CD Review: William Shatner 'Has Been'

Taken from
http://www.livedaily.com/news/7208.html

You can’t help but be puzzled when you hear that William Shatner has released an album. However, it becomes more of a surprise when you find out this isn’t the first time. The man most known as Captain Kirk released “The Transformed Man” in 1968, a psychedelic concoction of songs, poems and spoken-word musings that has bestowed a cult status on the album for its bewildering delivery of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds” among others.

Jump to the present. Shatner gains status as the Priceline.com spokesman and does some commercials with Ben Folds that brings back his spoken-word delivery with musical accompaniment. He later heads to Folds’ Nashville studio and with some help from Folds and friends; he releases “Has Been,” and embraces his past musings with a tongue in cheek attitude that actually works.

The album opens with Pulp’s “Common People” as Shatner deeply articulates the famous Britpop anthem’s opening lines (“She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge…”) as if he were James T Kirk again, and you suddenly wonder if Pulp’s singer, Jarvis Cocker, got some of his swagger from Mr. Shatner? With help from other famous musicians including Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins and Brad Paisley, this collection comes out fair enough.

Continuing with songs like the drunken delivery of “It Hasn’t Happened Yet” and the Nick Hornby-penned “That’s Me Trying”, Shatner gets all the enterprising surreal mockery off his chest and actually releases a decent album that wouldn’t work had it not been for his signature speaking voice. While he still can, Shatner can bare his soul with a little help from his friends and you can’t blame him for trying.