Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

May 13, 2005 10:56 AM

Shatner [QuickTime]
posted by Pretty_Generic (24 comments total)

old
posted by CCK at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2005

That whole Shatner thing... tired.
posted by xmutex at 11:02 AM on May 13, 2005

Shatner: He's the Shat ! ! ! Yeeeeooooowwww ! ! !

Also pick up his new album 'Has Been' and listen to 'You're Gonna Die'. Hilarious (^_^)
posted by mk1gti at 11:09 AM on May 13, 2005

You know what's really old and tired? People jumping all over themselves to declare things old and tired.
posted by spock at 11:09 AM on May 13, 2005

I jumped all over no one.
posted by xmutex at 11:16 AM on May 13, 2005

That whole xmutex thing... tired.
posted by eustacescrubb at 11:25 AM on May 13, 2005

"spock" / "Shatner"...coincidence??? I think not...
posted by HuronBob at 11:31 AM on May 13, 2005

YO METAFILTA BE PLAYED OUTS
posted by stenseng at 11:31 AM on May 13, 2005

Shatner!
posted by Witty at 11:35 AM on May 13, 2005

Link busted. Old album, though, if it's the LSD cover. I remember it.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:47 AM on May 13, 2005

I liked his "Common People" much better...
posted by Debaser626 at 12:04 PM on May 13, 2005

Yeah, the whole album is pretty funny. How about "I Can't Get Behind That" ?
posted by mk1gti at 12:13 PM on May 13, 2005

It's a video for it, which is about 2 weeks old apparently.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 12:31 PM on May 13, 2005

Well, I hadn't seen it before and I liked it! Dare I say it borught back memories? (Flashbacks, anyone?) ;-)
posted by Lynsey at 12:31 PM on May 13, 2005

Common People is actually a song by Pulp -- but it's a pretty rad cover of it that Shatner does.
posted by ScotchLynx at 12:38 PM on May 13, 2005

Yeah, I think all the songs on the album are covers, as is the duet with Henry Rollins in 'Can't Get Behind That'. Funny. As. Hell.
posted by mk1gti at 5:54 PM on May 13, 2005

Props to the artists who helped out the ole' Shatman.
posted by mk1gti at 5:55 PM on May 13, 2005

Where's the Priceline ads (We Gotta Get Outta This Place, etc)?
posted by rolypolyman at 6:03 PM on May 13, 2005

Shatman Crothers?
posted by petebest at 6:04 PM on May 13, 2005

Someone put some work into that, and I think it rocked. Sign of the times: I kept tallying in my head the number of potential copyright violations as they appeared on the screen. If MCAA and RIAA have their way, creativity, including parody, with be for none but their anointed, and those who pay through the nose.
posted by squirrel at 6:57 PM on May 13, 2005

Lucy Van Pelt. That part, I dug.
posted by Hanover Phist at 7:05 PM on May 13, 2005

Stardate 4101266 inferred that log is played out and tired, have referenced episode 15 of TJ Hooker as proof I'd kick any pimple pseudo intellectual beatches behind if they talked smack about my MC skills.
posted by Mr Bluesky at 9:03 PM on May 13, 2005

You can't beat Shatner's version of Rocket Man. That something so awful was broadcast is a testament to the power of cocaine. The fact that it's introduced by Bernie Taupin just kind of makes it worse.
posted by dodgygeezer at 12:15 AM on May 14, 2005

Pulp's "Common People" is indeed the standout song from the album, where he has help from Joe Jackson. But all the other songs are original collaborations between Shatner, who wrote the lyrics, and Ben Folds, who fashioned the songs, with some help from Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley, and Nick Hornby. Personally, I like "You'll Have Time", in which he proclaims

You're gonna die
Einstein? Dead. Joey Ramone? Dead.

and the track "What Have You Done" in which he ruminates over finding his drowned wife is creepy as hell, because it's fucking sixteen times more real than anything else.

rolypolyman: Amazon has their own version, with Shatner reading off Amazon reviews of his album. Worth a chuckle, but he mentions Amazon about fifteen times in as many seconds.

The very existence of his Transformed Man album is a window into a media culture so different from today. (See my LSD album post.) There was no internet; the record industry was at its peak, with little corporate centralization and cheap reproduction. The oddities available on vinyl in that era are only rivaled by the oddities now found on the net. The question we immediately ask of a CD today, why would anyone release this? is it commercial enough? doesn't apply to websites, which are a better comparison to the LP business.
posted by dhartung at 12:41 AM on May 14, 2005