Shatner: Seeking Major Tom A Risky Business
2 min readMaking Seeking Major Tom was “dangerous ground” for the original series’ William Shatner.
Seeking Major Tom, Shatner’s most recent album, debuts this week with a two-disc CD version and a three-disc vinyl version.
“It’s such a departure,” said Shatner regarding the project, “and it’s such a reinterpretation of some classics that I knew that I was on dangerous ground.
“For the longest time I didn’t know whether it was going to be accepted or not. It seems to be taking (off).”
“I ultimately presented [Cleopatra Records] with this and they were a little hesitant at first and then they got behind it,” said Shatner.
Shatner’s previous album work included The Transformed Man (1968) and Has Been (2004.)
Seeking Major Tom features songs that fit with the astronaut Major Tom, a fictional character in David Bowie‘s 1970s hit Space Oddity. “We’re trying to contact Major Tom, who’s getting further and further lost in space and walking on the moon and thinking of his wife,” said Shatner, “and then begins to get darker as he begins to fade and remember what his previous life was like and then going to heaven and hell. In my fantasy, I have an arc of Major Tom’s life right now.”
Guest artists on Seeking Major Tom included: Brad Paisley, Zakk Wylde, Sheryl Crow, Ritchie Blackmore, Lyle Lovett, Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, and members of the Strokes, the Kinks and Alice in Chains.
The are twenty songs, including : Major Tom (Coming Home), Space Oddity, In a Little While, Space Cowboy, Space Truckin’ , Rocket Man, She Blinded Me With Science, Walking on the Moon, Spirit in the Sky, Bohemian Rhapsody, Silver Machine, Mrs. Major Tom, Empty Glass, Lost in the Stars, Learning to Fly, Mr. Spaceman, Twilight Zone, Struggle, Iron Man and Planet Earth.
Samples of the tunes can be heard here.
About The Author
Sheryl Crow beautifully sings “Mrs Major Tom”, the story told from the p.o.v. of the wife left at home. (The song was originally released on the “Adieu Shinjuku Zulu” album by K.I.A.)
“She blinded me with science. And failed me in Biology.”
I dare you not to at least chuckle when you hear that.