A Tribute to Shatner

In honor of the release of the new Star Trek flick, and for all my geek friends, this is a tribute to William Shatner. A few years ago, Mr. Shatner teamed up with Ben Folds to put out an album of cover songs and originals, titled “Has Been.” While the album had all the over-the-top camp value we’ve come to love and expect from him, it also had some moments of brilliance and remarkable self-reflection. Most importantly, I think Mr. Shatner had a helluva good time poking fun at people, including himself.

Here’s the Shatner/Folds cover of Pulp’s “Common People,” which a brilliant mash-up artist combined with clips from the old Star Trek animated series.



On the same album, Mr. Shatner performed a work of slam poetry, “I Can’t Get Behind That.” Haven't we all felt like this at some point? The video is lip-synched by puppets (can puppets do that?), and ends a 2:56, so please ignore the final 45 seconds of silliness at the tail end.



Back to Pulp, how about this live version of "Common People"?