William Shatner Album Reviews

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The Transformed Man (1968)
Has Been (2004)

The Transformed Man (1968)

7

King Henry the Fifth / Elegy for the Brave / Theme from Cyrano / Mr. Tambourine Man / Hamlet / It Was a Very Good Year / Romeo and Juliet / How Insensitive (Insensatez) / Spleen / Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds / The Transformed Man

Shatner's first album The Transformed Man still stands as a classic in the "novelty / celebrity camp" department and deservedly so, as listening to this album is an utterly perplexing experience. If the quality of an album would be measured by how loud the listener yells "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" while hearing it for the first time, then this album would be one of the most impressive ones to ever appear on this website. Many celebrities - mainly actors, the vain breed - have recorded and released music (ever heard Leonard Nimoy, Don Johnson and Bruce Willis?), but no one did it with as much conviction, insanity and hubris as good ole Captain Kirk of Star Trek. Not even David "I've been looking for freedom (and found it on a beach)" Hasselhoff, who by all accounts is a bad-ass motherfucker you don't wanna mess with. In the totally serious liner notes, Shatner tells you how the project came to be and how he'd always had the ambition to do "something with the spoken word combined with the magic of music." Ideas actually turned into plans, the "right" people got together and Shatner did get his record… which consisted of parts of Shakespeare ("Henry the Fifth," "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet") and poems by Frank Devenport set to music, as well as reinterpretations of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." And the results… they're astounding, bigger than life mini-operas that somehow managed to combine ultra-expressive and loud music (Stravinsky-meets-Bernard Herrmann!) with Shatner's hilarious spoken word-parts. Of course, he'd already had some experience with the clumsy dialogue of the Star Trek series, but here he easily surpasses himself and turns in classic performances that are so mannered, pompous and theatrical that you just don't know whether he's serious or messing around with whoever was/is stupid enough to listen.

During "Henry the Fifth," he delivers an impressively fiery speech inciting an army to fight, while the love-story of "Romeo and Juliet" is told as if he's telling a few 4 year-olds about Bambi and the baby Jesus. The music in the meantime usually adapts itself to the vocals. One moment, your speakers will be terrorized by militaristic salvos and grotesque crescendos, the next moment ("Elegy for the Brave") it transforms into a kind of slick, campy lounge that could be used for a French soft-porn flic. Nothing is held back: harps, bassoons, sudden trumpet interruptions, ringing sleigh bells, flutes, tension-creating percussion - it all serves to create an effect that's as artificial as Shatner's art. It never really works though, as the man's intonation and (unintentional?) sense of humour steal the show over and over again. Just check out how he starts saying "Mr. Tambourine Man… hey, Mr. Tambourine Man… hey, Mr. Tambourine Man???" while some idiot is beating himself to a pulp with a tambourine. It's classic material. Even better - although you could also call it a gruesome massacre as well - is the total demolition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," where the Cap' goes into realms of overacting where no one ever went before. It's embarrassing and mind-boggling, but also good for a few laughs, although I wonder what The Beatles actually thought at the time. Because of their popularity and the treatment they're given, the popular songs are the most interesting here, although the closing track (according to the liner notes a three-movement form: "earthly unreality - transitional awareness - contract with divinity") is also worth a few listens. Because of its bizarre portentousness and Shatner's side-splitting approach, it works much better as comedy than music, but it's also extremely cool to file The Transformed Man between Del Shannon and The Shirelles. Or Saxon and Slayer, if you're into a different style of music.

Has Been (2004)

7.5

Common People / It Hasn't Happened Yet / You'll Have Time / That's Me Trying / What Have You Done / Together / Familiar Love / Ideal Woman / Has Been / I Can't Get Behind That / Real

We simply must accept the fact that Captain Kirk is no longer alive, even though his ghost keeps haunting generations of Trekkies, sci-fi freaks and other assorted TV-addicts. The persona of William Shatner, however, is easily as intriguing as Kirk's, as the guy's life story is riddled with funny anecdotes, awkward career moves and surprising features (he wrote a few novels, is a dedicated fund raiser for good causes, performed on Broadway and hosted silly TV and radio shows). It's his awkward and theatrical style that, combined with the feeling he's ironical all the time, makes him so intriguing and fascinating to behold. In 1968, he released The Transformed Man, nowadays regarded as a cult classic, as it consisted of Shatner reciting dead serious poetry as well as the lyrics to "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (voted in 2003 as the worst massacre of a Beatles song ever). Like Peter Sellers, but… awkward. And now, more than 35 years later, a 73 year-old Shatner gives it another try, with the help of musician/producer Ben Folds and a bunch of guest artists. It seems unlikely on paper - how the hell could a collaboration between a TV veteran and a "youngster" lead to anything interesting? - but the results are repeatedly surprisingly good, brimming with energy and creativity, while Shatner's wide-ranging lyrics are wrapped up in varied arrangements that somehow do manage to come off as a stylistic whole. The good thing about it all is that the "Shatnerian style" is still intact, as the Cap'n still sounds as pompous and dramatic as before, speaking his lyrics with scholarly class, self-importance and theatrical pauses. The music's professional and tight, but boasts a warm sound, and even though there's the obligatory solo piece ("What Have You Done," a frustratingly depressive poem at that) and some tracks that are overly predictable and have that late-night-bourbon-cigarette-smoke-mysterious-women-vibe to them ("It Hasn't Happened Yet, "Familiar"), Shatner and Folds also try something different once in a while, a few times even heading into hilarious novelty-direction. On top of Shatner's unique, unmistakeable style and the variety of styles, there's also a whole bunch of guest appearances, one more likely than the other. During the album opener - a terrific, rocking take on Pulp's "Common People" - the captain is backed by Joe Jackson and a full choir, while on "That's Me Trying" - with lyrics written by novelist Nick Hornby - there are appearances by Aimee Mann on backing vocals and The Posies' Jon Auer on guitar. As for schizophrenia (dementia?): "You'll Have Time" is almost full-blown gospel (with a convincing "You're gonna die"-message), "Together" is space-lounge (with Lemon Jelly taking care of programming), while closer "Real" - offering thoughts on stardom ("I eat and sleep and breathe and bleed and feel, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm real") - hovers awfully close to R&B. The album's best batch of songs, however, is also found towards the end, as "Ideal Woman" is a funny piece of strutting pop that's almost a West-coast night club take on "My Sharona", "Has Been" two minutes of self-deprecation suitably wrapped up in a mini spaghetti western score ("You talkin' to me? You callin' me… has been?") and "I Can't Get Behind That" is an energetic duet between Shatner and Mr. Rantman himself, Henry Rollins. Trading daily annoyances like bad English ("He said to me and I'm like, and he's like, and she's like…"), rising gas prices, student drivers and commercials, the duo is backed by Adrian Belew making sci-fi noises and drummer Matt Chamberlin, who provides them with an almost jungle-like rumbling. "I Can't Get Behind That" is a priceless piece of novelty: awkward, head-scratching and funny (and Shatner even tears down the classy image by yelling "I can't get behind a fat ass!!!"). It's doubtful that anyone's gonna play Has Been and take the time to give it a serious listen - despite Shatner's unquestionable sincerity, it's just a bit too awkward - but it's fun while it lasts and its best tracks deserve to be on the next mix tape you'll be making for this summer's rides.