Most people know William Shatner for his iconic role as James T. Kirk, the Captain of the USS Enterprise on the 1960s TV series Star Trek (and its subsequent movies). The actor went on in the 1980s to popularize the title character on TV’s TJ Hooker and today he’s a favorite on the show Boston Legal, where he plays law firm partner Denny Crane. Oh, and let’s not forget his most-seen persona as The Priceline Negotiator in the Priceline commercials.
While everyone knows William Shatner the actor, how many people are familiar with William Shatner the music artist? I’m guessing not many. Now’s your chance to check it out, because Amazon’s MP3 album deal of the day is William Shatner’s The Transformed Man for only 99 cents (discounted price is for today only).
The Transformed Man, released in 1968, was Shatner’s first foray into music and contains six tracks of the actor performing spoken word versions of some popular tunes of the time like The Beatles’ “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Most of the songs are accompanied by dramatic (and … I … mean … dramatic) readings from the works of William Shakespeare against psychedelic orchestrations and definitely what sounds like the Star Trek television series soundtrack. Shatner took the opportunity to juxtapose classic literature with modern-day poetic lyrics, and til this day, stands by this experimental endeavor.
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