“A terrific record”: The album William Shatner wanted to emulate
There are few musical careers that have been as curious and unusual as that of William Shatner. The Canadian actor might be best known for his role as Captain James T Kirk in the original run of the famed sci-fi franchise Star Trek, but as though his acting career wasn’t enough for him to revel in, he also turned his hand to serving up a series of bizarre musical releases, and calling them bizarre is an understatement.
From spoken-word renditions of pre-existing pop songs such as Pulp’s ‘Common People’ and Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’, to an orchestral album where he recites passages from the Bible, to reading the works of William Shakespeare over contemporary pop hits, Shatner’s musical offerings over the years have been nothing short of head-scratching. Despite his own lack of musical talent, he’s managed to work with a number of notable musicians in order to help realise his visions, and at times, the results can be endearing if still somewhat confounding.
However, he has still continued to pursue releasing music in his later years, and they haven’t become any less unusual in his senior years. Some of his most oddball releases of late include the 2018 Christmas album Shatner Claus, which featured contributions from a far-ranging number of collaborators such as proto-punk icon Iggy Pop and country balladeer Brad Paisley, and also the star-studded concept album Ponder the Mystery.
Ponder the Mystery, which was released in 2013, was the fifth studio album released by the actor, and saw him take a more progressive rock-oriented approach, with his spoken-word monologues sitting alongside the compositions and vocal contributions of Billy Sherwood, who also produced the album for Shatner. Alongside this, guitarists from the highest echelons of rock music accompanied Shatner on the record, with Steve Vai, Robbie Krieger and Edgar Winter all being among the credits on the album.
It’s a strange album, to say the least, and the question has to be asked as to what influenced it in the first place, considering how it somehow manages to sound unlike anything else in the history of music. For an album that is so alien and created outside the normal conventions of rock music, you have to wonder whether anything can truly have influenced Shatner while creating it, or what his motivations for taking this route were.
However, one act that Shatner confirmed as being a primary influence behind the creation of Ponder the Mystery was Pink Floyd, with him especially praising the conceptual nature and storytelling of The Wall. In an interview with The Guardian where he outlined some of his favourite albums of all time, he praised their 1979 classic, stating that it was a major reference point for him.
“We talked about The Wall when I was making Ponder the Mystery,” he explained to the news outlet. “It was the example and the idea that I was aiming for. I wanted to tell a story, and the story became the thing that I could hook songs onto. As we progressed, the album became a little bit like The Wall, which is a terrific record.”
While it might not be anywhere near as refined as the British rock band’s epic, you can certainly see where Shatner is coming from in how ambitious he attempted to be through combining storytelling and grandiose song structures. It didn’t get anywhere near the calibre of its biggest influence, but for someone so unmusical, it’s far from the worst attempt at trying to emulate Pink Floyd.
