‘Jesse’: the Scott Walker song about Elvis’s stillborn twin
In 2007, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner teamed up with the Scrappy to his Scooby, Miles Kane of The Rascals, to form The Last Shadow Puppets. More than anything, this thoroughly mid-band was essentially a Scott Walker tribute act.
Turner and Kane were die-hard fans of The Walker Brothers’ mainman, and one listen to their work, especially the debut album The Age of the Understatement, proved this. In fact, a listen to all of the Arctics’ work post AM would prove this too. Yet they actually only seem inspired by a very specific part of his music. Like all the people who claim David Bowie as a huge influence, despite clearly only listening to Ziggy Stardust.
The Shadow Puppets did string-swept, sophisticated retro-balladry that could have soundtracked a 1960s James Bond movie. Clearly, they’d done their time taking notes from Scott 2, Scott 3, and his work in The Walker Brothers, but Walker was no mere balladeer. The more you look into his work, the more thrillingly weird everything gets, to the point where some of his work becomes outright avant-garde, not just with the music itself but in the lyrical subject matter as well.
There are several brilliant examples of this. ‘Clara’, ‘Scope J’, ‘The Electrician’. I mean, Walker’s song ‘SDSS14+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)’ is actually weirder than its title would suggest. For the ultimate example of how bizarre and deeply unsettling Walker’s music can get, though, look no further than his 2006 album The Drift and its terrifying third track, ‘Jesse‘. If you can find a more visceral opening lyric than ‘Nose holes caked in black cocaine”, I’d like to hear it.
In fact, scratch that, I don’t think I do.
So, what is ‘Jesse’ by Scott Walker about?
Coming in on two prowling, deeply unsettling baritone guitar chords, ‘Jesse’ is named after Jesse Garon Presley, Elvis’s stillborn twin brother, who The King said stayed with him his entire life.
The spirit of his lost brother hangs over him no matter his success or failure. Now, this is nothing new. Many have written about Jesse Presley and the hold the idea of his brother had on Elvis. It’s what a large chunk of Nick Cave’s ‘Tupelo’ is about after all. Walker’s soundscape is something a little different.
Listening deeper, there’s something almost apocalyptic about ‘Jesse’. Walker, in his signature quavering tenor, builds images of a tall, tall tower, “Cast(ing) its ruins in shadow under Memphis moonlight.” It’s here that ‘Jesse’ reveals itself to be a song about 9/11. It contrasts the missing piece of himself that Presley always saw in Jesse with the missing piece of the New York City skyline that the Twin Towers always will be. Telling a story of Presley telling his brother about a prophetic nightmare about 9/11 and the existential panic it caused in him.
This might sound like something of a stretch. After all, the song is intensely poetic and other than the mentions of Jesse and Memphis, nothing else speaks to the song being about Elvis. Except, of course, those tell-tale baritone guitar chords from earlier. Listen to them closely. Do they sound familiar? They should, as they’re a distorted, nightmarish version of ‘Jailhouse Rock’.
A haunting tale of the inherent grief at the heart of the American dream in the 21st century. Let’s see The Shadow Puppets take on a song like that and then they can start calling themselves fans of the late, great Scott Walker.