Scott (album)

Overview

Scott was released only six months after Walker's third album with The Walker Brothers, Images. Its mixture of Walker's original compositions and selection of cover versions established Walker as a more serious and sombre artist; gone were the Beat group and Blue-eyed soul material of his former group. The choice of material generally fell into four main categories: his own work ("Montague Terrace (In Blue)", "Such a Small Love", "Always Coming Back to You"), contemporary covers ("The Lady Came from Baltimore", "Angelica"), movie songs ("You're Gonna Hear From Me", "Through a Long and Sleepless Night") and significantly, English-translated versions of the songs of the Belgian musician and songwriter Jacques Brel ("Mathilde", "My Death", "Amsterdam"). Brel was a major influence on Walker's own compositions, and Walker included Brel material on his first three solo albums. Walker described Brel without qualification as 'the most significant singer-songwriter in the world'. The real coup for Walker was his luck in acquiring and recording the new Mort Shuman-translated versions of Brel's material before anyone else.

Since the album's release, three complete outtakes, likely recorded during the Scott album sessions, have circulated in bootlegged form. These are "Free Again" (Basile/Canfora/Colby/Jourdan), "I Get Along Without You Very Well" (Hoagy Carmichael) and "I Think I'm Getting Over You" (Roger Cook/Roger Greenaway), the latter of which was recorded for potential single release.

Release and reception

The album was released by Philips Records in September 1967 in the UK. It reached #3 on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for seventeen weeks. It was released the following year in the US on Smash Records under the title Aloner.

Personnel