Several years ago I was visiting what is now my favorite Bay Area record store – Stranded Records in Oakland, CA.  This was my first experience in a curated record store, and there is a strong point of view at Stranded that I find fascinating. Their selection goes well beyond this, but there seems to be a strong bend toward experimental music circa 1980ish here, both used and new.   In any case it’s hard for me to walk out of there without buying a huge stack of records. Looking over the new records on this first visit I saw several Scott Walker albums.  I had never heard of him and there was something about Scott’s image on the cover that immediatley drew me in.

I resisted taking a leap of faith and buying a copy that day, but I went home and immediately set up a “Scott Walker” radio station on Pandora. From the very first track his lush baritone worked its magic on me and I was hooked. I set out buying his records.

I started with Scott 3 and when it arrived and I started playing it something happened that hadn’t happened to me with a musical artist in decades. I become obsessed with listing to and learning about Scott Engel (his given name) and Scott Walker (performance name) and for a long stretch would barly listen to much else.

If you’re not familiar with Scott Walker I strongly urge you to check him out.  Play the video below and if it doesn’t immediately pull you in, read no further.  If it does and you don’t already own a Scott Walker record, you’re in for a fabulous ride!

Is that not the best song about an amoral, fantasical narcissist who ultimately longs to retreat into a childhood wanting in love and responsibility peformed with bombastic panache you’ve ever heard or is that a song about Donald Trump?  Honestly, I just can’t get enough of this guy! And if you want to learn more about Scott check out the documentary feature 30 Century Man and get the point of view and insights into Scott from some other wonderful artists including David Bowie.

Anyway, I quickly moved on from Scott 3 to Scott 2.  Scott Walker was apparently not a big deal in the US but his music resonated more strongly with the British and his records sold better in England. Case in point Scott 2 which was the biggest seller of his solo career. It’s an album in which Scott delves into the English psyche, and you can hear this in Scott’s song choices and lyrics, espcially on tracks such as Windows of the World and The Amorous Humphrey Plugg where he shows a knack for giving sympathetic portrayals of everyday postwar English life.

Scott 2 also reveals Scott’s affinity for themes of humiliation and emasculation.  His covers of Jacque Brel’s The Girls and the Dogs and Next run the gamut of experience from dissappointment in love to utter devastation.  “One day I’ll cut my legs off, and burn myself alive…” Jeez, Louise!  That mobile army whorehouse really did a number on him!

I’ve acquired copies of Scott’s first four solo albums and they’re all great. It was easy to obtain brand new copies as they’ve all been reissued in 2008 by the San Rafael, CA label Four Men With Beards.  For this post I’m focusing on Scott 2 as it’s the one copy that I have 2 copies of for comparison, but generally I’d say these reissues are fine but not great.  With Scott 2 in particular FMWB seems to have used a master that was not in great condition.  There is static and background noise during several passages that I would attribute to the source material and not this particualr copy, although I can’t say for sure that my copy is not defective.

In any case I tried to make a low budget upgrade and bought an original UK Mono version from a seller in the U.S. that had a VG copy for sale that from the description sounded like it might play closer to VG+.  It’s a pretty decent copy and it does have some positive attributes, but I really think this album needs to be heard in stereo.  In mono Scott’s voice just get crowded out by the orchestra and vice versa.  I do think that the strings and horns sound a bit sweeter on this UK version and there is a pleasant depth to the soundstage, but the FMWB version has a wide open soundstage that is just so much better for this album and I’d venture to say for Scott’s records in general.

I’m bummed that I can’t make a definitive recommendation on which verson of Scott 2 to buy, but I am already looking into another copy that I can recommend so stay tuned.  What I can say is that I would stick to a stereo version and avoid the Four Men With Beards version.  Which every version you go with won’t be disappointed with the music.