The Atrocious Music Collection: #10 in a series
Artist: William Shatner (b. 1931)
Album Title: The Transformed Man
Category: CelebrityYear: 1968
Cover art style: Captain Kirk confronting the god-like alien
Audio samples: Acquisition: Gift, ca. 1992
Click on pictures for full-sized images
The Transformed Man could be considered the gold standard of celebrity albums. It is certainly one of the most famous, and the level of sincerity revealed by William Shatner’s work on this is second-to-none. ("Sincerity" being the coin of a celebrity album’s worth.) I would argue, though, that due to the singular vision of the artist behind it, and the manner of its execution, The Transformed Man stands outside the pantheon of celebrity albums, a singular achievement, that rarest of beasts: the celebrity concept album.
The gifting of The Transformed Man to me was post-Atrocious Music Party by several years, but everyone there knew of this legendary album. It seemed most people knew about it, frankly. Somehow, even pre-internet, it was part of our collective consciousness, floating around in the general zeitgeist. As several songs appear on the Golden Throats records (which I did own at the time), Shatner was certainly a big part of the A.M. party even if we didn’t have the album itself. The one-of-a-kind crescendo-cry “Mr. Tambourine Man!” that ends Shatner’s version of Dylan’s song echoed in the night as attendees said their goodbyes to each other.
I have mixed feelings about having this on CD. It seems an improper medium for the collection. Too shiny. Too digital. It was simply the times, I know, but The Transformed Man became the first CD in the Collection, alongside Leonard Nimoy’s Highly Illogical (given to me at the same time). With these two 120 millimeter-diameter discs, the Collection had entered a new phase, and I’m not sure it ever fully recovered.
But that’s just personal history – The Transformed Man was some 25 years old by the time I acquired it, and, as I’ve said, was legendary. What is great about these old albums was the amount of text that would typically be added. The back of the album has a long narrative by Shatner about his love of music and how the album came to be. Meanwhile, the tie-in with Star Trek (where Shatner was, of course, Captain James T. Kirk) is front-and-center, just in case anyone had any doubts about who this album was for. Fan boys and Trekkies notwithstanding, it’s the program, explained by producer Don Ralke, that seals the deal. I quote it in full:
"The idea of grouping the numbers together in pairs is to unfold multiple perspectives of the same subject, like the two sides of a coin, tension and resolution. For example, in King Henry The Fifth (Track 1) the intense speech inciting the soldiers to battle is contrasted with the quiet and poignant aftermath of war in Elegy for the Brave [Track 2]. The other parts follow a similar design.”
The other tracks are then listed with their related characteristics. I’ve added the track names as well to help clarify the point.
- Tracks 3 (Theme from Cyrano) and 4 (Mr. Tambourine Man): confident self-assurance – total psychopathic subservience
- Tracks 5 (Hamlet) and 6 (It Was a Very Good Year): a desire for death – the joy of living
- Tracks 7 (Romeo and Juliet) and 8 (How Insensitive [Insensatez]): fresh young love – insensitivity
- Tracks 9 (Spleen) and 10 (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds): utter dejection – super elation
- The Transformed Man (track 11) stands alone because of its contrasting three movement form: earthly unreality – transitional awareness – contract with divinity.
(I’m pretty sure that’s supposed to be “contact with divinity,” but who knows. Maybe it’s a reversal of the universal tale of making a deal with the devil – the ol’ “contract with the devil” morphing into a “contract with divinity.” And I should also point out that the CD reproduces the original LP album copy faithfully, including the misprint, corrected above, where tracks 1 and 2 are called “confident” and “psychopathic,” and tracks 3 and 4 are just not listed.)
Shatner’s concept is far more complex and detailed than 90% of all those art-rock concept albums. “Pink struggles with his place in society and builds a wall around himself.” “A deaf, dumb, blind kid plays a mean pinball and starts a cult.” “Ziggy falls to Earth and questions our assumptions about sexuality and rock-n-roll.” You get my point. I’m not saying the concept makes any sense, mind you. Just understand that it made sense to Shatner, and he fully embraces these extremes of emotion, in the style of overacting that is his trademark.
Don’t forget, this is the guy who performed a complicated, three-personality rendition of Rocket Man during the Science Fiction Film Awards in 1978 . A man with a plan, indeed.
Look, I’m not qualified to judge the scenes from the plays, aside from noting they have been “Shatnerized.” I guess Kenneth Branagh does a better job with the Shakespeare stuff, but I don’t really care. That’s not why we bought this album. We bought it because we want to hear the Shatner treatment given to the SONGS: The Beatles’ Lucy, Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man, Sinatra’s It Was a Very Good Year, and the bossa nova Insensatez. Shatner can overact an office memo, so given the poetry of Dylan and Lennon, he goes into the stratosphere of exagger - a - tion... and ...draMA - tic … < > … Pauses.
Most importantly, Shatner’s sincerity shines through. He means every word, every pause, every UNusual acCENT. That’s what makes this album great. You will not grow tired of these interpretations, the true test of truly great atrocious music.
Thirty-six years after The Transformed Man, Shatner released the Ben Folds-produced Has Been, and proved that his style is not inherently the issue. I dare you to listen to Shatner's version of Common People and not like it. Heck, if you haven’t heard it before, I dare you to listen to it and not hit “repeat.”
David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap said it best: “There’s a fine line between stupid and clever.” And both can be highly enjoyable.