Monday 3 May 2010

Watercat Poetry Bus: (Just Like) They All Hate William Shatner

This week The Watercats were hosting the Poetry Bus with the theme of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and I have to say that in the spirit of this I watched the film of the same name last night with Andy (Gollum) Serkis as the legendary Ian Dury and thought it an interesting, if flawed, movie.

Anyway - this song comes with a bit of a story.

Back in 1988 a band called The Wedding Present emerged from Manchester (correction: Leeds) (and we shall speak of these again ere long) - they will be mostly remembered (where they are remembered at all) for their ultra-fast but non-precision guitar playing and lyrics about reltionships-going-wrong.

On their 1st studio album "George Best" was a song called "Shatner" which was all about a woman in an abusive relationship and David Gedge (the singer) was saying "you need to get out: this isn't TV, he isn't William Shatner"

This still remains one of my favourite throw-away lyrics of all time. So since William Shatner embodies the spirit of Sex and Drugs and Rock N Roll (sort of) I've decided to post my response to that song. Please note that the video is a close-up of my saxophone. The audio track was recorded on a Tascam 488 home studio with me on keyboard, bass and guitar - sadly the sound is a bit muddy as I never did work out a way to make the vocals stand out when mixing it all down: (and for those of you who don't already know - many of the Star Trek cast have gone on record regarding their feelings towards Shatner) - lyrics at the bottom



(Just Like) They All Hate William Shatner

They hate you, they slate you, they’d like to take you in a fight
They bait you, they break you, they’d like to stab you with a knife

Just like they all hate William Shatner, that’s how her friends must feel tonight
Life’s not an episode of Star Trek, so don’t go breaking hearts tonight


She was young, and still dumb, she didn’t know what kissing was
You made a mistake and now she’s a working single mum

Just like the other actors in Star Trek, they want to cast you from their sight
You know they all hate William Shatner, although the fans say he’s all right

17 comments:

Batteson.Ind said...

PIXIE!.. you done us proud! :-D
I'm loving this mightily! and multi tracking! grrr you swine! :-)
this goes to prove my point, that there are more talented people sitting around in sitting rooms than there are in the charts.. trully, trully, excellent! anything with a passing reference to william is an instant hit in my eyes/ears :-D

Lydia said...

You are amazing! This is so excellent. He is sound asleep but I can't wait to show this to my husband tomorrow after work (he's a trekky).
O, how I wish we could know that Shatner somehow, some way finds this...

Rachel Fox said...

I thought the Wedding Present were from Leeds..?
x

Rachel Fox said...

p.s. enjoyed the song.
x

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Watercats - if you go down the home recording route 1) don't pre-program your keyboards as it makes it difficult to set the level for everything else, 2) look seriously at the quality and level of tracking 3) think about the quality of what you are mixing to, because ours was ok but I constantly ended up with muddy vocals.

Lydia - glad you enjoyed. Personally I thought the main thing missing from the new Star Trek was you just couldn't replace the BS (Bill Shatner)

Rachel - i sit corrected, you are right. It's the lyric in "My Favourite Dress" about Manchester that got me confused. Glad you enjoyed

Kat Mortensen said...

Good stuff! (Have you heard William Shatner's album, "Has Been"? It's actually quite good.)

The phrase, "she didn't know what kissing was" is excellent, and the poem works really well.

Wow, Andy Serkis as Ian Dury? I think I may have to see that.

Kat

Enchanted Oak said...

Yo, Pixie,
This was awesome. I loved it even with the muddy vocals. You're a musical poet!

Niamh B said...

The video was very clear at least! I like the life not being an episode of star trek, and yes, have heard some awful things about Shatner...
lol

Totalfeckineejit said...

Wow! How fitting that a Watercats prompt should yield a cool song! Multi talented are you or what? I really enjoyed this, music always adds more to words.Deadly!

Live long and prosper!

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Beautiful work there, DFTP! Is that a soprano sax in the picture? There seem to be other instruments as well or at least parts of other saxophones. The musical accompaniment is perfect for this. I look forward to seeing/hearing more from you.

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Poeticat - my brother has a copy of "the Transformed Man" containing the infamous Lucy In The Sky and Hey Mr Tamborine Man, but I don't have his albums myself!

Enchanted - thanks

Niambh - it was a funny thing watching someone else play Kirk in the new movie. Whatever they say about that man its the hint of the devil in his eye that makes him so much fun to watch

TFE - Peace and long life (traditional response to LL&P)

Jeanne - it's an Alto sax and the other things you can see are mostly reflections of the sax and the camera. thanks for visiting

Argent said...

Hehe! So much fun to hear this again! You do have such an original take on things.

Peter Goulding said...

Makes me feel very insignificant and uncreative. I am in awe.

Titus said...

Noooooo! Closet trekkie here, I love Shatner the man and the captain and I'm with Kat on his album.

Personal preferences aside, this rocked! You're like Mike Oldfield, but talented.

Do you Half Man, Half Biscuit?

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

Argent - not my greatest song of all time, but fun. Better songs to come - watch this space :)

Peter - don't be daft! My favourite line is the allusion to the star trek Star Trek cliche of "what is this thing you call kissing"

titus - personally i don't care what the ST cast say Shatner Is God (after Tom Baker, clearly), the song isn't supposed to be about him as such, it just uses the allusion of the stated feelings of some of the cast as an illusion to relate to the story

Pure Fiction said...

Who knew sex, drugs and rock and roll would add up to William Shatner? I really like the track, particularly that opening section.

As for William, he makes Boston Legal watchable - and how about that opening sequence in tj Hooker?

michael.offworld said...

Ah poor Bill. He'll get the last laugh.