The Golden Throat of William Shatner, Recording Artist
The greatest renditions of Mr. Tambourine Man, Rocket Man, and Common People actually belong to the greatest of all starship captains! Stroll through the multi-talented William Shatner's storied musical career!
As we have observed in our birthday recap of William Shatner, the mind of the Shatmaster has certainly given our world many golden geek gems. However, more than his resume or his charisma, it is his vocal cords, his radiant antennas to human existence, that provide Shatner with his distinct Shatner-ness. With unpredictable inflection and great clarity, Shatnerâs voice is an unparalleled force, and is of a rare audible vocal quality that inspires the clamor, âIâd even listen to him read a phone book!â
Shatner certainly has put such credibility to the test with his musical career, a confounding saga of bizarre artistry, in which his level of seriousness is constantly brought into the question. Nonetheless, with three studio albums released over the course of more than forty years, Shatnerâs input to the world of music is much like his other endeavors: bizarre, geeky, and wholly singular to Shatnerâs expressiveness.
The world first experienced Shatner as ârecording artistâ in 1968 with the release of his first album, The Transformed Man. Its title written in rainbow colors and a classic futuristic font, Shatner is photographed looking up, at the beyond, with half of his face in shadow. While he is still billed on the cover as âWilliam Shatner: Captain Kirk of Star Trek,â Shatner nonetheless gives the impression that this album will be much more than another star trying to make it in the recording industry. Indeed, this album would be a science fiction voyage through the dark unknown all on its own.
Featuring six tracks which include two pop covers (âMr. Tambourine Manâ and âLucy in the Sky with Diamonds,â) The Transformed Man is indeed the work of a flawed mortal/wannabe storyteller who has spent far too much time with his head in space. Accompanied by labored pop symphony arrangements, Shatner heaves massive helpings of poetic imagery at his audience with his distinct spoken word delivery, which is so jazzy (beatnik-y) and unpredictable that these extensive tracks easily nudge its viewers out the side door. On an album that should have been called âI AM A SERIOUS ARTIST,â â68 Shatner expresses his immediate desire to gain his listenerâs intellectual acceptance through his Shat-tastic harpings on âHamlet,â âRomeo and Juliet,â and âCyrano de Bergerac.â
The almighty Shatner, not only acting but acting like a snobby jackass, shows that he thinks himself to be a one-man orchestra (and not just an ac-tor). The entire album is very theatrical. At best, it probably makes for excellent music for doing chores around the living space, especially dish washing or vacuuming.
Pop culture might try to nudge everyone into thinking that this album is fully funny, but this isnât the case. Youâll certainly understand this when trying to share these songs with friends, and having to skip through four minutes of B.S. just to hear Shatner sing âMr. Tambourine Manâ like he was reading each line one page a time while having hiccups, and as if his integrity as an actor relied on it. If anything, just skip to 6:40 on the song and youâll get the gist of this sadly goofy art experiment: âMR. TAMBOURRINEE MAAAAN!!!â
William Shatner Performs âTheme from Cyrano/Mr. Tambourine Manâ
Itâs worth noting that both pop covers from this album would later be featured on the incomparable compilation album, Golden Throats, in 1988. These two Shatner tunes would be placed along other red hot club bangers like Leonard Nimoy singing âIf I Had a Hammer,â Mae West doing a take on âTwist and Shout,â and certainly not to be forgotten, Jim Naborsâ blistering rendition of âYou Are the Sunshine of My Life.â
After The Transformed Man, Shatner made a live album, appropriately titled William Shatner âLive!â in 1977, in which he brought his self-proclaimed one man show aspect to Hofstra University. In the liner notes, Shatner wrote of the album, âThe nightmare that all actors have from time to time is appearing naked in front of an audience â not knowing the lines, not knowing the play â I was living the dream.â
Though it doesnât seem like he performed the album naked (he is wearing clothes on the album cover, which features him speaking into a numerous quantity of microphones), Shatner did take this opportunity to do more spoken word, such as when he reads from H.G. Wellsâ War of the Worlds. He also took a bit of the time to address Star Trek: The Motion Picture in a track entitled âThe Movie.â
Despite rocking intellectuals with Cyrano de Bergerac and Wells on his live album, perhaps Shatnerâs most iconic moment in his career in âmusicâ came in 1978, in which he performed a special rendition of Elton Johnâs âRocket Manâ at the Science Fiction Film Awards. After the song was introduced by âRocket Manâ co-writer Bernie Taupin, the camera cuts to Shatner, who sings the famous Elton John song with his usual quality, turning the lyrics into a monologueâŚone that he eventually has with two other versions of himself, as little Shatner clones appear via TV magic at his side. Shatnerâs cover of the song struck a major chord with his audience, gaining it a special place in pop culture (perhaps youâve seen Family Guyâs tribute), and best of all, the performance was not met with laughter, but with applause.
