I remember the first time I heard William Shatner interpret ”Lucy in the sky with diamonds”. It was on some collection of famous pekoral, but also there it stood out as a nysvullnad fläskläpp.
Rarely has a stillborn musical idea is expressed with the same övertända enthusiasm. William Shatner is the actor who does Captain Kirk in the original ”Star trek”, and when the tv series had its first breakthrough, he beat the 1968 coins of the fame by also record an lp.
he chose to recite the songs. In addition, he asked the contemporary pop classics from Dylan, Sinatra, and the Beatles towards texts from the history of theatre, in particular Shakespeare. In the big production with orchestra and choir, as Shatner does what he can to match with an actor’s entire arsenal of emphases, röstfärger, mood, konstpauser and sudden exclamations. Each line of text received a new, dramatic expression, sometimes every word.
Then came the cheeky choir and sang the chorus, tralala.
First, they believe it is not their ears, then it is not possible to forget. It is a kind of music rarely plays for himself but never gets enough of playing up for the other, to see their reactions.
not the end of William Shatners musical adventure. In parallel with the regularly named among the world’s worst records and worst cover versions he made over the years also small musical appearances in different television contexts. And the cult grew, not least among the famous musicians with a taste for the odd. In 2004, he released a new pop album, seventy-three years old, with the help of, among others, Ben Folds and Joe Jackson. 2011 com a to and 2013 further, with the prominent guests on every track.
And at eighty-seven, he has now given out julskivan ”Shatner Claus – the Christmas album” (Cleopatra/the Border), with guests like Iggy Pop, Billy Gibbons, Judy Collins, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley, Ian Anderson and Rick Wakeman. With the same hialösa överspel, although a bit more on the routine. But the same dizzying feeling that he might actually do it this seriously.
Read more musiktexter of Nils Hansson, for example, about how Ryley Walker succeeds in bringing to life in musikenb from the Dave Matthews Band.