Wiliam Shatner’s Has Been

I was running late this morning and in a crabby mood because I had nothing to wear.

As I set out walking to work, I hit the Shuffle Songs button on the iPod. The first song that came on was Nelly’s Ride Wit Me, which I promptly skipped. The first song off William Shatner’s newest album Has Been was next. And it immediately brightened my day.

Shatner’s version of Pulp’s Common People is a truly terrible song. A terribly terrific song. Here’s a snippet:

She came from Greece,
she had a thirst for knowledge.
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College.
That’s where I caught her eye.

She told me that her Dad was loaded.
I said, in that case I’ll have a rum and coca-cola.
She said fine, and in thirty seconds time she said,

I want to live like common people.
I want to do whatever common people do.
I want to sleep with common people.
I want to sleep with common people, like you.

Well, what else could I do?
I said, I’ll see what I can do.

And he sings (well, speaks) it with complete sincerity. I can see him patting himself on the back for the supreme acting job he does on this song.

The album is a bizarre mashup of sincere vulnerabilty, character portrayal, super cheesiness, and self-mockery. Song for song, its hilarious. You start to feel bad laughing at Captain Kirk pouring his heart out to his estranged daughter in That’s Me Trying (Are these family probelms real? I don’t know. Does it really matter? I’m not sure.) and then he comes along with the loungey You’ll Have Time:

Live Life
Life life like you’re gonna die
Because you’re going to
Oh yes
I hate to be the beater of bad news
But you’re gonna die

And gives you license to laugh directly at him.

You can never tell if he’s being real on any song on the album. And I think that’s what makes it so fun. You find yourself asking, “Does he really realize the irony when a television star sings a song about class envy?” I truly can’t tell. Surely he must. “Does he really think the world needs a duet with Henry Rollins about how life little annoyances can really make you mad?” Is this guy for real? He can’t be. But how can you make yourself sound so sincere while making fun of yourself on every other song?

Acting!

He closes the album with the country song “Real.”

And while there’s a part of me
In that guy you’ve seen
Up there on that screen
I am so much more
And I wish I knew the things you think I do
I would change this world for sure
But I eat and sleep and breathe and bleed and feel
Sorry to disappoint you
But I’m real

I guess there’s my answer, right? Like I said before, it doesn’t matter what Shatner’s intent is. It doesn’t matter if he made this sublime and layered album purely by accident or on purpose. He made it, it exists, and it definantly belongs on the underrated list.