Slashdot Mirror
Shatner to Record Another Album
s20451 writes "Slashdotters may remember Canadian actor William Shatner from such hit TV shows as T. J. Hooker and Rescue 911; he was also known to dabble in science fiction. Shatner released an album, The Transformed Man, in 1968. Intending the album to be taken seriously, it is now held up as one of the campiest recordings of all time, including the worst Beatles cover ever produced. Now a new album is in the works, featuring joint work with Ben Folds, Henry Rollins, and Brad Paisley. More on Ananova."
Star Trek was originally supposed to be a show about a bunch of rabbis in a synagogue. He said to the producers, 'instead of a synagogue, how about if the show is in outer space?' They said, 'okay.' And that's pretty much how it happened.
"When we did TJ Hooker I used to tell my co-star Adrian Zmed that he should change his name, like I did - from William Zmed."
"I tell people I have a 34 inch waist, but it's really 35."
"How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It's simple. I drink the blood of young runaways."
[Compiled from Conan O'Brien]
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
The only reason he stayed alive all these years was because he wore a Gold shirt and used the Red shirts as human shields! Bah!
"I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-170...(some audience members say "one"), or own a phaser. And I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock. And no, I've never had green alien sex, though I'm sure it would be quite an evening. ("Pomp And Circumstances" begins playing) I speak English and French, NOT KLINGON! I drink Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me 'Live long and prosper', I seriously mean it when I say, 'Get a life'. My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's Ginsberg. And Tribbles were PUPPETS, not real animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever talk like every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was raised in Montreal. And yes, I've gone where no man has gone before, but I was in Mexico and her father gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!"
Oh my god! It's another sign of the apocalypse! We're doomed!!!!
This story was posted under the "Music" category. Clearly this is not going to qualify as "music" by any sane standard. I hereby request that Slashdot create a "Sign of the Apocalypse" category for any story that involves William Shatner "singing."
The logo for the "Sign of the Apocalypse" should obviously be a tambourine, man.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
let this be one last, desparate effort to capture the Least Tasteful Slashdot Story of 2003 award.
Someone you trust is one of us.
The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins sung by Leonard Nimoy. i am cold, so very cold...
Shatner already did a couple new songs with Ben Folds on Ben's solo "Fear of Pop" release -- which, despite my love of Ben's other work, remains a real clunker of an album. And the Shatner songs were among the more interesting, if I recall correctly. (Can you tell that I didn't play it more than twice?)
Cheesy, or over the top.
I don't know. I saw Vanilla Ice live back in 2001 at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY, and he covered Strawberry Fields Forever. This was when he was in his nu-metal phase. Shatner's version was hilarious. the Iceman's was sad and only slightly hilarious.
I.
Cant.
Take.Much more of this!
Apocalypse .. imminent! Must .. warn .. the world! Somehow .. life .. being drained .. from my body!
A AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *gasp* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
OK, now I lent out my copy to a co-worker years and years ago and never got it back. Anyone who worked the call center at IBM in RTP, NC in '96-'98 who borrowed it... you want to return it? I've solely missed hearing his rendition of "Mister Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" for several years now.
I wonder will he do any covers of songs by Shaka KHAAAAAAAAN!!!
-- I Am Not A Terrorist.
Comic book guy: "Stop right there. I have the only working phaser in existence. It was fired once, to prevent William Shatner from making another album."
What Affleck and J-Lo did for the silver screen, Shatner will do in the record buisness...
Neverhtheless, Shatner is a comedic genius, especially if he is being serious!
Nuclear war would really set back cable. - Ted Turner
From the article:
Shatner has made a living in recent years by spoofing his own overdramatic acting style.
Did you see him on Conan a couple years ago, dancing and worshipping O'Brien? He was making such a fool of himself Conan couldn't get a single slam in.
He's ridiculous... like a fox.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
See? You Kazaa addicts couldn't quit while you were ahead, could you? Now RIAA's fighting back, and it's fighting dirty. You think those lawsuits on 12-year-olds were their ultimate weapon? They were just the warm-up act.
A new album from William Shatner? What next, Leonard Nimoy following up his musical tribute to Bilbo Baggins with one to the Fellowship? An album of medical-related cover versions (Something's Got A Hold Of My Heart, etc) from DeForest Kelly?
