"I've been asked to say a few words to you Earth people about the stars"
October 27, 2017 3:17 AM Subscribe
In 1967, Leonard Nimoy released a space synth-lounge album as Mr Spock.
Mr Spock's Music from Space was Nimoy's first studio album, released by Dot Records.
He followed it up in 1968 with The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, a combination of Spock songs on Side A, and pop, country and love songs on Side B.
A few gems:
- The dulcet spoken word lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth from Music From Space.
- Spock throws some shade in Highly Illogical from The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy.
- The extremely zen Spock Thoughts from The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy.
- Not Trek Special Mention: The extremely groovy music video of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins and this charming live rendition.
Mr Spock's Music from Space was Nimoy's first studio album, released by Dot Records.
He followed it up in 1968 with The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy, a combination of Spock songs on Side A, and pop, country and love songs on Side B.
A few gems:
- The dulcet spoken word lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle Little Earth from Music From Space.
- Spock throws some shade in Highly Illogical from The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy.
- The extremely zen Spock Thoughts from The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy.
- Not Trek Special Mention: The extremely groovy music video of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins and this charming live rendition.
Nice addition!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:24 AM on October 27, 2017
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:24 AM on October 27, 2017
So...I guess everyone else didn’t grow up listening to this? In retrospect, I have no idea where I found a copy, but the cassette of Mr. Spock’s Music from Space was definitely in my early music collection. I know all these songs.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:00 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:00 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
So...I guess everyone else didn’t grow up listening to this?
Well, I literally discovered this today. Thank the eldritch algorithms of itunes music.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:50 AM on October 27, 2017
Well, I literally discovered this today. Thank the eldritch algorithms of itunes music.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:50 AM on October 27, 2017
These, and similar efforts from William Shatner, have been kicked around on the Internet from the very beginning. Indeed, the Golden Throats albums, which feature cuts from both Nimoy and Shatner first came out in 1988.
posted by briank at 5:04 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by briank at 5:04 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Heh. I have the first album. It was sighed by Nimoy as Spock. He was in full makeup and costume at the now defunct Korvettes in Manhattan. The crowd was incredible. My brother and I were almost crushed. My mother had to fight to get us breathing room. What a day.
posted by Splunge at 6:04 AM on October 27, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Splunge at 6:04 AM on October 27, 2017 [7 favorites]
He was in full makeup and costume at the now defunct Korvettes in Manhattan.
Wow--the only time I ever went to Korvettes was when the one in the Chicago area went out of business and we went there looking for bargains. That would have been the late seventies or early eighties, and I looked through the record bin; by then it was down to things like Jobriath and a recording of a "genuine" Satanic mass--didn't buy either, which I'm sort of kicking myself for now. No Spock album, which I would have snapped up in a nanosecond.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:29 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Wow--the only time I ever went to Korvettes was when the one in the Chicago area went out of business and we went there looking for bargains. That would have been the late seventies or early eighties, and I looked through the record bin; by then it was down to things like Jobriath and a recording of a "genuine" Satanic mass--didn't buy either, which I'm sort of kicking myself for now. No Spock album, which I would have snapped up in a nanosecond.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:29 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yup, both the Nimoy and Shatner gems were staples of the Dr. Demento show in college. Great times.
posted by Melismata at 6:40 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 6:40 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
Man this was a good time for working jazz flutists.
posted by Nelson at 7:03 AM on October 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 7:03 AM on October 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
His cover of Proud Mary is awe-inspiring.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:35 AM on October 27, 2017
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:35 AM on October 27, 2017
My brother received a free copy of a Nimoy album when he bought a turntable at a store in downtown Augusta, Maine. It's probably still with his records someplace. I think it had a track on it called "Music to Watch Space Girls By." Something Spock did at seven-year intervals, if I recall my Vulcan facts correctly.
posted by Man-Thing at 8:00 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Man-Thing at 8:00 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
We're getting to the point where things can easily be presented as "ancient" history, but I remember them like they were yesterday.
On my lawn, there's a copy of the "Escape from Witch Mountain" story album and the Bob and Ray stereo demo album...
posted by humboldt32 at 8:30 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
On my lawn, there's a copy of the "Escape from Witch Mountain" story album and the Bob and Ray stereo demo album...
posted by humboldt32 at 8:30 AM on October 27, 2017 [1 favorite]
This was one of my first ever albums when I was 12.
