Amazon deal (Apr. 1): $0.99 for William Shatner album, "The Transformed Man" (MP3 dwnld) | Hacker News Reader

Amazon deal (Apr. 1): $0.99 for William Shatner album, "The Transformed Man" (MP3 dwnld)

1 pointqohen3 comments

For April Fool's Day, apparently, Amazon is offering William Shatner's classic, "The Transformed Man" as an MP3 download, for $0.99. If you've never heard Shatner's renditions of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" or "Mr. Tamborine Man"--or if you've wished to own them--now you can, for less than a dollar.

Read about the album here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformed_Man

Get it here (and/or read reviews, check out track-samples): http://amazon.com/The-Transformed-Man/dp/B000W223LU/

Liner notes: http://www.diversionprojects.org/static.php?page=static070903-152832

View on HN

The Tamborine man track in particular is ... memorable. I think it can be found floating around the internet along with some of Nimoy's albums. It's really spectacularly awful stuff.

Yes--"Mr. Tamborine Man" was quite a discovery! Quite... memorable, as you say--I think more interesting than the more well-known "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" track.

And: I think we may be able to draw a line from the final moments of the "Mr. Tamborine Man" track to Shatner's most famous line (from Star Trek II).

Interesting to be able to trace and artist's work in that way :-)

But, in fairness, it's worth reading some of the reviews at Amazon which take the album seriously, despite its reputation, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3NIGHVETHM5FE/ref=cm_cr_rdp_pe...

To paraphrase this reviewer's conclusion, whether you take the album humorously or seriously, you'll get your money's worth. (Especially true if you buy it today, for $0.99) :-).

And, for those of you reading down this far, some videos of related material.

Not on "The Transformed Man"--but on YouTube for your pleasure--is another famous Shatner interpretation, this one of "Rocketman": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQwXOCKNLY&feature=relat...

(And: DeForest Kelley, reacting to a tape of this, as you might expect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYGUyYcCuMA).

More recently, Shatner got to do this stuff for Priceline: "Freebird": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em-mjpaL2hs

From the Futurama episode w/the ST:TOS cast,"The Real Slim Shady": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmYQfFWEiYo

Lastly, another (in)famous interpretation, Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPh12Q7cpeE

If you want more, check the "Related Videos" for each of these. Enjoy!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com