Do you see what Star Trek-related madness you file swappers have unleashed upon us all?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
That would be G. W. Bush, searching for the WMD and invading Shatner's house. Expect Kofi, France and Germany to go along this time.
Come to think of it, this would be like the Monty Python Joke Weapon sketch, wouldn't it?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
just about every "cast recording aside from nichelle nicoles and the girl who played the dabo girl who married Nom from ST DS9 who actually are wonderful singers and sang backup for a lot of other singers after their respective shows ends.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
If Pat Boone singing heavy metal didn't trigger it, then another Shatner album isn't going to hurt anybody (well, probably not permanently, anyway...)
I remember some years back listening to the Howard Stern show, and he played clips of several ST cast members doing song covers. The one I remember the most is Leonard Nimoy doing a cover of Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line". Yeow.
You people have no one but yourselves to blame!
William Shatner recorded a couple of bad records, what, back in the Sixties? Longer ago than most Slashdotters have been alive. Since then he's done a couple of appearances on SNL and that thing with Fear of Pop, written some bad novels, some priceline commercials... not exactly a man constantly in the public eye, despite, perhaps, his best efforts to the contrary.
And yet, whenever a discussion of Shatner comes up, it seems everyone shouts "Yeah, Captain Kirk, sure, but did you know he recorded Mister Tambourine Man! Mister... Tambourine...Man!" (Doing the wildly exaggerated "Captain Kirk" impression which, despite watching a lot of classic Star Trek, I've never actually seen him do.)
The fact that people can't seem to stop talking about a musical recording he made four decades ago probably gave him the idea that that's what his "fans" wanted. Way to go, guys!
I see one of two things happening here:
1) It will be so bad it will finally kill off the immortal cachet generated by his original recordings back in the 60s.
2) It will be so bad it will make him immortal for another forty years.
Personally, I hope it's the latter. The world would be a more boring place without William Shatner.
Really. It is that bad. I'd listen to an endless loop of RMS quarter-toning "The Free Software Song" before I'd willingly listen to Shatner again, although I'd prefer Leonard Nimoy's "If I Had A Hammer" to either of them.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I for one am stoked. I think I may be the only person that likes Transformed Man on it's own merits (although I do like the camp factor as well). I searched long and hard for one of the original LPs. I also have the Leonard Nimoy records. Now those are truly terrible. Nimoy makes Shatner sound like Andrea Bocelli.
>Someone obviously hasn't heard Tiny Tim's
>rendition of "Hey Jude"!
Sure, but even that is not as bad as Shatner's "Lucy". Neither is as bad as Nimoy's "Mr. Tambourine Man". And NOTHING compares to "Bilbo... Bilbo Baggins... only three feet tall...." Gah.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
The man is totally devoid of shame, sort of like a fat guy on the beach in a speedo.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I watched this a while back, when the Fellowship movie came out. Call me crazy (and yeah, you will by the time I'm done here), but I actually find that video kind of charming in its own stupid, campy way.
I mean, it's bad -- really terrible -- anyone talking about Jackson's interpretation of LotR making Tolkien roll over in his grave really ought to have a gander at this.
But I find a kind of endearing naivete in the way this is put together... "Let's have Leonard Nimoy sing a song about Bilbo Baggins, and put him in a junkyard with a bunch of teenaged girls... and here at the part where he's describing all these battles and adventures, let's just have the kids throw some crap up in the air. That's kind of like re-enacting a battle. Here, take this piece of plastic junk, that looks like a ring... have Leonard toss that around awhile. Yeah, yeah."
And then someone put money into it (granted, not much). And produced it. And shot it. And put it on the air.
If they made something like this today (shudder), it would be awash in irony and campy winks to the audience. I think whomever made this genuinely thought it would be entertaining as presented... which, again, is so innocent I think it's great.
The entertainment media we get these days is, for the most part, slickly produced and well-budgeted, maybe even well-written if you're lucky. This dippy little movie is none of these and still gives it all it's got.
Yeah, I know, I'm weird.
dec 11-2003
I have been in Nashville for a little over a week playing with William Shatner---that guy is amazing...everyday has been a different lineup of people---the main core is Ben Folds-Sebastian Steinberg-John Painter-and me but last night was surreal--I played a improv drum solo to Shatner and Henry Rollins ranting and Adrian Belew freaking on his guitar--wow! a couple of days ago it was Joe Jackson and the group doing some Jazzy improvs to Shatners words-----reality is stranger than fiction---bye---Matt C
There's also an archived Shatner interview at The Onion AV Club where he briefly touches on the original recording he did and why he approached it in that particular fashion.