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 8:59 AM on October 27, 2017
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 8:59 AM on October 27, 2017
I got a chance to ask Nimoy about his albums at a Star Trek con back in the nineties; he was decidedly... mortified about the whole thing, as I remember. He sort of shrugged up his shoulders, said that Dot offered him the contract, and free money, so why not?
Says out here on the Internet that he had 5 studio albums; I remembered more, but I had that "Outer Space/Inner Mind" twinset. The first two had the campy "Spock" connection - the next three were straight-up, non-ironic vocal embarrassments.
If you get a chance, dig up "The new World of Leonard Nimoy," the last of the series. By that time, Nimoy wasn't scared of the mic, and just went for it, track after track. It is glorious, in a horrible way.
posted by Perigee at 9:52 AM on October 27, 2017
Says out here on the Internet that he had 5 studio albums; I remembered more, but I had that "Outer Space/Inner Mind" twinset. The first two had the campy "Spock" connection - the next three were straight-up, non-ironic vocal embarrassments.
If you get a chance, dig up "The new World of Leonard Nimoy," the last of the series. By that time, Nimoy wasn't scared of the mic, and just went for it, track after track. It is glorious, in a horrible way.
posted by Perigee at 9:52 AM on October 27, 2017
An unidentified planet, careening wildly in an eccentric solar orbit . . .
We called it -- "Urth" . . .
posted by Herodios at 10:13 AM on October 27, 2017
We called it -- "Urth" . . .
posted by Herodios at 10:13 AM on October 27, 2017
The extremely groovy music video of The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
I have always struggled with that song. Not because it isn't groovy; I can dig it. But what I struggle with is this:
Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins!
The bravest little hobbit of them all!
Now, I'm not here to dispute Bilbo's bravery - he did fight goblins, and battle trolls, and riddled Gollum in the dark, and bearded a dragon in its lair. He's brave. But bravest of them all? Whither Frodo, who took the Ring all the way to Mordor, though he did not know the way? Whither Samwise, who undertook that journey for no other reason than his deep friendship for Frodo? (nothing against Pippin and Merry, who also were very brave and stalwart hobbits, but I don't put them in the top three).
Where is the logic in this ranking, is what I want to ask; how were all of these factors accounted for, Mr. Spock, and please show your work.
Mostly, though, it just makes me remember that there was a time when famous people did things that weren't carefully controlled projects designed to protect their image. And I love it.
posted by nubs at 10:36 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
I have always struggled with that song. Not because it isn't groovy; I can dig it. But what I struggle with is this:
Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins!
The bravest little hobbit of them all!
Now, I'm not here to dispute Bilbo's bravery - he did fight goblins, and battle trolls, and riddled Gollum in the dark, and bearded a dragon in its lair. He's brave. But bravest of them all? Whither Frodo, who took the Ring all the way to Mordor, though he did not know the way? Whither Samwise, who undertook that journey for no other reason than his deep friendship for Frodo? (nothing against Pippin and Merry, who also were very brave and stalwart hobbits, but I don't put them in the top three).
Where is the logic in this ranking, is what I want to ask; how were all of these factors accounted for, Mr. Spock, and please show your work.
Mostly, though, it just makes me remember that there was a time when famous people did things that weren't carefully controlled projects designed to protect their image. And I love it.
posted by nubs at 10:36 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
Shatner's cover of 'common people' is probably the best piece of celebrity music ever produced.
"You want to... BE... Like common people? You want to do what common people do?"
posted by kaibutsu at 11:27 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
"You want to... BE... Like common people? You want to do what common people do?"
posted by kaibutsu at 11:27 AM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
I can't listen to that song anymore unless it is Shatner's cover version; it has stuck in my brain as the best possible version that could be of "Common People" in all possible universes.
posted by nubs at 12:00 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by nubs at 12:00 PM on October 27, 2017 [2 favorites]
An unidentified planet, careening wildly in an eccentric solar orbit . . .
We called it -- "Urth" . . .
Late in the Summer of Love, in that lull between TOS Seasons 1 and 2, we'd occasionally hear that Visit to a Sad Planet on Top-40 radio.
posted by Rash at 2:36 PM on October 27, 2017
We called it -- "Urth" . . .
Late in the Summer of Love, in that lull between TOS Seasons 1 and 2, we'd occasionally hear that Visit to a Sad Planet on Top-40 radio.
posted by Rash at 2:36 PM on October 27, 2017
Oh hey, here's William Shatner covering The Cramps!!!
[direct link]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:40 AM on November 9, 2017
[direct link]
posted by 1970s Antihero at 4:40 AM on November 9, 2017
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