William Shatner is a known metalhead; we've talked to him at the Golden Gods Awards Show in 2011, and he's released a cover of "Iron Man" with Zakk Wylde. Now he's coming out with a progressive rock album called Ponder the Mystery. Sure, Shat!
I'll let Shatner tell us what the record is about before I even delve into what I have to say. The following is from a Rolling Stone interview by way of Brooklyn Vegan:
"The label came to me and said, "Would you like to do another album?" and I said, "Absolutely." Then they said, "Well, what would you like to do?" In that moment, I had a creative thought. I said, "I'll take that period of time, an hour before sunset, where a guy is at the beach and in despair about his life, and write music that goes through twilight and sunset into the sounds of the night. Gradually, with the beauty of the night and his thinking, he regains the joy of his life.""
"I think that prog rock is the science fiction of music."
"I'd love to be part of a discussion of where progressive rock ends and country music begins."
"Well, it's up to you to convince [listeners] that it's not a novelty record."
He's written the album with Yes guitarist and keyboardist Billy Sherwood, so I guess it can't be that bad… even though the concept is pretty pretentious and all. The worst part is the line-up is sick and includes Mick Jones from Foreigner, Simon House and Nik Turner from Hawkwind, Steve Vai from friggin' Steve Vai, jazz god Al Di Meola, Rick Wakeman of Yes, Belgian multi-instrumentalist Joel Vandroogenbroeck, also multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter, country singer Vince Gill, Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream, Robby Krieger from The Doors, sax player Dave Koz, and jazz keyboardist George Duke. Huh. Interesting. I don't even know how I feel about this… I mean, the cover, the concept, all that is just off-putting. Yet the line-up is so not off-putting that I think I'm a little interested. The record will be out October 8.
While we wait for the album, here's Shat's hilarious roast of Zakk Wylde:
