It's Raining Today: The Scott Walker Story (1967-70)

It's Raining Today: The Scott Walker Story (1967-70) Artist: Scott Walker
Label: Razor & Tie
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 793018212021
EAN: 0793018212021
ASIN: B000002ZAT


Release Date: 1996-10-15

It's Raining Today: The Scott Walker Story (1967-70)


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General General
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
Soft Rock Soft Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
Baroque Pop Baroque Pop
Categories | Oldies | Pop | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

  1. Big Louise
  2. Jackie
  3. The World's Strongest Man
  4. It's Raining Today
  5. Montague Terrace (In Blue)
  6. Through a Long and Sleepless Night
  7. Next
  8. The Seventh Seal
  9. Plastic Palace People
  10. Rosemary
  11. The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)
  12. Joe
  13. Lights of Cincinnati
  14. Cowbells Shakin'
  15. Thanks for Chicago Mr. James
  16. Little Things (That Keep Us Together)
  17. Joanna

Amazon.com

Scott Walker was born Noel Engel in Ohio more than 50 years ago, moved to England in 1965, and scored a series of pop hits there--initially as a member of the Walker Brothers, a duo in which neither member was named Walker, nor were they siblings. From 1967 onward, he worked solo. Walker charted only once in his homeland, but he connected regularly in England between '65 and '69 with rueful, heavily-orchestrated pop statements that sounded like Engelbert Humperdinck crossed with Louis-Ferdinand Celine. This overview features 17 flamboyant psychodramas. Walker's work faded into the ether for a couple of decades following their release (at least where Americans were concerned), only to catch on with a morose brood that includes Mark Eitzel, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, and Eric Matthews. The likes of "The Old Man's Back (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)" may take some getting used to, but, at a minimum, one must pay heed to a deadpan socialist teen idol who hosted his own variety show. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Wow, what a voice!.......2002-06-14

There is no easy way to classify this music. Rock, pop, even "symphonic lounge music" doesn't convey anything meaningful about Scott Walker. It is the opposite of "easy listening". In fact I would call it "hard listening", not in the sense of difficult or unpleasant, but in the sense of the intensity required to listen to it properly - like playing hard. Scott Walker is thrilling and exhilarating to listen to. He can be harsh and angry, but when he is gentle, he is as warm as the home hearth on Christmas. His voice has uncommon strength and his rich baritone blasts, shimmers, caresses, threatens and exults. While there are some aspects of the orchestral arrangements that are clearly late sixties, the music and the lyrics are so immediate that they unbind themselves from the age.

This collection is very similar to "Boy Child", which I believe is only available as an import. "Boy Child" is the superior collection, and I recommend you choose it in preference to this collection, even at a higher price. You cannot sample the tracks of "Boy Child" on Amazon, so you'll have to take my word that it is better. But if "Boy Child" is unavailable, "It's Raining Today" will do almost as well. My favorites are "The Seventh Seal" and "The Old Man's Back Again". If you think you are completely unfamiliar with Scott Walker, but were around in the mid-60s, then you may remember "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" and "Make it Easy on Yourself". That was Scott Walker singing with the Walker Brothers.

5 out of 5 stars Five stars for Scott Walker, 3 stars for this collection...........2000-10-26

If you are unfamiliar with Scott Walker, and looking for an introduction to his art, skip this disc and go directly to "Boy Child", a much better collection made up entirely of his own excellent compositions, re-mastered in 24-bit HDCD. That said, no matter what Scott Walker CD you choose, there is little anyone can do to prepare you, but I'll try anyway.

I only recently discovered Scott Walker's music and it has affected me like nothing I have heard in years, and I listen to A LOT of music.

You may be tempted to automatically hit the "eject" button after the first few seconds of the very first song. Resist this impulse! This music requires you to acclimatize to it; the data streaming into your ears simply will not compute at first. You'll try to deny it, to laugh it off. You'll wonder where in the world this music came from, and ponder who the heck it was intended for (certainly not me!). You'll swear you could never possibly actually LIKE this stuff, but you'll keep coming back. Over and over. Scott Walker has you in his grip.

Prepare to do internet searches on Scott Walker to learn more about the originator of this inexplicable music. Prepare to invest in his first 4 CD's (from which this collection is culled), only to realize that there are now newly re-mastered editions available with restored artwork and 24-bit sound. You'll buy those, too, and end up with 2 copies of all of his early albums. Finally, prepare to invest in his more recent works as well (skip Climate of Hunter, and do not listen to Tilt in the dark by yourself). I know all this, because this is exactly what happened to me. And I'm not even mad about it.

Imagine a rock-and-roll Sartre with Sinatra's vocal chops and backing band, singing songs about man's inhumanity to man, all played entirely WITHOUT irony. I couldn't believe it either, until I finally accepted what I was hearing. Scott Walker is clearly a genius, but definitely not a happy man, and alienation is his primary theme.

If this description does not deter you (and it should deter some of you), I urge you to purchase Boy Child (or this disc) and fall in love with the pure unbelievable HUMANITY of Scott Walker's art.

BTW: Keep Scott Walker to yourself; your friends will never, ever understand. It's that special.

5 out of 5 stars Five stars for Scott Walker, 3 stars for this collection...........2000-10-26

If you are unfamiliar with Scott Walker, and looking for an introduction to his art, skip this disc and go directly to "Boy Child", a much better collection made up entirely of his own excellent compositions, re-mastered in 24-bit HDCD. That said, no matter what Scott Walker CD you choose, there is little anyone can do to prepare you, but I'll try anyway.

I only recently discovered Scott Walker's music and it has affected me like nothing I have heard in years, and I listen to A LOT of music.

You may be tempted to automatically hit the "eject" button after the first few seconds of the very first song. Resist this impulse! This music requires you to acclimatize to it; the data streaming into your ears simply will not compute at first. You'll try to deny it, to laugh it off. You'll wonder where in the world this music came from, and ponder who the heck it was intended for (certainly not me!). You'll swear you could never possibly actually LIKE this stuff, but you'll keep coming back. Over and over. Scott Walker has you in his grip.

Prepare to do internet searches on Scott Walker to learn more about the originator of this inexplicable music. Prepare to invest in his first 4 CD's (from which this collection is culled), only to realize that there are now newly re-mastered editions available with restored artwork and 24-bit sound. You'll buy those, too, and end up with 2 copies of all of his early albums. Finally, prepare to invest in his more recent works as well (skip Climate of Hunter, and do not listen to Tilt in the dark by yourself). I know all this, because this is exactly what happened to me. And I'm not even mad about it.

Imagine a rock-and-roll Sartre with Sinatra's vocal chops and backing band, singing songs about man's inhumanity to man, all played entirely WITHOUT irony. I couldn't believe it either, until I finally accepted what I was hearing. Scott Walker is clearly a genius, but definitely not a happy man, and alienation is his primary theme.

If this description does not deter you (and it should deter some of you), I urge you to purchase Boy Child (or this disc) and fall in love with the pure unbelievable HUMANITY of Scott Walker's art.

BTW: Keep Scott Walker to yourself; your friends will never, ever understand. It's that special.

5 out of 5 stars The ideal introduction to one of the truly great voices.......2000-01-31

I first heard these songs on crackling vinyl, on (then) long deleted albums lent to me insistently by a friend who had collected them from record fairs, car boot sales and charity shops over long years of searching. Now it's - thankfully - a little easier to get to grips with Scott Walker's work and this is the latest in a series of excellent reissues of material.

The choice of tracks is a good cross section of the period. It's mostly his own material but with a representative selection of covers such as 'Joanna' and 'Through a long and sleepless night'. Myself I would have chosen different cover versions than the ones here but as an introduction to the styles he was capable of executing so well they serve their purpose.

There are many shades of mood on this album but almost all share a reflective quality - the sound of a man baring some part of his soul to try and make sense of his part in a world that he finds bitter, confusing, mysterious and unreachable. Even on the lighter tracks, on other people's songs, Scott Walkers voice strikes a note that is somewhere between melancholy and a kind of world weary assessment of the human condition. 'Melancholy'can be a tiresome and affected musical atmosphere in the hands of lesser performers. But Scott delivers the real thing.

Occasionally, on his own material like 'It's raining today' or 'Big Louise' it feels like a the brooding, floating orchestral shapes of Vaughan Williams meeting a balladeer of the bitter sweet of human frailty, somewhere in the small hours of a still, crisp, dark night. On the whole it's a very European melancholy - Scott has famously been described as the only American popular musician to find a spiritual home in the darker parts of the European creative mind.

This album is a great starting point for those new to the artist and will probably leave you feeling you would like to explore more of his work. The CD contains a few of his greatest tracks but there are dozens of others that could well have been included. The wealth of his recorded work is out there and waiting and this collection is as good a point as any to start the journey.

5 out of 5 stars

Music Album:

  1. Weightless ~ Doll Factory
  2. My Baby Howls ~ Neurotones
  3. Deformative Years ~ Wild Strawberries
  4. Journey to the Center of the Mind ~ The Amboy Dukes , and Ted Nugent
  5. False Smiles ~ Amy Studt
  6. Sean Smith ~ Sean Smith
  7. Wrinkles ~ Edo
  8. Good Times
  9. Blue Cloud ~ Davis Redford Triad
  10. Best of Swing Out Sister

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Strange Fruit ~ Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra

Voice from the Past: Paradigm ~ Gary Peacock

Tba

Over the Rainbow ~ Jimmy Scott

you st.

Canta Candeia ~ Luiz Carlos Da Vila

Chansons de Ses Films ~ Carlos Gardel

Collapse ~ In Strict Confidence

2nd X'mas ~ Dream, Sweets, Aiko Kayo

Lusophone ~ Various Artists