Scoperto grazie alla consigliatissima autobiografia (head on/repossessed) dell'eccentrico e bizzarro Julian Cope (un grande secondo me, nonostante le sue innumerevoli scopiazzature, ma chi non lo fa?), Scott si rivela una sorpresa inaspettata (almeno per me rockettaro psichedelico convinto e non solo). Un americano trapiantato in giovane età a Londra, amante del fascino europeo più decadente, sfigurato da due fottutissime guerre mondiali e decantato con fascino solenne, pessimista/poetico da Jacques Brel (sua ossessione) e da Camus, un trip sonoro che ha dell'incredibile, perchè mai si era udito un'incrocio così marcatamente pop e pessimista in degli anni che ancora non avevano voglia di trasgredire totalmente dagli schemi imposti dalla società di allora, anni ancora conservatori e nello stesso tempo rivoluzionari, nel senso che la trasgressione sonora e non solo, era in fase di crescita, contrastando fortunatamente con i canoni imposti dalla musica leggera orchestrale, che appariva ancora come un dolcificante e rassicurante argine appetibile sopratutto ai benbensanti di allora e anche secondo noi di adesso.
Confusione a parte, anche se tutto ciò per me è chiaro,assimilare e incrociare un'impostazione vocale e in parte strumentale alla Frank Sinatra e Tony Bennett (che tra l'altro riconosco come dote, ma non fa parte dei miei difficili gusti musicali), all'epoca e anche adesso, è un pop orchestrale pomposo e ambizioso alla Phil Spector e Burt Bacharach è una cosa dannatamente spiazzante e attraente anche per le nuove generazioni. Un uomo che se avesse voluto alleggerire le tematiche dei suoi testi avrebbe raggiunto lo status di star acclamata e amata da tutti (tanto di cappello se ci fosse riuscito, meritava), cosa che gli è riuscita in parte con il suo gruppo beat Walker Brothers, rinnegato immediatamente dato che non sopportava le pressioni del succeso. Scott pressato dai mass-media che lo volevano come il nuovo John Lennon, subentra in un una fase misantropa e asociale (cara ai vari Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Skip Sence e chi ne ha più ne metta).
Scott 4 doveva essere l'lp che l'avrebbe consacrato a indiscussa star maledetta ed invece è stato un fiasco commerciale, un album stupendo che hanno capito in pochi, un capolavoro che avrebbero capito in pochi, ma che adesso ha una valenza immensa, altro che Tilt, ascoltatevi questo, (lo trovate a 10 euri, n.d.a.). Scott è esclusivo, per pochi, un grande se sopportate le nenie sofferenti, Scott 4 per me uno degli album del secolo, 9.90 e ve lo portate a case, vi voglio bene, un bacio...........Scott 4 va bene in qualsiasi stagione, se volete un'accompagnamento per un cielo stellato lui va bene, baci a tutti ;)))))))))))
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 The Seventh Seal (04:57)
Anybody seen a knight pass this way
I saw him playing chess with Death yesterday
His crusade was a search for God and they say
It's been a along way to carry on
Anybody hear of plague in this town
The town I've left behind was burned to the ground
A young girl on a stake her face framed in flames cried
I'm not a witch God knows my name
The knight he watched with fear
He needed to know
He ran where he might feel God's breath
And in the misty church
He knelt to confess
The face within the booth was Mr. Death
My life's a vain pursuit of meaningless smiles
Why can't God touch me with a sign
Perhaps there's no one there answered the booth
And Death hid within his cloak and smiled
This morning I played chess with Death said the knight
We played that he might grant me time
My bishop and my knight will shatter his flanks
And still I might feel God's heart in mine
And through confession's grille Death's laughter was heard
The knight cried No you've cheated me!
