Scott was born in London,[1] and grew up listening to 78 rpm records of artists like Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, and Eddie Cochran on a wind-up gramophone.

As an engineer at Abbey Road, Scott also worked with numerous other artists including the Jeff Beck Group, Pink Floyd, the Pretty Things, Scaffold and Mary Hopkin.

In late 1969, shortly after completion of the Procol Harum album A Salty Dog, he left Abbey Road for Trident Studios, at the suggestion of Elton John and producer Gus Dudgeon.

[6] Scott soon found himself working with the Beatles again on their various solo projects, including John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" and "Cold Turkey", Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

[5] After a short time he took over the mixing of Elton John's Madman Across the Water, after fellow Trident engineer Robin Geoffrey Cable suffered severe injuries in a traffic accident.

By this time Scott wanted to move into production, and Bowie said he was about to start a new album and didn't feel comfortable about solely producing himself, so it was agreed that they would co-produce what became Hunky Dory.

What Crisis?, attempted to reach those same sonic heights, but it was subject to the limitations of a timetable, because Supertramp had gained a measure of stardom, and a release date and tour had already been planned.

Other artists Scott worked with while at Trident included America, Harry Nilsson, Lou Reed, Rick Wakeman, the Rolling Stones, Al Kooper and Lindisfarne.

"[11] Scott also helped change the sound of the cross-pollination genre known as jazz rock or progressive jazz, adding a much harder edge rock sound (especially to the drums) to albums like Mahavishnu Orchestra's Birds of Fire, Visions of the Emerald Beyond and The Lost Trident Sessions, Billy Cobham's Spectrum, Crosswinds, Total Eclipse, and Shabazz, Stanley Clarke's Stanley Clarke and School Days, and Jeff Beck's There and Back.

After "artistic differences" caused a split, he went on to produce and manage other acts including Christine in the Attic and Cock Robin, although neither went on to achieve the level of success of Missing Persons.