The documentary film: "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" premiered in Europe and the UK in October of 2006, It premiered and, as far as I know, was only shown in the US at SXSW 2007. Amazon.com has no record of the film. Netflix lists it, but with an unknown release date. As far as I know, it has only been released on DVD in Australia and Spain, which seems totally arbitrary. Anyway if you, gentle readers, have any info on this films release date, please let me know. <p>

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Scott Walker as I was until I heard the song 30 Century Man in the Wes Anderson filmThe Life Aquatic in 2005 and immediately fell in love with his voice, here's a little background information on Scott Walker.

Sorry, I tried, but am unable to sum up Scott Walker in anything less than an essay which I don't care to write and you probably don't care to read. I found this on Scott Walkers bio page at 4AD's website:

Scott Walker is considered one of the ultimate cult artists in popular music, it is hard to think of another American who had such an impact on rock music as a whole while being almost completely unknown to his countrymen as Scott Walker.

The list of artists featured in the documentary can also give you an idea of the scope of Scott Walker's influence. In addition to Walker himself, interviewees in the film include David Bowie, Radiohead, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Eno, Damon Albarn, Marc Almond, Alison Goldfrapp, Sting, Dot Allison, Simon Raymonde, Richard Hawley, Rob Ellis, Johnny Marr, Gavin Friday, Lulu, Peter Olliff, Angela Morley (arranger of Walker's sixties' recordings as Wally Stott), Ute Lemper, Ed Bicknell, Evan Parker, Hector Zazou, Mo Foster, Phil Sheppard, and Peter Walsh.

That being said, if you are still intrigued, go check out this Wiki article here.

Trailer for the documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

Excellent stop action fan video for 30 Century Man.

Scott Walker: The Outsider Sensibility and Creative Visions of Identity

Scott Walker has been described as one of the greatest living avant-garde artists, with hardly any other American musician having had greater influence upon rock music, while at the same time remaining almost completely unknown to his countrymen. Walker grew up in Texas, New York City and Southern California, but he became a celebrity in England during the mid 1960s as part of the Walker Brothers band. This was at the time when young American audiences were going wild over British pop-music groups. The Walker Brothers were a vocal trio who wed soaring vocal harmonies, lush soundtrack arrangements and a patently somber worldview into a uniquely theatrical package.

Scott Walker's voice was perhaps the most beautiful male non-soul voice of that era, and an increasingly free-thinking "Beat" attitude was at the core of the group's appeal. Although the Walker Brothers became huge in Europe and claimed a fan club bigger than even The Beatles, Scott Walker's eccentricity cast a dark cloud over the band's public image. Scott began to write increasingly complicated interlaced music, and its sense of bleakness was intensified by his mix of translated Jacques Brel tunes with his distinctly arty and pained original numbers. By 1969, his works were failing to appear on music charts at all.

An increasingly elusive Scott Walker slowly withdrew from public view. His voice began to lose some of its former pop-music sense of majesty, a reflection of his new interest in the experimental synth-driven avant-garde, which he helped revolutionize to major critical success, but only minor public attention. Walker seemed to vanish, while artists as diverse as David Bowie, Brian Eno, Julian Cope, Bryan Ferry, Ultravox and Marc Almond became fiercely ardent supporters of his unique body of work, citing him as a primary influence on their careers. Gale Harold (the actor in Queer as Folk) served as an Associate Producer, along with David Bowie as Executive Producer, of the new acclaimed documentary about the influential artistic vision of Walker's experimental musical works, 30 Century Man.

The ongoing show of support by the more widely-known artists helped to keep the shy Walker's reputation alive until he appeared again in 1995 with a new album, a work that was both formidable and deeply disconcerting, completely stripping away the dark romanticism that had once filtered some semblance of light through in his work. However, in person Walker doesn't appear to fit the common stereotype of a tortured artist. After many years, he has completed a new album, The Drift, and in recent interviews about the recording Walker comes across as plainspoken, unpretentious and honest.

The videos presented below include a short British trailer for the new documentary about Walker (30 Century Man), a longer film clip that includes interviews with him, and a music video of a song Jesse from his new album.

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Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (UK Trailer)

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Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (Documentary Studio Scenes)

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Scott Walker: Jesse (From Walker's New Album, The Drift)

Technorati: Scott Walker, musician, technology, composer, The Walker Brothers, England, Britain, Great Britain, United Kingdom, 30 Century Man, The Drift, Jesse, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Gale Harold, Queer as Folk, art, celebrities, photographs, photography, entertainment, multimedia, music, songs, avant-garde music, experimental music, movies, films, documentary, video, music video, culture, cultural issues, cultural, gay, gay issues, gay life, gay pride, GLBT, psychology, psychoanalysis, identity, self, social, social issues, social life, society, news, world news, world

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