Just dug this one out #23 - Has Been by William Shatner

OK - so this is "digging out" an album that I've actually never listened to before. Hazel has had it, I guess since release and I guess because of the Aimee Mann contribution. And of course I'd heard and enjoyed, in a cool but novelty way, Common People. But a whole album of Shatner seemed a ridiculous thing to even contemplate - so I never did until this afternoon. I skimmed through the thousands of tracks on my portable drive and Kirk's presence overpowered me and I got a desire to listen to it.

Track one of Has Been is the aforementioned Common People and on most other days I wouldn't get beyond that. It is great, although the singing (apparantly Joe Jackson) really takes the edge off, and becuase of the contrast with Shatner's frankly beautiful delivery, possibly even exaggerates the novelty aspect of it. Today I persisted and found myself being absolutely stunned by just how good the whole album is.

Unfortunately like Common People a number of other tracks have the magic of Shatner broken by the contributions of the interlopers. I'd wanted to say that it should have been only Shatner on the album but it would have definitely been a lesser album without "I Can't Get Behind That". The album really should have ended there.

So here I am, four years after everyone else discovered this album, finally realising that Mr Shatner is a treasure and that Has Been is, despite the likes of Joe Jackson and Brad Paisley hauling it back from the verge of being a classic, an album that I can't help but love.