2003 FEBRUARY 24 #055
In 1978 William Shatner hosted the syndicated television special, ""The Science Fiction Film Awards." A perfect venue for the actors unique recipe of blending his background of Shakespearean acting with modern day pop music. He had already cut a full album years previous (The Transformed Man), released a rather boring spoken word album and Bill even covered the television show theme "Taxi". All serious of course and nothing like the modern day Bill that got loose on Priceline commercials. So here we are in 1978 and Bernie Taupin takes the stage and introduces his Rocket Man (composed with Elton John originally) as interpreted by William Shatner. At this point in watching the video you think, "what?" ... but curiosity draws you in and you have no idea that by the end you will be in total hysterics.
This clip has been circulating on video for years. I took the audio off a very good video copy and cleaned it up a bit so you can experience Shatnerism at it's finest.
- Otis Fodder
TT-4:12 / 5.8MB / 192kbps 44.1khz
Aleph Null writes:
I thought i'd share a pertinent bite from an old issue
of _psychotronic video_ - here's susan tyrrell ("the
forbidden zone", etc's) account of bill s' performance
and the event, itself:
Tyrrell received a Best Actress award from the Academy of Horror and Science Fiction for [andy warhol's] _Bad_ in 77. "Yeah, I had to stand next to Darth Vader, and I shook his chin and he screeched 'Don't you ever touch me!', then when I finally saw the show I was in a bar in Tijuana, plastered out of my mind, I forgot it was on TV and I looked up and saw that hideous William Shatner singing 'Rocket Man', I was looking at his shoes, and he had these velvet shoes with 'W.S.' on them. He couldn't sing, he was smoking, so would talk the lyrics between puffs. It was horrible and hilarious."
[_psychotronic video_, no. six, summer 1990]