Sunday Night Star Trek!

OK, been gone a few days, had to prepare for my Strat O Matic baseball draft and some other stuff, but here as promised are a collection of albums from the men of Star Trek, Leonard (Mr. Spock) Nimoy, and Willima (Captain Kirk) Shatner.......and, of course, MAYBE the timing of this is bad, what with Nimoy's recent passing, BUT he never seemed like the kind of guy who would take offense to my posting something like these, hell, I LOVED Star Trek, and also thought Nimoy gave a very good performance in the unfortunately underrated cinematic version of Huxley's "Brave New World", seemed like a cool guy actually (as does Shattner, QUICK name two songs that mention Captain Kirk by name? Time's up: "99 Luftballoons" by Nena, and of course "Where's Captain Kirk?" by the fab Athletico Spizz '80.......so, while I am sorta posting these as comedy (or more acurately, camp), they are pretty cool to hear once, as is the four disc "Golden Throats" collection, which features these two guys as well as others such as Sebastian Cabot and Phyllis Diller (I don't have, em, calling all campy record geeks).....by the way Brian Parker says he has a similar Frank Sinatra comp, we'll be waiting for THAT one as well.......

OK, Nimoy's records are not really nearly as funny as are Shatner's, so lets review the Nimoy stuff first.....what do we have here? Let's lead off with "Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space" (Lord I WISH I could make up stuff like that!).......lotsa laugh-worthy moments, notably his take on "Music to Watch Girls By", changed here to "Music to Watch Space Girls By".......don't-miss stuff, no? Also various space-related stuff ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Earth"?, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"?).....as good a starting point as we could ask for I suppose, relax, it gets WAY better than THIS.

I think he released a couple discs that I don't have here, somehow I have the feeling we'll all be alright without them, the next one I happen to have is "The Touch of Leonard Nimoy", a folkish effort from 1969.......nothing here you are gonna want in heavy rotation, however, the song "Maiden Wine" was written by Nimoy himself and was actually sung once by Mr. Spock on a Star Trek episode......cool huh? Also a mangling of Randy Newman's (!) "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today).....

What I think was his final effort at recording and capitalizing to the maximum on his television popularity, we have 1970's "The New World of Leonard Nimoy", (1970), which is a real hoot, actually, as he takes on solid material such as Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line", CCR's "Proud Mary", "Put a Little Love In Your Heart".......honestly and sincerely, if I thought for a second that he had been the kind of fellow that wouldn't ENJOY the fact that we are getting a silly kick out of these in 2015, I would REALLY not have posted them so close to his passing, however, I think of them as a tribute to his legacy.......as I said, I admired him and thought he was a cool guy.

In 1997 a collaborative effort, "Spaced Out, The Very Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner"
was released, maybe something that a dabbler may wish to investigate.....this has a bunch of stuff off the above Nimoy albums, as well as the below Shattner albums, check the track listing below, if I were just a kid wanting to sample and be stunned by these, this is likely where I would go, although the individual albums (especially the yet-to come Shatner discs) hold together in their own crazy way......judge for yaselves.

And now......compared to these Shatner discs, the Nimoy albums might as well be the first three Sleater-Kinney or Radiohead albums or something.......THIS here is some HILARIOUS shit, and the guy is still with us too......never you mind, though, I think he's also a  cool guy who would amused that we are, at this late date, getting a charge out of his material.

If I still did acid, I'd drop me a tab and pop on "The Transformed Man" (his first release) and then likely go hide in the closet or something......this is unspeakably strange, the guy doesn't sing, he makes Lou Reed sound like Pavarotti, he simply talks......this album features deathly serious poetry readings, juxtaposed with then-contemporary pop music....couple of examples: "Theme From Cyrano"/"Mr. Tambourine Man", and the absolutely indescribable "Spleen/"Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds"......your life will literally be changed after hearing this one, and you will have ME to thank for it......honestly, if you enjoyed "Pat Boone in a Metal Mood", you ain't heard nothin' yet.......

Released much later on was "Has Been", produced by noted sense-of-humor guy Ben Folds who wlso wrote a bunch of the material......honestly, I don't think it's all THAT funny, as the music is generally unfamiliar stuff, notable though that Henry Rollins (!) does a little vocal work on one track, and the same track (it's called "I Can Get Behind That") features the great Adrian Belew on guitar.

