Yeah, yeah, I'm dusting off all the old sections and shaking them out in the garden, giving them a good airing. Ain't you never had a spring clean?
Anyway this one comes about for other reasons too. Allow me to explain. Some time back now someone in Music Banter recommended to the community at large William Shatner's (yeah, that one) 2004 album "Has been", and asked that we put our derision at his lambasted debut effort out of our minds and give the guy a chance, because the album was interesting. I downloaded it but never quite got around to listening to it until yesterday, when, I must say, though my mind wasn't quite blown I may have had to replace a few fuses. It's not the most incredible album ever recorded --- but then, you surely never expected that, nor did I --- but it's a long way from the worst. In fact, it's really ... what's the best word that describes this ... oh yeah ... interesting.
So where's my review of it, you ask? What? How dare you demand reviews of me! Okay, it's coming, probably sooner than you might expect --- probably sooner than
I might expect! --- but not today. For right now I want to introduce you to the opening track, which is a cover --- the only one, you may be surprised to hear, as was I, on the album --- and it's of Pulp's wonderful classic. You probably know by now, if you have any sort of passing familiarity with Shatner's musical work (using the term loosely) that he can't sing. He speaks the lyrics, almost like poems, but it's undeniable that he has a very arresting and unique voice, so this makes it more interesting (there's that word again!) to listen to than, say, a spoken-word album by Clint Eastwood
(perish the thought! No, no, Clint! You're all right! You've given us years of fine films, and directed some. No need to get into the music business. No, really. Please. Go on, make my day...) and is actually akin to listening to a poetry reading set to music.
But all of this will be discussed in my upcoming review of "Has been". For now, have a listen to his version of "Common people", and as ever I've included the original for comparison. Or just because you should never need an excuse to listen to this song. Incidentally, the chorus on the Shat's version is sung by the one and only Joe Jackson.