William Shatner Live

William Shatner "Live!"
Studio album by William Shatner
Released 1977
Recorded Live at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Genre Outsider music, Spoken Word
Length 80 minutes
Label Lemli Records (catalog number 00001)
Producer Richard Canoff
William Shatner chronology
The Transformed Man
(1968)
William Shatner Live!
(1977)
Has Been
(2004)

William Shatner "Live!" is actor William Shatner's 1977 live album. It was released on Lemli Records in the United States on two discs with a gate-fold sleeve and poster.

Text from liner notes:

The idea of a one man show had intrigued me for a long time. It's a well known fact that the film is a director's medium and the stage belongs to the actor. Once the curtain goes up nobody yells "cut." But the one man show is the ultimate of the actor's medium and it was this thought that led me back again and again to what I could do, along, on the stage. It would be merciless, I knew. If I were good, it would ge the actor's dream-- but if it failed I would be alone. Alone up there with thousands of eyes peering at me -- opera glasses raised for a closer look, and the unasked but heavily felt question "what's he going to do?" All this was going through my head as I learned the lines -- all this was in front of my eyes as I lay down at night -- and when the day came that I was to open at Texas A&M University I was filled with fear. A very primitive fear -- the fear of the actor. The nightmare that all actors have from time to time is appearing naked in front of an audience -- not knowing the lines, not knowing the play -- I was living the dream. Thirty-five hundred people awaited me expectantly; the buzz of their voices reached me backstage, the lights dimmed, the M.C. announced my name and I walked out. The spotlight hit me like a physical force and I was on -- oh muse, be with me know -- I took a breath & started to speak... (signed) William Shatner

Track listing

  1. SIDE 1: 1. "Earthbound" (Irene Jackson) (c) 1971 by Jane Hipolito and Willis E. McNelly "Go With Me" / "High Flight" (time 12:02 from LP label)
  2. SIDE 1: 2. " The Flight of Man" / "Galileo" (c) 1952 Bertolt Brecht (time 9:38)
  3. SIDE 2: 1. "6 Ways To the Moon" (from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond de Rostand [sic] Edmond Rostand) (time 8:12)
  4. SIDE 2: 2. "War of the Worlds" (Martian description by H.G. Wells) (time 12:02)
  5. SIDE 3: 1. "The Movie" (time 17:45) [note: talking about the pending Star Trek: The Motion Picture]
  6. SIDE 4 SHORT TAKES 1. "William Shatner -- Audience" (time 1:28)
  7. SIDE 4 SHORT TAKES 2. "Starship's Facilities" (time 0:26)
  8. SIDE 4 SHORT TAKES 3. "Peter" (time 4:18)
  9. SIDE 4 SHORT TAKES 4. "Summer Spaceship" (time 4:20)
  10. SIDE 4 SHORT TAKES 5. "Three-Way Alchemy -- The Brain" (from "The Hyphen" by Norman Corwin) / "Finale" (time 9:50)

Credits

See also