William Shatner or the Shaggs?

Shatner's "Rocket Man" is one of the most legendary pieces of work of the 20th century.

Logan wrote: I unironically like both, Shatner in small doses, but the Shaggs are more special to me. For amateur kids who's only started learning the instruments, I think they turned a out a genuinely interesting primitivist album. It is of the so bad its good variety, but I came to genuinely love it and not just be amused by it (love the lyrics -- And the skinny people want what the fat people got...). Shatner is great fun. I like his covers. Technically, Shatner is better at what he does, as I think he knowingly achieves more of what he is going for. I think rather than saying the The Shaggs are unintentionally and sincerely bad, one could say that the girls unintentionally created a masterpiece. The world would be lessened without The Philosophy of the World, as I think one can say of Tommy Wiseau's The Room (although The Shaggs knew they were unskilled). I will go with The Shaggs for sure, as Shatner can get very tedious, whereas The Shaggs are a joy.

Shaggs by a long margin

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Negoba wrote: Shatner's "Rocket Man" is one of the most legendary pieces of work of the 20th century. I borrowed one of his later albums (I think the one with Rocket Man on it) from the library a few years ago and was a bit underwhelmed. My biggest issue with him is he doesn't sing. It's more like spoken word set to music. It's fairly original but it doesn't do much for me and I have trouble seeing the appeal. So, is Rocket Man better than the original EJ version? Not for me it isn't. Not even close.

Rocket Man by Shatner is legendary for his performance at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards. It was permanently etched in my brain when I saw it on TV as a 10 year old.



The recorded version done 30+ years does not compare though I think Steve Hillage plays guitar on it.

Star Trek fan Seth McFarland as Stewie did a version on an episode of The Family Guy.

^ Thanks for the thanks Geo and Lorenzo. To some I introduced The Shaggs to I ended up apologing.

His "Rocket Man" is iconic, and I have loved that Family Guy with Stewie one, and I think it's so cool that William Shatner did have the courage and means to travel to space on an actual rocket, although it left him feeling sad... see here

I like quite a lot of Shatner's spoken word "songs", but I have listened to full albums of his and it has become tedious for me. For me there's something so fresh about those fresh-faced Shaggs freaks (I mean freak in a beautiful freak sense) and vibrant to the charmingly naïve and quite bizarre sounding technical incompetence (not quite the right word), the amateurism, of the album. I could imagine the young girls appearing in something like the movie Deliverance. It can be a little unsettling, but I do think the turned out something that strangely works as more than unintentional comedy (even the name is amusing an inappropriate), but as some kind of primitivist performance, not performance art so much nor performance act, as it has a genuineness about it. Shaggs+ psychedelic = Shaggadelic Music, incidentally.

I would like to hear Shatner do "My Pal Foot Foot". It's so easy to imagine.

Edited by Logan - March 11 2023 at 10:25