For Scott Walker — the stentorian tunesmith of Walker Brothers, a band whose hit “The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore” was one of the reasons they once boasted a larger fan club than the Beatles' — success became a doorway to freelance statistical abnormality, to gliding through life on gently doomed wings as though obscurity itself were the new stardom. In anticipation of the Los Angeles premiere of 30 Century Man, director Stephen Kijak's David Bowie-produced documentary on Walker, Don't Knock the Rock gathers like-minded iconoclasts to interpret Walker's pop jewels.

There's David J from Bauhaus alongside Michael Burg, '60s chanteuse Evie Sands, Ann Magnuson and Kristian Hoffman, songbird Jenny O, and X's John Doe. As with all music makers choosing exodus and experimentation — Joe Meek and Arthur Russell come to mind — Walker's art presents melancholy as something energizing, a complexity often absent from pop's constant demands for a milder climate.

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