The Shat Fix April 3, 2007 zuzu Several people have mentioned Shatner’s cover of “Common People.” Here it is: God, when did Joe Jackson get white hair? And forget “Rocket Man.” Here’s Shatner doing Harry Chapin: The first I ever really heard of Harry Chapin was back in the 70s, when I was in grade school and played in the town softball league (my team was Burlap & Silk, sponsored by a local boutique. I kinda wish I’d kept the shirt). Our coaches were high school girls, who had a couple of defining characteristics. One, they never let us slide into home plate, because a girl on their high school team tore the hell out of her knee that way in a very gruesome manner. The second was their Harry Chapin shirts, which said something about playing for the cheap seats. Harry Chapin died while I was at summer camp. Interestingly, Elvis had died a few years earlier while I was at summer camp. These were the only two times I went to summer camp. Coincidence?
Ha! The Big Bopper died in Iowa, my homestate, the year my mom got pregnant with me. Years later, I moved to Texas, and a year later Rickie Nelson died in Texas. Then I moved up to Wisconsin and a couple of years later Stevie Ray Vauhn died in Wisconsin. Oh, and I suppose I should mention that Tommy Bolin is from my hometown, Sioux City, and his grave was a popular hang-out for the high school kids to drink beer. So those are my dead rock star stories.
Oh wait, I almost forgot: not quite a dead rock star story, but still good. I was living in Des Moines the year that Ozzie Ozbourne played a concert there and bit the head off the bat. One of my roommates worked for the catering company that catered that concert, and when he got home from the concert gig I asked him how it went. He said Ozzy and his band were assholes. “Oh yeah, and Ozzie Ozbourne bit the head off a bat.”
I know that the insufferable music snobs of the world hate me for it, but I prefer the Shatner cover to the original. To have a young guy sing the song makes him sound like a bitter whiner (“I had a beautiful rich girlfriend, but she just didn’t understand what it was like to be poor, so I had to dump her!”) Having an older guy sing it makes it sound like experience, not Nice Guy (TM) Syndrome.
Damn you norbizness! I was going to be all clever and link to that, and then I scroll down and you got there first.
It is interesting how bad acting = bad singing. For more proof to that, check out Corey Feldman. 🙂
delurking to say how much i love that version of common people. since a member of the clash just did an album with damon albarn i’ve gotten into britpop in a backwards kind of way. i’d been obsessed with common people and was looking for live versions on youtube when i came across the shatner version and just fell in love with it. oh and i don’t think the original really sounds like a bitter whiner because it’s not supposed to be serious. you can tell by the delivery, it’s more like satire on a situation, class is such a big thing in england, especially to a guy from sheffield. and just to share another awesome youtube pulp related video, beth ditto from the gossip doing heaven 17’s temptation with jarvis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUUlyWNBbt8
Mnemosyne: I also prefer this version to the Pulp. If only for the sheer ridiculousness of it, and the snark with which Shatner says, “Are you SURE you want to live like the common people?” WATCHING ROACHES CLIMB THE WALLS! So much
I’m with you, too, Mnemosyne. I like Pulp’s original, but I think the Shat’s interpretation is more engaging and sympathetic. Hard as it may be to imagine, Shatner’s “Has Been” album is an absolute tour de force from top to bottom. If you haven’t heard it, try to give it a listen because its really great stuff with an insane range of emotions. While a few songs are novelty-esque, this is far more legit an effort than “Rocket Man”. Even the humorous songs are actually witty instead of unintentionally hilarious.
It is interesting how bad acting = bad singing. I think the acting is what’s fun about these, actually.
I forgot about Burlap & Silk. Wow. Oh hey, and remember how much fun it was at Camp Mogisca when you got attacked by the camp racoon?? I did a post on those two weeks on March 21st… go look…
I had never heard this song before, but I think it’s wonderful. Joe Jackson and Ben Folds Five performance is phenomenal, can’t say I care much for Shatner’s snarkiness. I bought the original version, and my interpretation differs somewhat from Mnemosyne’s. I hear it as a comment on the rich slumming for entertainment; playing at poverty with the commons. “You will never understand how it feels to live your life with no meaning or control and with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist and they burn so bright whilst you can only wonder why” The grit and grime of lower class packaged into a weekend fling, minus the tedious despair and hopelessness; readily abandoned whenever it grows tiresome. The cultural convenience of disposable deprivation makes for a lovely holiday, but you really wouldn’t want to live there. Of course, wealth is relative; even the east end might seem like paradise to many in this world, but the reduction of people into social-educational tools is demeaning no matter where it occurs.
Oh hey, and remember how much fun it was at Camp Mogisca when you got attacked by the camp racoon?? Linus! Damn raccoon. Shimmied up my leg and slid down with his claws in. And it was all so random. He just came running out from under the counselors’ tent, attacked me, then ran back.
I bought the original version, and my interpretation differs somewhat from Mnemosyne’s. I hear it as a comment on the rich slumming for entertainment; playing at poverty with the commons. Well, yes, that’s what the lyrics are about — the text, if you will. But hearing the young guy who’s just been dumped singing it rather than the older, more experienced guy who sees what she’s up to at a glance gives it a different (and whinier) tenor, IMHO. Having the older guy sing it gives it a different subtext. But maybe I’ve just been primed to spotting whiny misogyny by way too many emo bands who sing choruses of “Girls don’t like boys/Girls like cars and money”.
I am jealous. While you are there I will be in Connecticut. Which is otherwise lovely and all, except for the presence of the evil family. I bet I’ll drink more than you. Have fun. Send me a refrigerator magnet! 🙂
Hi Zuzu–I actually don’t want to comment on this specific post (though I enjoyed it tremendously, being a diehard fan of Captain Kirk). I just thought you’d enjoy an on-line column of mine which was just posted. I figured I’d send the link to you because I also have a cat named ZuZu. Here’s what the column is about: I’m a great admirer of Heifer International, but I was surprised to receive an email from them just before International Women’s Day suggesting that I read their online Gender Equity statement, which would show me that their work is not “feminist” or a “western imposed approach”. I emailed them immediately but received no reply. Since my column is called “Open Letter”, it seemed like the best forum to write them again. The link is http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/people_places_things/open_letter_3.php#more I’m a Chicago journalist, formerly a political columnist for the Sun-Times and Tribune (feel free to Google me), now a playwright. While I work on a book project, I’m also writing my Open Letter column for the Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago website started last year by former Chicago Magazine senor editor Steve Rhodes. Hope you’ll check it out. Thanks–Cate Plys