One of the best things about working here at Rhapsody (besides from the complimentary oyster bar) is talking to artists about the music they love. Musicians don't always enjoy talking about their own work, but they love talking about the music that inspires them. Rarely do artists just listen to the kind of music they make -- they love all kinds of music. Sonic Youth recently listed their favorites for us here. It is truly an enjoyable collection of music.
Rob Thomas also made a groovy playlist of his favorites for us. Nice guy and a really strong batch of tunes.
The artist that brought Sonic Youth and Rob Thomas together was the American expat Scott Walker. I grew up reading about Walker the same way that I grew up reading about the Velvet Underground -- there was once a time when you couldn't find their records in America, so all you could do was read about them. David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and Julian Cope always said that they were heavily influenced by Walker's arty pop -- and when I finally heard Walker's solo material I discovered that they weren't exaggerating. Sonic Youth picked Walker's "Jackie," one of many Jacques Brel covers that he performed.
Rob Thomas goes for one of Walker's ballads with the Walker Brothers -- a cover of a Burt Bacharach tune (Walker was -- and is -- a fine songwriter in his own right, by the way). It's nice that Walker's fellow countrymen are now into his music the way that British and Irish artists have been. My guess is that the superb feature documentary Scott Walker: 30th Century Man has had a lot to do with this. Check it out -- maybe Sonic Youth and Rob Thomas saw it together. ]]>
