I was glad to get to watch a DVD documentary of the great Scott Walker called ‘30 Century Man, a title taken from a track that appeared on Scott 3
I like the fact that instead of using only conventional interviews, director Stephen Kijak also films people listening and interacting to Scott’s albums. I could live without the thoughts of posers like Sting and Alison Goldfrapp but most of the interviewees have something interesting to contribute.
A notable absence is Julian Cope who did so much to raise Walker’s profile with the post-punk generation. Cope opted not to appear although he wrote a letter endorsing the project.
Still, if the film consisted only of talking heads basking in their own egos and repeating ad-infinitum what a genius Scott Walker is, this would be pretty tedious fare. The main coup is in getting the notoriously reticent Walker to talk so freely about his life in music and in a film crew being allowed into the studio during the recording of The Drift. Continue reading
