I’m sorry to disappoint you
Listen: I get why people don’t take William Shatner seriously when it comes to music. He’s got a new album coming out this week in North America and there’s been plenty of people making jokes in the last week or so.
And why shouldn’t they? Shatner made his mark on music decades ago with his unfortunate album The Transformed Man, which sought to contrast modern pop songs with spoken-word Shakesperean text. The tracks feature nightmarishly awkward readings on classic pop songs like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Aside from Shatner’s vocals, they are generally unremarkable, straight-forward versions. But his trademark speak/sing performances are unnecessarily overdramatic and hackneyed, jumping the shark immediately into the waters of self-parody. The project was universally panned, though Shatner defended the experiment.
If you haven’t heard them follow the links above. Or, you can take George Clooney’s word for it. In an interview he once referenced The Transformed Man as one of his “desert island discs” (if you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose one record to listen to for the rest of your life…), saying:
“If you listen to [this song], you will hollow out your own leg and make a canoe out of it to get off this island.”
Yikes. But he’s sort of right. They’re so bad I would rather listen to Leonard Nimoy’s tribute to a certain adventurous hobbit.
But all that changed in 2004 when Shatner and piano rocker Ben Folds put out the album Has Been.
The collaboration with Folds is a powerful one. There are 11 original tracks here, spanning all genres. Folds and a small list of collaborators set engaging musical arrangements as a canvas for Shatner’s spoken word poems, a series of pieces that lay bare everything the man is and everything he feels he isn’t.
In a complete and utter contrast to The Transformed Man only one song here is a cover. The first song features Shatner and former New Wave superstar Joe Jackson taking on Pulp’s “Common People,” a song that puts Shatner into a more human, although economically inconsistent, bracket of society. He gives a spirited take on Jarvis Cocker’s timeless tale of a slumming trust fund princess and Jackson takes over when the vocal hooks are needed. It’s a high-energy opener that takes the tempo up a notch from the original. As fun as it is, however, it betrays the spirit of the rest of the album; a single was needed and it’s as good in that respect as it could be but it isn’t where Has Been’s real spirit lies.
“It hasn’t happened Yet” kicks off the meat of the record, a portrait of self-doubt that reveals how deeply unsure even an international superstar can feel. Despite decades of success across multiple fields Shatner starkly lays out his deepest doubts and fears against a back-drop of jazzy, minor key piano bar music. Barely whispering at times, Shatner bares his soul, admitting that he’s still looking for some of the most basic kinds of happiness or even contentment so many people take for granted. “That’s Me Trying” follows in a similar vein, with Shatner addressing a long-neglected daughter and admitting his shortfalls as a parent. Folds and Aimee Mann sing a tender chorus hook about “years of sadness” and coo background harmonies while Shatner admits he “doesn’t want to talk about the bad stuff,” just be pals and forget the pain of the past.
Mortality comes next. The far less somber “You’ll Have Time” insists that you won’t, really. It’s the old “dance like no one is watching” cautionary tale repackaged for Bill himself. “What Have You Done” is a dark, unaccompanied track where Shatner somberly recounts a woman’s drowning, pulling the bodies from the water. There’s no indication if this is fictional.
“Familiar Love” is a vaguely-humorous tale of domestic love, recounting a long life spent with a partner and lover. Shatner finds comfort, even excitement, in simple familiarity, discounting the pained awkwardness of one-night stands in the process. It’s a tender and touching moment of hope that is sorely needed after the last five tracks. “Ideal Woman” follows in an equally tender vein, albeit with a much more rock and roll backing track. Here he implores his lover to be herself, even if it means dancing on a table (well, maybe not on a table) and the occasional irrational temper tantrum (well, maybe not the temper tantrum).
Consider as well the title track, in which Shatner takes back the term “has been” by launching a dismissive attack against internet trolls that would seek to knock him down a peg. Set against a dusty spaghetti western tune, Shatner allows himself a moment of vengeance to try and correct people’s idea of who he really is as opposed to who they think he is. Taking back the power of such a put-down also allows him to look to the future and consider what lies ahead.
A personal favorite is the “duet” with Henry Rollins, a punk rock poetry slam about all the things that piss them off on a daily basis. It’s fun and furious, but not without a sense of humour. Shatner and Rollins are ideally paired, two men speaking passionately about the major and minor ills of the world from religion to gas prices to their kids saying “like” too much.
The closing track is perhaps the sweetest number on the whole record, coming from a very unexpected source. Brad Paisley is apparently a country music superstar these days but in 2004 he was still new to the scene. Lord only knows how and why he wrote a song specifically for William Shatner but he did and it’s a magnificent cap to the record. “Real” is a very straight-forward and gentle reading from Shatner where he lays it all on the line: yes, he admits, I’ve played a hero of space and time on the screen but I’m just a man like any other. The chorus vocal from Paisley lays the twang on a bit thick but he also injects the perfect amount of reluctance and regret into the lines, “I eat and sleep and breathe and feel/sorry to disappoint you, but I’m real.” It’s practically mind-blowing. I swear.
One gets the sense when listening to the record that motivation is everything. In my head, a greedy record executive in 1968 was looking to cash in on Shatner’s acting notoriety by exploitatively vaulting him into the recording business in a shameless money grab with no regard for the quality of product. With Folds’ it’s different; clearly no one expected anything from Shatner in a musical context but by embracing the idea of a serious product that actually had some introspection and consideration behind it they were able to deliver something that is completely engaging, human, and worthwhile.
I really doubt his upcoming album, Seeking Major Tom, will deliver the same thing. Folds doesn’t appear to be involved and it’s a double album that is entirely cover songs. I’m hoping for the best but I guess with Shatner you just never know what you’re going to get.
William Shatner - Real: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download William Shatner - The Transformed Man [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadGet Shatner’s various works from Amazon the dot com or iTunes dot whatever.
Make sure to listen to 91.3 fm CJTR’s Thursday Morning Show this week as well; we’ll be giving away five pairs of tickets to Shatner’s gig at Casino Regina on Friday night.
