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I don't think that's the case with Hollis. I think he did exactly what he wanted to do; he fulfilled his musical ambitions and stopped making music for that reason (bar the odd appearance on other records here and there). He wasn't encumbered by financial constraints either so was able to just live his life away from music.Or to put it another way: Hollis seemed to have stopped making music because he was frustrated by the music business and didn't manage to manouevre himself into a position whereby he could continue to make the sort of music he wanted to make. Walker managed to do exactly that - albeit with the help of ongoing royalties from the 1960s period and with the help of a supportive label in 4AD. He totally won in a way that very few others have managed to do.
I could of course be reading all sorts of things into their lives and their intentions that are simply wrong .......
I don't think that's the case with Hollis. I think he did exactly what he wanted to do; he fulfilled his musical ambitions and stopped making music for that reason (bar the odd appearance on other records here and there). He wasn't encumbered by financial constraints either so was able to just live his life away from music.
I agree with you on Walker - I never felt a connection with him like I did with Bowie; I wasn't a major fan of Walker's music either, but was always interested in what he was doing and admired him for doing exactly what he wanted artistically and never feeling he had to apologise or explain it. He lived a purely artistic life and that is something that is almost non-existent in the "industry" these days.
I'll have to check out his later albums now!
Absolutely, if an artist means anything to you at all, it is personal of course. I was deeply saddened by Bowie's death (I'd been a fan since I was 10!!!) and also recently Mark Hollis's death hit me in a big way. Bowie was indeed a big fan of Walker's - he did a great cover of Niteflights of course - and I love that birthday message from Walker; I listened to it again this morning; it's so moving, so heartfelt. I love when he says, "I'll raise a glass to you, on the other side of midnight" - I thought that was such a Scott Walker thing to say! I know his death is sad, but isn't music amazing and powerful and transporting in the way it can make us feel this way about artists and their music?I have been thinking about this a bit overnight, and I see Bowie and Walker as so closely aligned - their deaths have hit me in a very similar way. And they are so deeply woven into my own little world, it's all so personal, isn't it? Once Walker sent Bowie a birthday message, I think the BBC were celebrating his 50th, and Bowie was so overcome, and said "I see God in the window. He really got to me there, I’m afraid. I think he’s probably been my idol since I was a kid. That’s really moved me." I remember being really surprised at the time, as it was Bowie going back to his own childhood and teenage years, and it was really disarming, and made me love him even more - and Walker even more, but then I read that story last night again, and I don't know, it just got me all over again!
You are so right! Our relationships with artists can be so intimate, because their work seeps in to our deepest, interior lives.Absolutely, if an artist means anything to you at all, it is personal of course. I was deeply saddened by Bowie's death (I'd been a fan since I was 10!!!) and also recently Mark Hollis's death hit me in a big way. Bowie was indeed a big fan of Walker's - he did a great cover of Niteflights of course - and I love that birthday message from Walker; I listened to it again this morning; it's so moving, so heartfelt. I love when he says, "I'll raise a glass to you, on the other side of midnight" - I thought that was such a Scott Walker thing to say! I know his death is sad, but isn't music amazing and powerful and transporting in the way it can make us feel this way about artists and their music?
Also, someone mentioned this Walker Brothers song as being an essential Scott Walker track, I had never heard it before (it was the B-side to “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”) and it is magnificent.
Also, someone mentioned this Walker Brothers song as being an essential Scott Walker track, I had never heard it before (it was the B-side to “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”) and it is magnificent.
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