William Shatner.
The name brings many images to the minds of many people.
Unfortunately for Mr. Shatner, all these images are essentially the same one; Captain James Tiberius Kirk, of the Starship Enterprise.

I understand that after the cancellation of the original Star Trek television series, he went through a rather long ‘dry spell’ of work - some ten years without a decent gig, all because of his fame in Star Trek.
I consider this man to be one of the finest actors to have graced our screens, and it’s a damn pity that he was never able to shrug the role of Kirk.

Last year, he released an album, produced by Ben Folds (of Ben Folds Five fame) entitled Has Been.
I’ve only just aquired a copy of this, and I initially listened to it with fear that it would be akin to his seminal effort, a spoken-word version of that Beatles song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

I am, without a doubt, astounded. This album is beautiful and touching and sad. From the opening cover version of Pulp’s Common People, to the ending Real, there’s not a moment when I don’t feel something for this man.
You’ll Have Time has the confronting refrain “you’re gonna die!” and the line “by the time you hear this, I might be dead too” while That’s Me Trying is a letter to his daughter, attempting to effect reconciliation after not seeing her for twenty years. It’s so damned sad, it practically makes me want to track down Mr. Shatner and give him a big hug. But I won’t.

Particularly amusing is I Can’t Get Behind That, featuring Henry Rollins - “I. Can’t. Get Behind. A fat ass!” and “I cant get behind so-called singers; they can’t carry a tune, get paid for talking… how easy is that?”
Roffle!

The album closes with Real - a song about how Mr. Shatner is just a normal person, and not a superhero, or anything like what we’ve seen on the screen. The final thing on the album is an incredibly touching “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m real.

My usual pick of music is Rammstein, Tool, Mahler, and Shostakovich, to pick a few - taking that selection of music into account, Has Been. is now one of my favourite albums… I can’t say if I would feel the same way if it wasn’t William Shatner’s work - I’m not a huge trekkie in that I can’t tell you what Kirk’s first line was in episode #56 of the Original Series, and in fact I haven’t even seen them all, or all of any of the different Star Trek series, so I’m not saying I love it just because it’s vaguely related to Star Trek, I’m saying I love it because it’s good.

Highly reccomended.. go get it now.