Shatner boldly goes back into the studio

November 03, 2004|Globe Staff

There are certain artistic endeavors that shouldn't work, but do, and we just can't explain why. Such is the case with "Has Been," the musical collaboration between actor William Shatner and pop songwriter Ben Folds, released earlier this month. Theirs is the sort of unholy coupling that screams novelty but promises little in the way of songs that a person might actually want to listen to, let alone take to heart. Shatner's last recording was 1968's "The Transformed Man," which featured conceptually elusive spoken-word interpretations of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and "Mr. Tambourine Man." To the question of why he waited 35 years to make his second album, Shatner, on the phone from Los Angeles, replies succinctly but not bitterly: "Nobody asked me."

During the intervening decades, Shatner famously commanded the Starship Enterprise, pitched for Priceline.com, and landed a plum role on "The Practice" and "Boston Legal." And let's not forget "T.J. Hooker." Between gigs, the actor endured long dry spells. So one might reasonably assume that Folds, a respected craftsman and incorrigible wise guy, was attracted to this project much in the way a comic is drawn to a good joke. One would be wrong.

At the tender age of 17, captivated by Shatner's debut album, the budding composer wrote a song that he dreamed Captain Kirk might someday orate. When he scored his first hit, 1997's "Brick," Folds used his newfound leverage to fulfill his fantasy, hiring Shatner to mutter suave poetry on his solo debut, 1998's "Fear of Pop, Vol. 1." They became close friends. Shatner says that Folds has an "appealing psyche." Folds calls Shatner his "show-biz dad." "He sounds so big. He sounds so great," says Folds, who produced and wrote the music on "Has Been," attempting to explain Shatner's gift. "He's been up and down and revered and kicked, and he's just full of life. He doesn't know why it works. And he's smart enough not to want to know."

Shatner doesn't sing. He speaks. He speaks in. That unmistakably clipped and. Halting Shatnerian. Flow. There's no confusing Shatner with Leonard Nimoy, and his crooning Vulcan baritone, or Lieutenant Uhura (a.k.a. Nichelle Nichols), whose jazz chops evoke a less-distant musical dimension. Shatner, whose repertoire has up to now included exclusively material written by others, has, at the age of 73, discovered his inner lyricist. There's only one cover song on "Has Been," a mind-boggling, album-opening recitation of Pulp's "Common People" set to Folds's savage little synthesizers with guest vocals from Joe Jackson and a volunteer choir from Louisville.