The stories virtually wrote themselves; transforming Scott Walker into the first true emblem of a relatively new cultural cliche: the beloved-but-misunderstood pop star, yearning for transcendence and a less public life (a cliche that would reach a terrible apotheosis of sorts with the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain). As a journalistic impulse this was utterly reflexive . . . the only thing journalists love more than a bad loser is a bad winner . . .and they could let no moment of the spectacle, even those they had to make up, go unrecorded.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I've never particularly cared about Scott Walker (Mike Daddino put it best with the immortal "He sounds like a horse"), but this remembrance of his BBC show (and then some) by Tom Sutpen is sharp, particularly: