{"id":188078,"date":"2018-11-03T02:56:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T06:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=188078"},"modified":"2018-11-03T02:56:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T06:56:30","slug":"william-shatners-musical-mission-despite-not-able-really-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/03\/william-shatners-musical-mission-despite-not-able-really-sing\/","title":{"rendered":"William Shatner’s on a musical mission, despite not being able to really sing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI’m scared, I’m frightened, by how good I think the album is,\u201d says the 87-year-old TV icon. (File Photo By Supercon Conventions\/Wikimedia <\/a>commons, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 When it comes to talking about his new album, William Shatner is like a kid on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m scared, I’m frightened, by how good I think the album is,\u201d says the 87-year-old TV icon.<\/p>\n

Shatner made the comments last August when he was in Toronto guest starring on the Jason Priestley\/Cindy Sampson detective drama \u201cPrivate Eyes.\u201d He reprises a role he previously played on the Global series as a rival private investigator. The episode will air next year.<\/p>\n

The new Christmas CD, \u201cShatner Claus,\u201d features mainly holiday standards such as \u201cJingle Bells,\u201d \u201cLittle Drummer Boy\u201d and \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d Earlier this year, he released a country album \u2014 \u201cWhy Not Me?\u201d \u2014 a collaboration with Alabama’s Jeff Cook.<\/p>\n

Two albums in one year? Not bad for a guy who admits he can’t really sing.<\/p>\n

What the Montreal native does is interpret song lyrics as if they were poetry, wringing out meaning while surrounded by talented musicians and singers who carry the melodies. In the case of \u201cWhat About Me?\u201d it is a blend of Shatner’s urgent, spoken-word style, infused with Cook’s country twang.<\/p>\n

It’s an experiment in music that began in 1968. That’s when Shatner, then rocketing to fame as the captain of the starship Enterprise on the original \u201cStar Trek,\u201d recorded \u201cThe Transformed Man.\u201d To reviewers at the time, his halting, high-volume take on Bob Dylan’s \u201cMr. Tambourine Man\u201d and The Beatles’ \u201cLucy in the Sky with Diamonds\u201d sounded like bad trips.<\/p>\n

Shatner wasn’t the only \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor to release what would later be considered a camp classic. His cast mates Leonard Nimoy (who took a wild whack at \u201cIf I Had a Hammer\u201d) and Nichelle Nichols also recorded albums.<\/p>\n

It was 36 years before Shatner tried again. His collaboration with producer Ben Folds on 2004’s \u201cHas Been,\u201d however, was warmly received by many critics. That was four albums ago, as the actor continues to boldly go on a musical mission that has lasted 50 years and counting.<\/p>\n

If anything, Shatner’s voice sounds better with age, or, as one reviewer put it, \u201cas soothing as a warm cup of eggnog.\u201d On the new album, Shatner says he’s tried to \u201cbend the Christmas music a little bit, give it a little slant that an actor might give it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes teaming with Iggy Pop on a not-so \u201cSilent Night,\u201d amplified on a robust punk rock reprise of the same tune with actor\/singer\/commentator Henry Rollins.<\/p>\n

Giving punk rock spins to Christmas classics might not be on everyone’s Christmas list. Some might prefer listening to Judy Collins take over on vocals on \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d Shatner also gets festive with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons on \u201cRudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d and does jingle jam sessions with keyboardist Rick Wakeman (from Yes), guitarist Todd Rundgren, flutist Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) and singer Brad Paisley on a countrified \u201cBlue Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The all-star collaborators are as eclectic and unique as snowflakes. \u201cWe get into rock and roll,\u201d says Shatner, \u201cand I have these great artists, working with me, great musicians working on each song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor is most proud of one song that came about through a random charity connection. Shatner, who breeds and shows American Saddlebreds and Quarter horses on his Kentucky ranch, met a former marine at The Hollywood Charity Horse Show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis guy wrote incredibly beautiful poetry,\u201d says Shatner, \u201cbut they were all about how ugly battle is and how fearful it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shatner asked the soldier if he could write something for a Christmas album. He did, and Shatner took the poem to his producers at Cleopatra Records. He said to the orchestrator, \u201cThere’s a military thing here, and then, he has sadness and there’s a battle?\u201d The result is the album’s sole original track, \u201cOne for You, One for Me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is how, says Shatner, \u201cthere is embedded in this Christmas album, an epic poem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throw a captain’s log on the fire and listen.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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