Has Been

William Shatner

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2007)
• Original Release Date: October 5, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shout! Factory
• ASIN: B0002RUPH4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (230 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,484 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After his rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the infamous Golden Throats album (though it first appeared on the Transformed Man LP), one could argue that the world needed a new William Shatner album about as much as it needed a big-screen remake of TJ Hooker. But Shatner's back all the same with an intriguing, introspective collection of mostly spoken-word tracks that are all the more compelling when it becomes clear that Has Been is, in fact, no joke. Ben Folds played on and produced the record, creating rich, melodic, and varied pop musical backgrounds to Shatner's world-weary, boozy-suave yet thoroughly impassioned delivery. Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley, and Adrian Belew also stop by to lend their divergent talents. Highlights include the Rollins/Shatner rant "I Can't Get Behind That" and the Folds/Mann/Shatner collaboration "That's Me Trying", which tells the painful story of an attempted family reconciliation. Shatner mixes a healthy amount of self-awareness with a just a dollop of self-mockery and then combines it all with plenty of raw vulnerability to create an effect that is surprisingly touching, highly entertaining, and unlike any music you've ever heard. --John Moe

Amazon.com Exclusive Footage
William Shatner was recently caught on tape by paparazzi responding to reports that some people hadn’t yet heard his new album. See him read Amazon.com customer reviews of Has Been as he makes his case: high bandwidth, low bandwidth.

Product Description

From pop-culture icon William Shatner comes Has Been, an album unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Produced and arranged by Ben Folds and featuring numerous notable guest appearances, Has Been is the result of the collision of two great creative forces — a surprisingly pop-driven, lyrically potent collection of songs to enlighten and entertain.

Throughout Has Been, Shatner’s own insightful lyrics are masterfully woven into perfect pop melodies written and arranged by Ben Folds. Giving Shatner and Folds a hand on the project is an incredible lineup of singers and musicians, including Jon Auer, Adrian Belew, Matt Chamberlain, Joe Jackson, Lemon Jelly, Aimee Mann, Brad Paisley, Henry Rollins and Sebastian Steinberg.

Highlights include the poignant "That’s Me Trying," penned by Ben Folds with High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, a brilliant version of the Pulp Britpop classic "Common People," featuring vocals by Joe Jackson and closing track, "Real," a duet with country star Brad Paisley, written exclusively for this project.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Surprise Of The Year, October 9, 2004

By	Dean Esmay (Westland, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I would never have believed I'd give a five star review to a William Shatner album, and be serious about it. But I am serious. Kudos to both Shatner and to the producer Ben Folds for this brilliant little gem of an album.

For those sneering without hearing, I'll merely note that if you remember the William Shatner Priceline commercials, you'll have some idea what this CD is like. Only it's even better than those were.

The hard-rocking (yes hard-rocking!) Common People kicks the album off perfectly. From there we have an astonishingly wide array of tracks, some moody, some wistful, some funny, but none of it ever truly descending into camp or schmaltz. One track is a genuinely moving tribute to his tragically deceased wife. Another is one that every child of divorce will recognize and empathize with. Then there's the duet with Henry Rollins, in which both men are simply hilarious.

Quite simply, this album is excellent listening. It's the surprise of the year: a good, genuinely very, very good, William Shatner album. It's worth owning just for the title track alone, but everything on here is good. Highly recommended.

79 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shatner Comes Alive, Or, I Can Get Behind That, October 10, 2004

By	Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This CD is not at all what I expected. I have long been a fan of William Shatner's "singing" most notably on the Golden Throats CDs and on his remarkable album "Transformed Man" from many years ago. The reason that I liked the previous efforts was clearly due to the over-the-top cheese value of an untalented singer crooning out classics like "Mister Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" with severe rhythm impairment, not to mention original efforts like "Spleen" featuring such delicious phrases as "my bent skull" peppered throughout. Everyone laughed at these songs, and as he got older, so did Shatner himself. I thought it was great when he signed up to sing in the Priceline.com television commercials. He clearly realizes in his own self-deprecating way, that he is a poor singer, and that that is why people beg for him to sing.

When I saw he was releasing a CD of new material, I feared for the worst, but I was most certainly wrong to be concerned. Shatner still can't sing, but has now written material that largely allows him to get by with his sing-speaking technique that is more akin to a dramatic recital set to music than a real song. In this case, Shatner teamed up with talented pop star Ben Folds, who scored most of the music and produced the CD, and much to my amazement, the album isn't especially funny in the traditional sense, but it is good. Mostly it is interesting and introspective into Shatner's real life. Some of the songs are really dark and almost painful to listen to, where others are lighthearted and wacky. My favorites on the CD are "Real" written by country star Brad Paisley (who also sings on the track), and the odd title track "Has Been" which has an interesting backing track. My hands down favorite on the CD, though, is "I Can't Get Behind That" performed with co-writer Henry Rollins (!), which is at once a hilarious rant, and simultaneously a legitimate and valid piece of societal criticism. I too am especially annoyed by leaf blowers (the most futile machine in the universe) and inattentive drivers talking on their cell phones, and I love hearing Bill and Henry screaming about these issues and more.

This CD is absolutely impossible to categorize: it isn't so bad it's funny like "Transformed Man", and Shatner still isn't a great singer, but I really enjoy this CD. I like that Shatner is secure enough to relax and laugh at himself. It took guts to make this album (without trying to be excessively camp), and took guts for Ben Folds and other guests to put their reputations on the line collaborating on this. It was certainly worth the risk: without question "Has Been" is far better than anything currently in the Top 40 and is funny and charming to boot.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, isn't it?, October 23, 2004

By	Just Another Number (Cardiff, Wales, UK) - See all my reviews

I approached this album with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, having heard Bill's jaw-dropping cover version of Common People. I was looking forward to hearing it, expecting lashings of excrutiating yet laugh-a-minute so-bad-it's-good comedy.

And yes, I found it, the comedy's there. On songs like You're Gonna Die and the magnificient title track, but it's genuine, ballsy, rapier-edged wit - not half-assed, lame attempts at laughs.

But what I wasn't expecting was the genuinely heartfelt warmth of feeling on some of the other tracks.

That's Me Trying, Real and - one of the standouts - Together, really are emotionally moving; the musical arrangements are effortless yet exemplary, and Shatner's lyrics are nicely poetic but still accesible.

However, the most striking thing on these more contemplative tracks is the man's voice. Shatner moves away from the deadpan bemusement we might be familiar with on the more humorous songs - and his voice becomes remarkably tender and touching.

I think every track on this album hits the target it aims for. The grumpy-old-man rant he shares with Henry Rollins on I Can't Get Behind That captures quite perfectly the feeling of frantically struggling with the pace of change in the modern world. And of course that cover of Pulp's classic Common People is just great, Shatner's North American (I know he's Canadian) take on singing about such British concepts as fags, flats and chips achieves just the right level of wry detachment - just as Jarvis Cocker did in his arch original perfomance, though in a subtly different way.

Spot on!