I've been listening to this for two days so far. Not none-stop, but probably more than I should; I'm a self-concious seventeen year old and so shouldn't admit to liking stuff like star Trek or T. J. Hooker, let alone music made by the star of those shows. However, Windows Media Player kept making me look at his delightful visage, so on a whim, my friend and I took it upon ourselves to get, and listen to, 'Has Been' and we were both thouroughly delighted. I wrote the following spur-of-the-moment review that I probably won't do anything with except post on Amazon, but I thought you guys deserved a read. I accept all mockery I may recieve, and may even deserve it, but goshdarnit, I'm a convert.

And so:

Has Been- William Shatner

I was going to try and play this review for laughs, but dammit, I’m too far under this album’s spell- I am quite astonished, yea, a changed fellow, for William Shatner's 'Has Been' is... brilliant! Yes, initially I listened to it probably trying to be 'ironic'- ‘let's all laugh at that fellow who was in T. J. Hooker,’ but I am now apologetic for any wayward remarks I may have made. He does talk all the way through, which may be off-putting to some, but it’s not like the album lacks melodies- it's compensated for with bass and lovely guitar which work together with the excellent diction of the man himself to form a fantastic poetic whole. And actually, this isn't at all like his old (and possibly terrible) stuff like Lucy In The Sky With Yada Yada, it’s a fully rounded and well constructed piece- his collaborators are no small fry- the excellent Lemon Jelly and Henry Rollins (in the hilarious 'I can't Get Behind That.' So it has melodies, astonishingly touching and clever lyrics (which beg for some sort of award); there's loveliness, and there's the line 'the Colonel is break dancing.'
It still might not have worked though, if it wasn't for the marvelously self-deprecating humour of Will himself (what are you afraid of? Failure? Because I am...), so you can't mock it for being too serious, and neither does it ever descend into camp schmaltz. If you saw Mr. Shatner sitting in a bar, possibly with a quiet smile on his face and a whiskey at his elbow, you might predict he'd make music like this.


It's short because I'm not. I have more opinions. On other things. I'll see if they're regurgitated later. Reviews are fun.

Bye!

James

Great stuff James. Let's have more of your opinions if this is anything to go by. Just go for it. More than enough goodwill on WW.

As for Shatner: he has a fine sense of self-mockery verging on irony which strikes one as an intelligent guy who for most of his professional careeer has been trapped in a weird kind of media time warp.

If you feel it write it - write on!

Regards

Zettel.