Yesterday, the world ran out into the streets to celebrate the 80th birthday of Canadian acting legend William Shatner. And while many fans will one day come to remember William Shatner for his memorable performances as T.J. Hooker, and, of course, Captain Kirk in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” I would personally like to remember Shatner for his influential and illustrious music career (this is a music blog after all).
Working with the likes of Joe Johnson, Ben Folds, and Peter Frampton, William Shatner has delivered many instant classics like “It Hasn’t Happened Yet” and “The Lady is a Tramp.” With his ingenious fusion of spoken word, jazz and pop, Shatner has gone to a place that can only be described as “where no man has gone before”. But long before his critically acclaimed album “Has Been” and his cover of Pulp’s “Common People,” he covered the likes of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Sit back and relax as I warp speed you back in time for this week’s Record Rewind, Shatner’s “The Transformed Man”.
His 1968 solo debut, “The Transformed Man”, is a concept album combining covers of contemporary pop hits with the words of famous poets, including another man with the same initials, William Shakespeare. Sung in Shatner’s over-the-top, spoken-word style, The Transformed Man is beyond hilarious. Shatner starts the album off with a powerful performance of Act 3, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s play “Henry V,” and it never lets up after that. His mash-up of the Charles Baudelaire poem “Spleen” and The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is just short of masterful. Bob Dillon’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” may never have been performed better. The highlight of The Transformed Man may be Shatner’s nightmarish and gut-wrenching rendition of Shakespeare’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy, featured in the track “Hamlet/It Was a Very Good Year”
While many still do not appreciate the musical spectacle that is The Transformed Man—ranked 45th in Q Magazine’s top 50 worst albums ever–it still represents a pinnacle of unintentional humor. And when it comes down to it, William Shatner has gone on to do better things, while fellow Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy is still suffering from “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.”
Read Record Rewind every Wednesday only on J.A.M.
Have a Shatastic day. Go Aztecs!
