Interview

Rave - August 1968
by Maureen O'Grady

Can 10,000,000 fans be wrong?

“I don’t know why people put me on the cover of magazines. I’d call myself tubercular and weedy. My voice, as well as my face, should attract my audience.” — Scott Walker talking

INTERVIEWING POP stars is something I have never considered a dangerous job, until I went to see Scott recently. There he sat, in his uniform of tight slacks, dark glasses, loose sweater — and twirling a gun in his right hand!

Not knowing whether this was a toy or whether his desperate life as a pop star had driven him to carrying a gun for self-protection — I politely hinted that I didn’t like guns pointed at me. “Oh, it’s not real,” he said playfully, shooting me half a dozen times.

Just as well really, considering that the very first question I asked him, he deeply considered a personal insult!

Scott is a good-looking singer who considers himself to be not too beautiful. His description of himself, such as tubercular and weedy, just makes me laugh. Whether he thinks he’s good-looking but isn’t vain enough to admit it, could be the reason he is always physically running himself down. The question that upset him was did he think in his case it was the singer not the song that put him in the L.P. and singles charts. Was it his image and appearance rather than the songs he sang?

“I agree that with me it’s the singer not the song in cases of certain pieces of material, but certainly not with any of Brel’s work. His works are just too individual. In fact, on reflection I take this all as a personal insult! I disagree completely.”

But, thank goodness, he laughed. I’ve never upset Scott, but I’ve heard he can get difficult at times. Now he just laughs at insinuations he doesn’t like.

But then, lots of things about Scott have changed for the better. A year or so ago he was a very self-sufficient young man, an island. He didn’t need anyone at all to share his life with him. But now? “Well I’m not someone who MUST have a girlfriend, but it’s nice if I do have one. I’m sure it’s the same with everyone, we all have different phases in our life, and we all change. With a girlfriend now, I would like to get something out of a relationship. I would like to have children. I want a woman to have my children, but without having to marry her. An arrangement that would be legal, with full consent.”

Not the marrying kind

Although I told Scott that most girls would think this a very unromantic arrangement, I also had to admit that even so, he probably wouldn’t be too short on offers.

“No! I don’t see this being a good idea for everyone, generally speaking that would be a terrible disaster. But in my own case, that kind of relationship could work out. I know how to handle children, how to educate them. They represent to me security. It’s a kind of spiritual thing I believe in, to have something left of mine when I die. If I leave children in this world, then I’m leaving part of myself here too. I will never completely leave the world. I believe in that.

“Marriage itself is not for me, for I really don’t believe I could be faithful to one girl. I could do more for children than the average person. I have found mistakes in life, like all the things that have happened to me. I know now how a child should be raised. A child who can live in material security, free from pressures, creative, clear thinking, completely relaxed with no mental hang-ups. These are all of the things I wasn’t!”

Another subject we touched on was America. Next January, Scott comes under review for British citizenship, and he reckons he shouldn’t have any trouble. “I’ve behaved myself reasonably well, and have all of the requirements needed. There shouldn’t be any problems, I hope.”

Remembering that it was Scott who was trying to get Americans in London to vote for Senator Robert Kennedy in the elections, he sounded rather bitterly sad when talking of his homeland.

“I just hate America. The assassination of Kennedy just confirmed my opinions of the States, why I personally had to get out. I knew this could happen. There’s so much inner tension in the people, such a fantastic pressure on society, loaded with demands that they can’t give in to. It’s all insane, they’re like children drifting… I’ve personally seen a lot of violence there, not only blatant violence, but tension and real hate. It’s rather like a machine that’s going so fast, you just can’t stop it.”

In fact, there are only three places in the world Scott would think of living. There’s here. “Because it’s a base for Europe, and the most civilized. In fact I was reading an article the other day which said that Harold Wilson could walk down a street here in London, and no one would touch him or get excited. This is what makes this country such a great place. Secondly Russia. Their general way of life, their aptitude for culture, their indifference to the situations that others worry about. They take up their time with literature, and music, instead of TV. Thirdly, Denmark. They’re such fatalists. I always think of the people of Copenhagen as children. They have a job to do, and they walk through life, already dead. Their suicide rate is the highest in Europe. They could almost come from another planet. They’re fascinating. The Danes were like Flower Children, before the idea was ever thought of. In fact, one day I will write a book about them.”

We then talked of ‘Joanna’ his last single, which made the Top Ten. “That was just a lucky run. I won’t bother to release another single for a long while yet, probably another year. I just don’t want to get back into the rat race of the top twenty again.

“I did this record to prove something. I knew I was starting to get back into the pop cocoon, but I know now how to get out of it all. For all the things I want to do in life, I need money, and that’s the problem. You must work to earn it.”

Mean, moody, magnificent

“I had to prove I was commercial and a good financial bet with this disc, and on the strength of this, I am now doing four or five twenty-minute film shorts for the cinema. Short stories written by myself. I’ve had no experience about making films, but I know all about it. There won’t be a lot of dialogue, mainly camera tricks, spontaneous cinema, that’s what I call it. People ask me why I’m not avant-garde, but I’m not interested in pop art or camp music. I don’t believe in wild progressions, trends. I remain formal, I like to polish up antiques, work on old formulas and make progress on things that will last. I could never go out on an extreme musical limb.”

In the current future, he intends working on his musical, Cyrano de Bergerac. “I’d like Jose Ferrer to play the lead. I’ll write about 90 percent of the music I suppose, and my great friend Jonathan King will concentrate on lyrics.”

Obviously, Scott has a lot of faith in Jonathan and himself. He’s one of those people who continually has to prove himself. But he never ventures into any kind of gamble without thinking he’ll come out of it pretty much on top. He’s an adventurer with a cautious streak.

He’s learnt a lot of lessons since he came into this business, and he has taken three years now to find himself and laugh at the things other people laugh at. He always did have a complex about his smile. At photo sessions he would never break his moody pose. Smiling and laughing broke up his sad face and that would never do.

As I left him, he rushed to the record player and put on ‘Cool Britannia’ by the Bonzo Dogs, specially for me. I suppose to celebrate his forthcoming citizenship, with his gun in his hand, he then threatened to run down into the street and shoot up a few people! Will this be the Scott of the future? A happy, smiling Scott who finds life lovely. For his sake, let’s hope so. That boy’s certainly changed!