge influence Scott's vocals would have on David Bowie several years later!  Scott follows that with song by Brill Building popmeisters Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann which could've (and may even have been) recorded by the Monkees; however Scott Walker's soaring vocals and Reg Guest's rainy day arrangements transform the song into the singer's very own.  The album continues in this vein throughout it's entire (too brief) running time leaving the listener gasping for more.  Thankfully for us, we can immediately pop on SCOTT 2!  But that's a (sordid) tale for another (rainy) day. . .

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Montague Terrace (In Blue),  Angelica,  The Big Hurt,  Such A Small Love,  You're Gonna Hear From Me,  Through A Long and Sleepless Night,  Always Coming Back To You,  Amsterdam
GUEST ARTISTS:  Wally Stott (arranger, conductor), Reg Guest (arranger, conductor), Peter Knight (arranger, conductor)
FACT SHEET:  SCOTT is Scott Walker's first album.  It was released only six months after the Walker Brothers' IMAGES album and reached #3 on the UK album charts remaining there for 17 weeks.  "Mathilde" was written by Jacques Brel and
Gérard Jouannest and translated into English by Mort Shuman.  "Montague Terrace (In Blue)", "Such A Small Love" and "Always Coming Back To You" were written by Noel Scott Engel (aka Scott Walker).  Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann wrote "Angelica".  Tim Hardin wrote "The Lady Came From Baltimore".  Robert Wells and Jack Segal wrote the standard "When Joanna Loved Me".  Jacques Brel wrote "My Death" and "Amsterdam" both translated into English by Mort Shuman.  "The Big Hurt" was written by Wayne Shanklin and originally recorded by Toni Fisher.  Andre Previn and Dory Previn wrote "You're Gonna Hear From Me".  "Through a Long and Sleepless Night" was written by Mack Gordon and Alfred Newman.

MY FAIR LADY - Original Soundtrack

YEAR: 1964

LABEL: CBS

TRACK LISTING: Overture, Why Can't the English?, Wouldn't It Be Loverly, I'm Just an Ordinary Man, With A Little Bit of Luck, Just You Wait, The Rain In Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, Ascot Gavotte, On the Street Where You Live, You Did It, Show Me, Get Me To the Church On Time, A Hymn To Him, Without You, I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face

BONUS TRACKS: (from the later CD version): Servants Chorus, Ascot Gavotte (Reprise), Intermission, Transylvanian March, Embassy Waltz, Just You Wait (Reprise), Finale, Exit Music

IMPRESSIONS: I always associate this movie with Christmas because back around 1980 for a few years the pay channel "Prism" would show it at Christmastime. I was given the vinyl LP of this soundtrack by my friend Ed Jacoby. A few years later, I was involved in my high school production of MY FAIR LADY along with my friend Paul (who is now an award-winning acting coach/director/casting agent) who played the role of Alfred P. Doolittle so I have a definite soft spot for the musical. I don't like hardly any Broadway musicals so this is one of the few. Purists will no doubt scoff at this point because I've got the film soundtrack up here instead of the "real" Broadway soundtrack album with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. Well, I actually own both. And while the 1956 original Broadway cast recording does have the wonderful performance by Julie Andrews (who was screwed out of the movie role but got her revenge by winning the Oscar for MARY POPPINS), truth be told Rex Harrison's performance of the songs is better in the film version than the Broadway recording. Doubtless this derives from the fact that he had that many more performances under his belt to hone his song delivery for the movie. That being said, BOTH versions are excellent . . . but I'm not going to be redundant and post BOTH albums of the exact same songs here. At least not anytime soon!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Why Can't the English?. Wouldn't It Be Loverly, I'm Just an Ordinary Man, With A Little Bit of Luck, Just You Wait, I Could Have Danced All Night, Ascot Gavotte, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me To the Church On Time, A Hymn To Him, I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face

FACT SHEET: MY FAIR LADY is the original 1964 soundtrack album to the film. It features Rex Harrison, Marni Nixon, Audrey Hepburn (spoken dialogue), Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway, Bill Shirley (dubbing Jeremy Brett's singing), Mona Washbourne and Gladys Cooper. The Warner Bros. orchestra is conducted by Andre Previn. The film is based on the George Bernard Shaw play "PYGMALION" and won eight Academy Awards.

ROLLERBALL - The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn

YEAR: 1975

LABEL: United Artists Records

TRACK LISTING: Toccata & Fugue for Organ in D Minor BWV 565, Symphony No. 8 in C Minor Op. 65 (Stalingrad): First mov't (excerpt), Glass Sculpture, Executive Party, Symphony No. 5 in D minor Op. 47: Third mov't (excerpt), Adagio for Violin, Strings & Organ in G minor, Sleeping Beauty Waltz, Executive Party Dance, Symphony No. 5 in D minor Op. 47: Fourth mov't (excerpt)

IMPRESSIONS: One of those movies which I watched all the time on television as a kid in the mid-1970s was ROLLERBALL; what could be cooler than a futuristic sport involving a steel ball, motorcycles and gloves with spikes on 'em?!? However, we also had the soundtrack album ever since it came out in 1975 and it was probably my first exposure to classical music on long-playing record. It wasn't until high school that I truly got into classical music and started amassing a classical record collection. Combine this with the wacky, loungy "wacka-wacka" sound of Andre Previn's mid-70's musical score and the superb album cover artwork by Bob Peak and what's not to love about this soundtrack which was played very often in our wood-panelled living room in Maple Surple. The music went really well with the lime green bean bag chair, too!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: Toccata & Fugue for Organ in D Minor BMW 565, Executive Party, Adagio for Violin, Strings & Organ in G minor, Sleeping Beauty Waltz

FACT SHEET: ROLLERBALL is the soundtrack album to the 1975 United Artists film starring James Caan and John Houseman. The album is pretty evenly divided between classical pieces by Bach, Shostakovich, Albinoni (hold it a minute. . .see below) and Tchaikovsky and original scoring by Andre Previn. 18th century composer Tommaso Albinoni's most famous piece is undoubtedly the "Adagio" but the piece we know was actually derived only from a music fragment (a mere bass line and six bars of melody); it was "reconstructed" in 1945 by musicologist Remo Giazotto into the piece we know today.