marno@ihuxm.UUCP (Marilyn Ashley) (10/12/84)
Has anybody heard the new version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by William Shatner (yes, Admiral Kirk)? It's being played by some of the local stations in the Chicago area. Very strange and very funny.
lynch@nacho.DEC (If it isn't trivial, it isn't important) (10/18/84)
The rendition of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" sounds like it comes from
an album that Shatner did during the original run of Star Trek. The album
was entitled "The Transformed Man" (Decca DL 75043). I'm sure it is long out
of print.
It is an ambitious attempt to use "modern" song lyrics in conjunction with
classic (mostly Shakespearean) prose. Shatner recites the lyrics, he doesn't
sing them.
The following is from the album jacket:
==============================================================================
A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER
"The idea of grouping the numbers together in pairs is to unfold
multiple perspectives of the same subject, like the two sides of a
coin, tension and resolution. For example, in "King Henry The Fifth"
(Side 1, Band 1) the intense speech inciting the soldiers to battle
is contrasted with the quiet and poignant aftermath of war in "Elegy
For The Brave". The other pairs follow a similar design:
Side 1, Band 2 ["Theme From Cyrano"/"Mr. Tambourine Man"]: confident
self-assurance -- total psychopathic subservience;
Side 1, Band 3 ["Hamlet"/"It Was A Very Good Year"]: a desire for
death -- the joy of living;
Side 2, Band 1 ["Romeo And Juliet"/"How Insensitive"]: fresh young
love -- insensitivity;
Side 2, Band 2 ["Spleen"/"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"]: utter
dejection -- super elation;
"The Transformed Man" (Side 2, Band 3) stands alone because of its
contrasting three movement form: earthly unreality -- transitional
awareness -- contact with divinity."
Don Ralke
==============================================================================
It is an interesting yet self-conscious album, somehow typical of the
mid-to-late '60s and Shatner himself.
-- Bill Lynch
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