William Shatner Performs âRocket Manâ
In 2004, Shatner released his second studio album, Has Been, which was produced by Ben Folds (Shatner had appeared on Ben Foldsâ odd Fear of Pop: Volume 1 project back in 1998). From even just the difference of titles between his first and second album, one could ascertain a huge difference between the two; the man who claimed to be transformed was now just a âhas been.â This feeling is also joked about on the second albumâs cover, as no longer is âCaptain Kirkâ gazing into the pretentious unknown, but instead with âHas Beenâ is covering his eyes with his hands in embarrassment, a single lone light bulb illuminating his presence.
The irony in Shatnerâs expression on this album cover is that Has Been is actually an endeavor to be proud of, and it is especially much more welcoming than The Transformed Man. This second album maintains Shatnerâs iconic delivery, but like a film director, producer Folds gives these tracks personality, with arrangements that can stand on their own as ear-involving instrumentations. Within the collaborations of Has Been, which feature Shatner speaking alongside singers like Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Brad Paisley and Folds, Shatner is not stepping on the toes of his musicians like with Transformed Man but standing with them.
While Shatnerâs special spoken word style is maintained, there is certainly a change in seriousness regarding the content, in which the artist eschews heavy Shakespearean references for much more informal monologues to his audience, and sometimes with a needed sense of humor. âYouâll Have Time,â for example, is probably the funniest gospel song ever written to have the repeated phrase, âYouâre going to die, youâre going to die, youâre going to die,â whilst accompanied by a laidback rhythm and choir. Or, thereâs the pretty awesome âI Canât Get Behind That,â which essentially features Shatner and Henry Rollins screaming back and forth about things they just canât . As one of a few nods to his place in pop culture, Shatner has the following lyric in the song: âI canât get behind so-called singers that canât carry a tune, get paid for talkingâŚhow easy is that? Well, maybe I can get behind that.â
The entire album isnât full of lighthearted songs, nor does Shatner forfeit his interest in serious poetry. A tune with Brad Paisley (which Paisley wrote specifically for Shatner) titled âRealâ closes the album, and was later used to close Shatnerâs play, âShatnerâs World: We Just Live in It.â A fully spoken word track, âWhat Have You Done?â has Shatnerâs distinct voice sharing more somber phrases, but packaged within such a well-balanced album, it doesnât fail to grab the listenerâs attention.
The spark that is Has Been later lead to the creation of a ballet called Common People, as written by Margo Sappington. Performed by the Milwaukee Ballet, Common People utilized songs from Shatnerâs second album, with the creation of this ballet documented by the documentary William Shatnerâs Gonzo Ballet, which was released in 2009.
William Shatner released his third and most recent studio album in 2011, titled Seeking Major Tom. With the cover featuring a goofily photoshopped Shatner head inside a spacesuit floating near a random rocket or whatever, this album marked another change in direction for Shatnerâs recording career, showing that Has Been was a path on the way down from the original high art of Shatnerâs first album. With Seeking Major Tom, Shatner works on a cheaper, kitschier level, with a collection of songs that are almost all about space, and are almost all covers. While he doesnât have the crucial presence of Ben Folds (and is working with a notably cheaper production value) the album does feature a long list of collaborators, including Peter Frampton, Zakk Wylde, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Brad Paisley, and Alan Parsons. With a track list that includes popular tracks like âBohemian Rhapsody,â âIron Man,â and even another rendition of âRocket Man,â Shatner showed with this third album that he is more interested in playing into cheesiness more so than any of the serious artful motivations from his previous two albums.
William Shatner performs âBohemian Rhapsodyâ
The golden voice of Shatner has certainly appeared in musical moments outside of his three albums; in 2005, he sang his own version of âMy Wayâ to George Lucas for the directorâs AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony (backed up by dancing Stormtroopers). His distinct style of singing has been used for various jokey segments on TV, from his performance of Cee Lo Greenâs âF**k Youâ on Lopez Tonight to âperformingâ Sarah Palinâs tweets on The Tonight Show with Conan OâBrien in 2009.
Whether Shatner eventually will lose his serious focus in spoken word to fully embracing kitsch or not, his recorded work stands as an unparalleled venture of a gifted Hollywood actor with a wholly unique voice. A surprising number of Hollywood actors have taken a stab at vocal performances, a much younger Clint Eastwood used to sing country tunes, Leonard Nimoy gave us âThe Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,â and Eddie Murphy wanted us to âParty All the Time.â However, none have done this with such Shatner-ness as Shatner. His work divides fans and non-fans between the categorizing of comedy or plain artistic insanity, Shatnerâs recordings stand apart those of his peers, his golden throat with its own bizarre glow amongst the stars.
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if thatâs your thing!