Scott Walker and the Song of the One-All-Alone

Scott Walker and the Song of the One-All-Alone offers, in detailed interpretative commentaries of his best songs, a sustained assessment of the work and career of Scott Walker, one of the most significant and perplexing artists of the late 20th and 21st century. For Brian Eno, Walker was not only a great composer and a superlative lyricist but also a significant contemporary poet. Marc Almond goes further, ''an absolute musical genius, existential and intellectual and a star right from the days of The Walker Brothers''. As Almond suggests, Walker''s work is marked by a continual engagement with existentialist philosophy informing his approach to art, politics and life. In particular, the device of the solitary figure or ''one-all-alone'' evoked in his songs provides the basis for his lyrical exploration of the singularity of existence - in all its darkness as well as light. Through following his own path, Walker arrived at a unique sound according to his own method that produced a genuinely new form of song. Looking closely at these songs, this book also considers the wider political implications of his approach in its rejection of external authorities and common or consensual ideals.>

About the author

Scott Wilson is Professor of Media and Psychoanalysis at Kingston University, London, UK. He is the author of Stop Making Sense: Music from the Perspective of the Real (Karnac, 2015) and the editor of Melancology: Black Metal Theory and Ecology (Zone Books, 2014).

Product details

• Authors: Professor Scott (Kingston University Wilson, Scott Wilson, Scott (Department of English At Lancaster Wilson, Scott (Department of English at Lancaster University) Wilson, Scott (Kingston University Wilson
• Assisted by: Greg Hainge (Editor), Paul Hegarty (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.10.2019
• EAN: 9781501332593
• ISBN: 978-1-5013-3259-3
• No. of pages: 232
• Series: Ex: Centrics; Ex: Centrics; Ex:Centrics
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; Musiker, Sänger, Bands und Gruppen, Komponisten und Songwriter, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / History & Criticism, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician, Music reviews & criticism, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Composers and songwriters, Music reviews and criticism