Considering the fact that he starred in one of the greatest all Esperanto movies ever created, I'd have thought that he'd mention the universal language as well.
Shatner: I'm...Slim Shady. Yes. I'm the real Shady. All you other Slim Shady's, are just imitating. So, won't the real Slim Shady ...please stand up ...please stand up ...please stand up.
Koenig: How can you do a spoken word version of a rap song?
Melllvar: He found a way.
http://eil.com/shop/artistlist.asp?artistname=will iam-shatner
I have it, and it is for die-hards only. Most of the 2 lp offering his Billiam talking about himself. Not as funny as Transformed man or "In Love"
Nothing can top Shatner rapping in "Free Enterprise"
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Spock, how many ways are there to be killed on this planet?
Approximately five, Captain.
Very good, Mr. Spock. You, myself, and five security guards will beam down. Um, Wadsworth, you and your men beam down ahead of us and we'll be down in a minute.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Wait till RIAA uses this as a metric for record sales.
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
Is there any limit to what those evil Canadians will do? My guess is no. At least they gave us Jim Carey, wait....
I think we would all like to see more Shatner Star Trek. Either in a starring role or as a director. There is just something TNG-DS9-Voy, ect are just missing from TOS.
I want my captain to be a womanizing manwhore fucking green aliens around the universe. Not some pansy bald headed geriatric who flys around with pinochio and Klingons that have butts on their forheads (we never did find out WHY Klingons had such a drastic change in appearance, other than worf saying "It's something we don't like to talk about")
I could go on and on about what I don't like about the new ST stuff, like Janeway from Voyager, why does she sound like she smokes 2 packs a day, yet we never see her light up? Or why does scott bakula have a dog on enterprise? How come Cisco never puts the beat down on that Ferengi bar he KNOWS would sell out the station for a few bars of gold pressed latinum?
Please....For the love of....God.... Bring us back our captain. With the cost of special effects so cheap these days, i'm sure something really cool could be produced for less than they spend on these new series.
In the last entry of his three-part autobiography (GET A LIFE), he explains that his ST:TOS delivery was a combination of influences, one being a play he was in years before that had everyone practically asleep every show. Bill said that he decided to turn everything up a notch to see what would happen. So, "I'd love some coffee" became "I'd LOVE...some COFFEE!" and right away, people were sitting up straight in their seats because the intensity was contagious. As for the...famouspause, he said that that was caused in part by dealing with the mind-numbing dialogue and the sheer volume of it they had to memorize every week, so, when you...hear...oneofthosepauses, you know that that's actually Bill trying to come up with his line.
I highly recommend both the STAR TREK MEMORIES books and GET A LIFE because it gives you an idea of where the actors' heads were at at the time the series was being made. Bill also tells some fascinating stories about things that have happened in more recent years related to the show.
I saw the video for that a few months ago, and your comment made me want to see it again, so... here it is, for posterity:
Leonard Nimoy's "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"
Check it out if you have not seen it before... it's very strange. Spock dancing around singing about Bilbo, surrounded by shrugging girls in colored sweatshirts with giant weird buttons on them. Couldn't see what most of them said, but one says "What's a Hobbit?" and another is "Frodo Lives!"... and one on some girl's back was something about Leonard Nimoy in the U.N. Also, at the very end Leonard puts one on that says "What's a Leonard Nimoy?"
Trippy.
Hi... I'm Larry... the shivering chipmunk... brrrrr!... I'm cold... I need a sweater...
Animaniacs, which probably had the highest concentraion of Star Trek refences of any animation exept for the Simpson, did a wonderful episode called 'Karaoke-Dokie'. It was one of the best parodies of Shanter and Nimoy, rendering both in full Star Trek style. In it Willie Slakmer and Lenny Neeboy present their particular brand of music. Absolutely hilarious.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
There is ANOTHER William Shatner album called "Capitain of the Ship". It features Mr. Shatner on the cover holding an upside-down tripod and looking very, well, Shatnery. You can find out more here.