Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker
Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker is a compilation album of material by singer Scott Walker, compiled by musician Julian Cope and released by independent Zoo Records in August 1981. The material on the album was drawn from Walker's orchestral pop solo albums released between 1967–70, and focuses on songs that the singer had written himself. After Walker's popularity declined in the 1970s and his albums became out-of-print, Cope conceived the album to rescue Walker from obscurity and present his material to a new audience. Whereas he had previously appealed to middle-of-the-road fans, the compilation was created to help promote Walker to a post-punk audience.
Julian Cope in the 1980s
Scott Walker in 1968
Noel Scott Engel, better known by his stage name Scott Walker, was an American-British singer-songwriter and record producer who resided in England. Walker was known for his emotive voice and his unorthodox stylistic path which took him from being a teen pop icon in the 1960s to an avant-garde musician from the 1980s to his death. Walker's success was largely in the United Kingdom, where he achieved fame as a member of pop trio the Walker Brothers, who scored several hit singles, including two number ones, during the mid-1960s, while his first four solo albums reached the top ten during the later part of the decade, with the second, Scott 2, reaching number one in 1968. He lived in the UK from 1965 onward and became a UK citizen in 1970.
Walker on Dutch TV, 1968