Scott Walker is dead. Is that even possible? Isn't he one of those legendary figures, known only from the Bible or medieval verses, who rise again and again after each death? A musical phoenix of modern times? The Austrian-Israeli writer Max Brod wrote that death was a temporary state of weakness. With Scott Walker, this seems to be true in more ways than one.
Born on 9 January 1943 as Noel Scott Engel in Hamilton, Ohio, the versatile artist spent his first life as a budding teen star. From 1957 Scotty Engel celebrated tentative successes. At that time he was only 14, but it was not enough for him to ghost on the TV screens as a copy of Frankie Avalon. A short time later he moved to Los Angeles, learned to play the bass guitar without outside help and joined the band of the sought-after studio producer Jack Nitzsche. He would certainly have made a living, but he wanted to stand on his own two feet. With his school friend John Stewart he formed the duo The Dalton Brothers in 1963/64 and also played with the instrumental troupe The Routers. In 1964 Engel founded the Walker Brothers with John Maus (John Walker); later that year they brought in Gary Leeds (Gary Walker).
The Walker Brothers found the perfect mixture of the Beatles' specifications and US role models like the Everly Brothers or Burt Bacharach, whose songs they liked to dress up in new clothes. In Great Britain, however, their melange seemed to be better received than in the USA, which is why they translated to London in 1965 - at the persuasion of Brian Jones. There the euphoria about the newcomers knew no bounds. The Walker Brothers seemed to be the perfect pop vehicle for the mid-sixties: highly family compatible and universally applicable. With the number "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" released by Frankie Valli the year before in 1966 they landed a worldwide hit. From now on, one mega seller hunted the next. In the United Kingdom their popularity even exceeded that of the Fab Four. Scott Walker's baritone stood out from the voices of other pop stars even then.