But still I'll find a way
We'll meet once again and once again
Continue to play
They met within the woods the knight his squire and friends
And Death said now the game shall end
The final move was made
The knight hung his head
And said you've won I've nothing left to play
The minstrel filled with visions sang to his love
To look against the stormy sky
The knight his squire and friends
Their hands held as one
Solemnly danced toward the dawn
His hourglass in his hand his scythe by his side
The master Death he leads them on
The rain will wash away the tears from their faces
And as the thunder cracked they were gone
04 Angels of Ashes (04:21)
The Angels of Ashes
will give back your passions
Again and again
Their light shafts
will reach through the darkness
and touch you my friend
They'll fly in a mind dance
and blind you with wings
wrapped in flame
If you're down to an echo
they just might remember
your name
In the unbroken darkness
where emptiness empties
alone
There's no starting or stopping
where there is no right or
no wrong
Well that's all right for some
who can hang the absurd
on their wall
If your blind hands can't grope
through these measureless waters
you'll fall
You've been following patterns
and fleeting sensations
too long
And the fullness that fills up
the pulse of durations
is gone
Let the great constellation
of flickering ashes
be heard
Let them burn with a fire
all it takes to confess
is a word, just a word
I can recommend angels
I've watched as they've made a man strong
Oh so strong
If your humbleness shows
then I'm sure that they'll take you
along
You can tell them who sent you
it might help to get you
above
You can say that he laughed
and he walked like St. Francis
With love
06 Hero of the War (02:28)
He's a hero of the war
All the neighborhood is talkin' 'bout your son
Mrs. Reiley get his medals
Hand them 'round to everyone
Show his gun to all the children in the street
It's too bad he can't shake hands or move his feet
He's a hero of the war
You can see his picture in the local news
Mrs. Reiley seems the girl next door is nowhere to be found
Once you couldn't keep that boy from hangin' 'round
Never mind dear, you're with your mum once more
He's a hero of the war
Like his dad he gave his life the war before
It was tragic how you almost died of pain when he was born
With no husband there beside you through it all
Ring the bell if you get hungry or you fall
You're a hero of the war
Why those teardrops on your cheek? it's so absurd
Feelin' empty it's the emptiness of heroes like your son
And what made him leave his mother for a gun
Driven forward driven back and nothing more
He's a hero of the war
08 Duchess (02:50)
It's your bicycle bells and you Rembrandt swells
Your children alive and still breathing
And your look of loss when you're coming across
Makes me feel like a thief when you're bleeding
Duchess Duchess
Light up your candles for me
Duchess Duchess
Put all your love back in me
I come listening I touch touching
With the Persian sea running through your veins
You shed your names with the seasons
Still they all return with the last remains
And they lay them before you like reasons
With your shimmering dress it says no it says yes
It says I've nothing left for conceiving
Its your shiftless flesh and your old girls grace
Its your young girls face that I'm breathing
Duchess Duchess
Light up your candles for me
Duchess Duchess Duchess
Put all the love back in me
I am lying she is crying
09 Get Behind Me (03:14)
Get Behind Me
It's the signs as we see them
There's no thresholds at all
There's no vows to be broken
As we rise, or we fall
There's no noise high above us
As the moon turns in space
Just the face of a lady
Who we loved for her grace
Get behind me, Get behind me
Won't you bend my ear again
I really need a friend
Get behind me, Get behind me
Remind me to remind me
Not to go back there again
When the threads of dark moments
Start to tremble with sound
And an almost formed whisper dies
The boundaries surround
We keep reaching beyond us
Through the shape shifting clouds
Why ain't I like you brother,
So electric, so proud
Get behind me, Get behind me
Won't you bend my ear again
I really need a friend
Get behind me, Get behind me
Remind me to remind me
Not to go back there again
Set us free of this feeling
So we'll be once again
So we won't feel the gravity of time
And the face in the faces
Of the loves we move through
Reappears in original design
Get behind me, Get behind me
Won't you bend my ear again
I really need a friend
Get behind me, Get behind me
Remind me to remind me
Not to go back there again
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Altre recensioni
Di paolofreddie
"Capolavoro senza ‘se’ e senza ‘ma’, ‘Scott 4’ mette insieme in maniera perfetta strumentazione appartenente alla tradizione orchestrale, strumenti acustici e/o riconducibili al rock, e assetto ritmico."
"Tre-quattro brani sono intoccabili, altri sono sofisticati e impeccabili a livello melodico, e i pochi restanti, probabilmente meno ispirati, sono comunque apprezzabili."
