The Uncommon Genius of Shatner's "Common People"

Today is William Shatner’s birthday and so has been honorarily named Talk Like William Shatner Day. Connoisseurs of diary dates will know there there is a Talk Like A Pirate Day and also a Talk Like William Shakespeare Day, but such figures are internationally and historically recognised. Shatner is just one man, yet his voice has its own day. Why? Because his delivery is distinctive and, whilst often mocked, has become a cult classic all by itself.

William Shatner is probably best known for his role as James T. Kirk, the captain of the Starship Enterprise in the popular series “Star Trek”. In its heyday, this series was brilliant, inspirational and risk taking. It’s episodes these days could be describe as formulaic - we all know the jokes about red shirts and Kirk having a fist fight with some guy on an alien planet - but it’s influence was, at the time, far-reaching, and to a certain extent still is. For example, even several decades later, three women are talking about it on a podcast about feminism.

While the social commentary of “Star Trek” was a subtle part of its appeal, a large part of its charm came from the characters. The actors who portrayed such memorable characters became eponymous with them: William Shatner is James T. Kirk. It seems a strange trend that many of the actors should seek to spread their wings in another medium - that of song. Some of them, like Nichelle Nichols, were genuine singers before they appeared on “Star Trek”, but others were stretching their talent a little. I will have the music video from Leonard Nimoy’s “Bilbo Baggins” forever, painfully emblazoned on my mind.

In 1968, William Shatner produced an album, “The Transformed Man”, which received mixed responses (and that’s putting it kindly). He also made an infamous tribute to Bernie Taupin at the 1978 Saturn Awards ceremony where he performed “Rocket Man” in his own personal style. Some people defend this rendition and say it’s very appeal is in its weirdness, but many think its weirdness is just absurd and painful to watch.

In 2004, William Shatner released a new album with the tongue-in-cheek title, “Has Been”. For a man who had been lambasted for his singing career, it’s surprising to find that in both the UK and USA, the album’s average Amazon review is 4.5 stars. The first track of that album is a rendition of Pulp’s “Common People” which is one of the strangest and somehow best musical covers I have ever heard.

Shatner’s distinctive spoken-word style has found its perfect outlet in this song. No one speaks like Shatner does. His idiosyncratic style contains an overabundance of dramatic pauses and his gravelly tones overflow with emotion; there’s little subtly there and he gets his message across like a sledgehammer. But the lyrics of “Common People” are infused with emotion, most notably disdain, and the wealth of emotion in Shatner’s is a perfect fit.

In the song, a poor boy meets a rich girl in a bar and she abruptly propositions him, saying, “I want to live like common people… I want to sleep with common people like you”. So the boy takes her to a supermarket, tries to help her get into the head of being poor and common, but she just can’t do it and sees his attempts as little more than an amusing lark. The song continues with the boy’s insistence that she’ll never live like common people because “if you called your dad he could stop it all” while true common person can do nothing except “watch your life slide out of view.” The style starts out as the boy relating events to an unknown third party. The storybook lyrics are perfect for Shatner’s spoken word style. However, about halfway through the lyrics quickly turn accusatory, as if the boy is addressing the girl directly. This is where the Kirk persona comes to the fore. In how many episodes did Kirk deliver a soliloquy about some social or personal evil? Listen to Shatner’s delivery of the following lines, close your eyes and tell me that you can’t hear Captain James T. Kirk talking:

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

Almost 1 minute 30 seconds into the song, Joe Jackson joins in and the pair of them have a sort of ebb and flow duet. Sometimes they divide the lines up between them, other times they sing the same words in their own style (I can’t say at the same time because Shatner’s pauses render any perfect timing impossible). But even when they’re singing together, the pitch and volume is perfectly balanced so that each distinctive voice is audible. In a way, it’s almost like there’s a whole song going along underneath and Shatner is just adding his own effect to it. The whole song is performed in a manner that complements Shatner’s style rather than forcing it into a format that makes it sound ridiculous.

“Common People” an uncompromising tirade against class tourism. It’s a warning to all those who have pretension of “slumming it”: namely that you’ll never understand the true state of the world you’re not a part of. Essentially it’s a lecture, one filled with anger and distaste; with his overemphatic style, Shatner is able to put across all of these emotions in abundance.

It’s not big. It’s not clever. It’s not got the pathos of, say, Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” or the sweeping grandeur of a John Williams score, but in its own way, Shatner’s “Common People” has a delightful charm that not only has you singing along, but makes sure you smile while you’re doing it.

If you’ve not heard it before, check out the song here. And don’t… forget your… dramatic…….. pauses.

The Uncommon Genius of Shatner's "Common People"

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