The tendency to label Scott Walker a recluse says a lot more about the cultural norms of the music industry than it does about Scott Walker. During the second half of his life, he released music at a decent rate, collaborated with musicians and film directors, and granted good-natured interviews.
He was not exactly JD Salinger. He simply refused to give some people what they wanted, namely live shows and new music that bore some resemblance to the revered quartet of albums that he recorded during the late 1960s. In any other artform, this would have been considered quite normal behaviour. Only in pop music is refusing to revisit the past interpreted as a kind of psychological malady.
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