OK, I saved the best for last........"Seeking Major Tom" (as a bonus, here in glorious FLAC so I had to split each of the two discs, worth it though).......this is a classic piece of comedy/camp recording, no home should EVER be without one of these. not kiddin':.....there is something of a "space" theme here (you'll see, hold on), let's check some of the many "highlights"......God......well, obviously Bowie's "Space Oddity".......Steve Miller's "Space Cowboy".....Deep Purple's "Space Truckin" (you will NOT believe it, I swear), Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" (THINK I'm lying.......I DARE you!).....wow, and that is just disc one. Disc 2, among other abominations, gives us the Byrds' "Mr. Spaceman" and the amazing version of (wait for it) Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" (listen closely, he is "singing" along with a version of Sabbath's original recording).....a LOT of legit musicians contributed thier time and effort to this, among them, Ritchie Blackmore, Sheryl Crow, Alan parsons, Johnny Winter, Ian Paice, and LOTS more.

You gotta love this stuff, period. I got some good stuff planned for this week, really, but I thought that we would kick it off with some laughs and the like tonight........I think Brian may have the rest of Swans stuff done, if he does that will be tomorrow's post, and we'll see what else we can unearth this week. Hope you guys enjoy the VARIETY I provide, certainly, this ain't the kind of stuff that any of yer old run-of-the-mill blogs will post.........please comment, as this is most certainly comment-worthy, if nothing else.

Be back tomorrow with..........something!

MR SPOCK'S MUSIC FROM OUTER SPACE-01 Theme From Star Trek/02 Alien/03 Where Is
Love/04 Music To Watch Space Girls By/05 Beyond Antares/06 Twinkle Twinkle Little Earth/07 Mission: Impossible/08 Lost In the Stars/09 Where No Man Has Gone Before/10 You Are Not Alone/11 A Visit to a Sad Planet

THE TOUCH OF LEONARD NIMOY-01 I Search For Tomorrow/02 Maiden Wine/03 Now's the Time/04 Cycles/05 I Think It's Gonna Rain Today/06 I Just Can't Help Believin/07 Nature Boy/08 Contact/09 The Man I Would Like to Be/10 A Trip to Nowhere/11 Piece of Hope

THE NEW WORLD OF LEONARD NIMOY-01 Time To Get It Together/02 Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town/03 The Mayor of Ma's Cafe/04 I Walk the Line/05 I Finally Saw the Two of You Today/06 mary's Near/07 Abraham, Martin and John/08 Proud Mary/09 Let It Be Me/10 Everybody's Talkin'/11 The Sun Will Rise/12 Put a Little Love In Your Heart

SPACED OUT-THE VERY BEST OF LEONARD NIMOY AND WILLIAM SHATNER-01 King Henry the Fifth (Shatner)/02 Elegy For the Brave (Shatner)/03 Highly Illogical (Nimoy)/04 If I Had a Hammer (Nimoy)/05 Mr Tambourine Man (Shatner)/06 Where Is Love (Nimoy)/07 Music To Watch Spacae Girls By (Nimoy)/08 It Was a Very Good Year (Shatner)/09 Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town (Nimoy)/10 hamlet (Shatner)/11 A Visit To a Sad Planet (Nimoy)/12 Abraham, Martin, and John (Nimoy)/13 Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds (Shatner)/14 If I Were a Carpenter (Nimoy)/15 How Insensitive (Shatner)/16 I'd Love Making Love To You (Nimoy)/17 Put a Little Love In Your Heart (Nimoy)/18 Sunny (Nimoy)/19 Gentle On My Mind (Nimoy)/20 I Walk the Line (Nimoy)/21 Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (Nimoy)/22 Everybody's Talkin' (Nimoy)/23 Both Sides Now (Nimoy)/24 Spock Thoughts (Nimoy)

WILLIAM SHATNER-THE TRANSFORMED MAN-01 King Henry the Fifth/Elegy For the Brave/02 Theme From Cyrano/Mr. Tambourine Man/03 Hamlet/It Was a Very Good Year/04 Romeo and Juliet/How Insensitive (Insensatez)/05 Spleen/Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds/06 The Transformed Man

WILLIAM SHATNER-HAS BEEN-01 Common People/02 It Hasn't Happened Yet/03 You'll Have
Time/04 That's Me Trying/05 What Have You Done/06 Together/07 Familiar Love/08 Ideal Woman/09 Has Been/10 I Can't Get Behind That/11 Real

WILLIAM SHATNER-SEEKING MAJOR TOM (DISC 1)-01 Major Tom (Coming Home)/02 Space Oddity/03 In a Little While/04 Space Cowboy/05 Space Truckin'/06 Rocket Man/07 She Blinded Me With Science/08 Walking on the Moon/09 Spirit in the Sky/10 Bohemian Rhapsody/11 Silver Machine/12 Mrs. Major Tom

WILLIAM SHATNER-SEEKING MAJOR TOM (DISC 2)-01 Empty Glass/02 Lost In the Stars/03 Learning to Fly/04 Mr. Spaceman/05 Twilight Zone/06 Struggle/07 Iron man/08 Planet Earth

Hope y'all enjoy this one, please let me know, really WAS a little bit of work to compile this bad boy.........