William "Cpt. James T. Kirk" Shatner has often been pilloried for his 1968 album 'The Transformed Man' which featured cover-versions of recent hits performed in his own inimitable style of dramatic interpretation, making every phrase sound as if it should be followed by an exclamation mark. For example, 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds': "Picture Yourself! In A Boat! On A River! With Tangerine Trees! And Marmalade Skies!"
However, old Bill appears to be able to laugh at himself and has continued to spoof his style in various commercials and at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards (where he performed all 5 of the Best Song From A Movie nominees). In 1995 in teamed up with Ben Folds to produce another album 'Has Been', the only cover this time being Pulp's 'Common People' which also featured Joe Jackson (of 'Different For Girls', 'Is She Really Going Out With Him?', 'Stepping Out' fame). For some reason, the dramatic reading actually works here either because the source material is so good or because the verses have little melody anyway. Funnily enough, 'Has Been' got pretty good reviews and became the basis for a ballet (choreographed by Margo Sappington, best remembered for 'Oh! Calcutta!') also called 'Common People'. Who said "Pop Will Eat Itself"?
Bonus Clips: Here's the aforementioned 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds':
... and just in case you thought this cheese was limited to Cpt. Kirk, here's one of Leonard Nimoy's contributions to popular music:
No comments:
Post a Comment