A Mathilde
B My Death

by Scott Walker
Released: November, 1967. Label: Philips

Mathilde, the opening track on Scott Walker’s debut solo album, was released as a single in Japan, with another Jacques Brel song from the album, My Death, on its B-side. Both songs were translated into English by American singer-songwriter Mort Shuman, ‘Mathilde, which is a Jacques Brel composition, is my personal favourite,” Walker told the NME’s Keith Altham earlier that year about his forthcoming recordings. “[E]verything went right on that number, the atmosphere was right, the musicians were all feeling the song, and I felt the same.”

Originally released by Brel in 1964, it is a song about a narrator plunged into emotional turmoil by the return of a lover. Walker puts himself in the position of a man begging his mother, his friends and his maid to help him, before he crashes “through heaven’s door” after having “gone to hell”. Mathilde was produced by John Franz with arrangements by Angela Morley, credited before 1972 as Wally Stott. My Death, a rumination on mortality, life and love, was produced by John Franz with arrangements by Reg Guest.

Credits

A. Mathilde 2:35

Written By Jacques Brel, Gérard Jouannest, Mort Shuman
Producer John Franz
Arranger Wally Stott

B. My Death 4:54

Written By Jacques Brel, Mort Shuman
Producer John Franz
Arranger Reg Guest