On the way home from work tonight I stopped and picked up William Shatner’s new album, Has Been. Now before anyone says, “oh no, not another Shatner album,” remembering his first such forays into the realm of music during his run as Captain Kirk in the ’60s, you should check it out first. This album is a brilliant departure from the first album.
The album features Shatner performing spoken word to a mix of pop, R and B, not to mention Rock and Roll. Although it lacks the brilliant Julius Caesar Rap that he recorded for the film Free Enterprise, the pieces cover a full range of styles and emotion.
I found the songs “That’s Me Trying” and “What Have You Done” to be full of emotion. I could tell that Shatner poured his heart and soul into these two poems set to music.
“That’s Me Trying” is a song about a father wanting to reunite with his estranged daughter, just to meet, get acquainted and do what a parent/child should do.
In “What Have You Done,” Shatner talks about the loss of his wife when she drowned in their pool several years ago, and one can definitely feel how much he aches for her loss.
The title song, “Has Been,” has a distinct Johnny Cash feel to it, definitely country western, and not at all what I expected on an otherwise pop/rock/rap album.
Whether Shatner is on a serious note, or touching on his humorous side in tracks like “You’ll Have Time” and “I Can’t Get Behind That,” Has Been is a brilliant album.
The spoken word to music is certainly a medium that Shatner is suited for, and succeeds at it beyond expectations.
Many of the songs were co-written by Shatner with Ben Folds (who plays piano throughout the album).
