John Joseph Maus (1943 - 2011)
May 8, 2011 9:26 PM   Subscribe

John Maus, a.ka. John Walker, vocalist, guitarist and one-third of The Walker Brothers (with Gary and, of course, Scott) has passed away at age 67 following a battle with liver cancer.

Unlike the bandmate who has long overshadowed him, John never abandoned the pop musical stylings of the Walker Brothers and was performing live until recently.
posted by alexoscar (10 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
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posted by domakesaypat at 10:16 PM on May 8, 2011


I guess since Scott's not playing them someone had to.

A real shame, since John was a damn good songwriter and singer in his own right. "I Can't Let It Happen to You" is up there with the Walkers' best work, and "Rhythms of Vision" holds it own with Scott's work on Nite Flights.

Unfortunately, there were no links to those songs online -- otherwise I would have put them into this post.
posted by alexoscar at 12:33 AM on May 9, 2011


"I Can't Let It Happen to You" is up there with the Walkers' best work, and "Rhythms of Vision" holds it own with Scott's work on Nite Flights.

I'm not overly familiar with early Walker Brothers and so don't have an opinion either way on "Can't Let It Happen to You". But "Rhythms of Vision"? The song that contains lines like "On the night of the moon / The rites of the witch / Odyssey's near / You've lost to the bitch"? Man, I wish I was enough of a contrarian to put that on a par with "Nite Flights" and "The Electrician".

John's and Gary's contributions to Nite Flights are nice songs in their own right, but really, at that point Scott was on another level and the other two had no chance of catching up. It doesn't help that someone messed up the sequencing by grouping all of Scott's tracks together at the beginning of the album. "The Electrian" is a pretty hard act to follow, and Gary's "Death of Romance" (which I like) sounds like something from a different album by a different artist. By the time you get to John, you may not be in the mood for disco-infused boogie rock with sub-Sabbath lyrics.

Okay, that's a sour note to end on, so I'll just add that The Walker Brothers were a great thing and John was part of it.
posted by Modlizki at 4:21 AM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]


Part of what made it (them) great, that is. And "The Electrian" is not the name of the song.
posted by Modlizki at 4:29 AM on May 9, 2011


RIP John.

The Walker Brothers on their visit to Sweden, came and had tea at our little wooden house in Södermalm. The first of a series of visiting musicians. I remember them as being rather polite and charming. Scott especially.

When you tell people that today they say "Who were they?"
Now I find out that I'm not the only person who knows about them.
A reason to like metafilter.
posted by jan murray at 4:42 AM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]


In case anyone else was confused, there's also an experimental musician named John Maus. Totally a different person.
posted by naju at 6:45 AM on May 9, 2011


Another Guardian article. "The plastic commercialism of contemporary boy bands is no match for the mysterious depths of The Walkers Brothers best music."
posted by JanetLand at 7:08 AM on May 9, 2011


The sun ain't gonna shine any more.
posted by salmacis at 7:51 AM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]


.
(may Scott live a thousand years)
posted by porn in the woods at 8:45 AM on May 9, 2011


Man, I wish I was enough of a contrarian to put that on a par with "Nite Flights" and "The Electrician".

Alright, I'll give you the lyrics, but it's still a great weird vocal performance and the herky-jerky-disco-infused boogie rock thuddigness of it has always had a place in my heart.
posted by alexoscar at 12:31 PM on May 9, 2011


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