Not this creep....
But this guy...
Follow me below the fold to find out a little about the only Scott Walker anyone had ever heard of before this year....and why it's worth finding out more about him.
The real Scott Walker was born Noel Scott Engel in Hamilton, Ohio in 1943, but he became famous as part of the The Walker Brothers, a band whose unrelated members all adopted the name "Walker."
Though the Walker Brothers were an American band, they became much more famous in Britain and Europe. He they are covering Bob Dylan's "Love Minus Zero" in 1966:
By 1967, Scott Walker was starting one of popular musics most peculiar solo careers. Early on he was deeply influenced by French chanson, especially the music of Jacques Brel, a cover of whose "Jackie" opened his second solo effort, Scott 2:
(the great animation here is of much more recent vintage, of course)
By 1969's Scott 4, Walker was recording only his own, very idiosyncratic music:
Over the next few decades, Walker's music would become more....er...challenging. He slowed his output dramatically after the mid-1970s, putting out one album each in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Here's a little taste of Scott Walker's two most recent albums: "Farmer in the City" from Tilt (1995) and "Cossacks Are" from The Drift (2006):
Throughout his career, Walker has shunned the spotlight. While he's become hugely--if quietly--influential (he's a kind of musician's musician), he has become something of a man of mystery.
There's a terrific 2006 documentary about him entitled Scott Walker: 30 Century Man that's well worth checking out. It's available on Netflix Instant View Here's a clip: