MIX: Many happy returns Scott Walker

And so music’s most brooding, crooning, enigmatic soul reached his 70^th year this week (9^th January). We celebrate the patriarch of melancholy’s six decades as a recording artist – from his early misspent youth as part of the soft-haired, pop trio The Walker Brothers, to the abstracted Baroque, and bleak, suites of his latest epic Bish Bosch – witha personal selection of both familiar and not so well-known songs from the extensive Scott Walker canon.

Bawdry and tawdry lyrics, dirges, melancholic pensiveness and maudlin operatic await…

‘I Don’t Want To Hear It Anymore’ (From Take It Easy With The Walker Brothers, 1965)– The Walker Brothers  (Written By Randy Newman).

‘After The Lights Go Out’ (B-side to The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore, 1966)– The Walker Brothers (Written By John Stewart).

‘My Ship Is Coming In’ (Single, 1966) – The Walker Brothers  (Written By Joey Brooks)

‘Mathilde’ (From Scott, 1967)– Scott Walker (Written By Jacques Brel, Gerard Jouannest, Mort Shuman)

‘The Plague’ (B-side to Jackie, 1967) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Next’ (From Scott 2, 1968) – Scott Walker (Jacques Brel, Mort Shuman)

‘Lights Of Cincinnati’ (Single, 1969) – Scott Walker (Tony Macaulay, Geoff Stephens)

‘Hero Of The War’ (From Scott 4, 1969) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Boy Child’ (From Scott 4, 1969) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Speak Softly Love – Love Theme From The Godfather’ (From The Moviegoer, 1972) – Scott Walker (Nina Rota)

‘Lines’ (From Lines, 1976) – The Walker Brothers (Jerry Fuller)

‘The Electrician’ (From Nite Flights, 1978) – The Walker Brothers (Scott Engel)

‘Dealer’ (From Climate of Hunter, 1984) – Scott Walker  (Scott Engel)

‘Track Three’ (From Climate of Hunter, 1984) – Scott Walker  (Scott Engel)

‘Farmer In The City’ (From Tilt, 1995) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Jesse’ (From The Drift, 2006) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Clara’ (From The Drift, 2006) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘Epizootics!’ (From Bish Bosch, 2012) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)

‘SDSS14+13B Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter’ (From Bish Bosch, 2006) – Scott Walker (Scott Engel)