Quintessential Camp, Shatner Style

I thought I would start my foray into high camp with what could perhaps be considered the model for the genre. The Transformed Man by none other than T.J. Hooker himself, William Shatner.

The best camp music, or more generally, the best camp anything, is not created as a joke. The very best camp is an attempt at a serious artistic endeavour that goes horribly wrong. Additional camp value comes from the serious attempt at art that unintendedly ends up being incredibly attached to the time during which it was created.

This first album fits all of these criterion. Listening to even a few minutes of The Transformed Man makes it abundantly clear that it was recorded in the late 60's. Even someone unfamiliar with American culture could listen to this album, then watch a couple of episodes of the original Star Trek and know that they're from the same era. A few of the people I've forced to listen to this album have pointed out that there are a few points in the music where you expect it to break into the Star Trek theme music.

The Transformed Man is organized rather oddly. Each track begins with Shatner reading an excerpt from classic literature, emoting violently all over the room, of course. The track then ends with him "singing" a song. I remember seeing Shatner talk about this album on some TV show (some E! drivel I imagine), he claimed that the literary excerpts and the songs that followed where somehow related. I have to believe that some of these correlations can only be understood in the context of a circa 1968 drug induced haze. I can see the relationship between King Henry the Fifth calling his troops to battle and Elegy for the Brave but I'm having trouble getting from Cyrano to Mr. Tambourine Man.

Perhaps the most amusing aspect of Shatner's reditions of Mr. Tambourine Man and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds comes from comparing the emotions expressed by Shatner in his reading of the lyrics to the apparent emotions you get from the background singers. That is, in Tambourine Man Shatner sounds like he's about to kill himself, while the background vocalists sound like they're skipping through a field of daisies. In Lucy both Shatner and the singers sound like they're high, but on very different drugs.

The final track, also the title track, has only the reading, without the attempt at music. Though given how Shatner performs the other songs on the album, one could also say that the track has the song, but no reading. It's hard to tell the difference. This final track tells the story of a man rejecting his former life of chasing wealth and power, and beginning a life in persuit of enlightenment and oneness with nature. By the end of the track... well. It's best summed up with the final line. "... and a gush of light flooded my being. I became as a pure crystal submerged in a translucent sea. I HAD TOUCHED THE FACE OF GOD"

For those not lucky enough to own this album, you can get a taste of Shatner style from his rendition of Rocketman, performed at a Sci-Fi awards show in 1978.

Now I eagerly await the arrival of after Dark by Fabio, which I ordered last week.