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William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet (2009)
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["Together" by William Shatner] Together - So, the phone rings and it's Margo Sappington, famous choreographer. She says, "I'd like to choreograph your album, Has Been." And I said, wow. I haven't danced in years. ["Has Been" by William Shatner] Has been I'm sitting in my office. The phone rings, literally, the phone rings. "I'm Margo Sappington and I'd like to a ballet "of your album." - I was listening to NPR in the car. There was an interview with Bill Shatner about his CD, Has Been, which had just come out. I became completely enthralled with it. I got it and listened to it over and over again, and because there's so much music and the music fits so incredibly into the content of the songs, of the lyrics, that I wanted to do a ballet to it. I wanted to get in touch with Bill and ask his permission to do it. - I had seen too much ballet in my life, too much dance, not to think of it as a great compliment. - He said, "Well, this is intriguing. "This is so interesting." - It can't possibly turn out bad is what I'm thinking. - Finally, toward the end of the conversation, he said, "Well Margot, is there any money in this?" - And apparently I said, well, is there any money in this? And she said, "No, no money." I said great. - I'm asking your permission, which means, can we do it for free? - Do a ballet of my record? Are you crazy? Of course! - Michael Pink, the director of the Milwaukee Ballet, contacted me because he wanted to revive a ballet I had done for the company some years previously, it was called Virgin Forest. When he contacted me, I was very happy about that prospect, but also had in mind to do something new. - I went to the website, and I listened to Has Been, and immediately thought, what fun, this is gonna be wacky, this'll work well. So really, I didn't hesitate for a second to think Margo would give us a piece that she has done, a piece that's very exciting, very dynamic, great for the audience, great for the dancers. It's a perfect piece. [William Shatner's "Common People"] She came from Greece She had a thirst for knowledge She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College That's where I caught her eye She told me that her Dad was loaded I said, in that case I'll have a rum and coca-cola She said fine And in thirty seconds time she said I want to live like common people I want to do whatever common people do I want to sleep with common people I want to sleep with common people Like you Well, what else could I do? I said I'll see what I can do I took her to a supermarket I don't know why but I had to start it somewhere So it started there I said pretend you've got no money She just laughed and said Oh you're so funny I said yeah Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here Are you sure you want to live like common people You want to see whatever common people see You want to sleep with common people You want to sleep with common people Like me But she didn't understand She just smiled and held my hand Like a dog lying in a corner They'll bite you and never warn you Look out They'll tear your insides out 'Cause everybody hates a tourist 'Cause everybody hates a tourist Especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh Yeah and the chip stains' grease Will come out in the bath You will never understand You will never understand How it feels How it feels To live your life To live your life With no meaning or control With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go And with nowhere left to go You're amazed You're amazed That they exist That they exist And they burn so bright And they burn so bright While you can only While you can only Wonder why Wonder why Rent a flat above a shop Rent a flat above a shop Cut your hair and get a job Cut your hair and get a job Smoke some fags Smoke some fags And play some pool And play some pool Pretend you never went Pretend you never went To school To school But still you'll never But still you'll never Get it right Get it right 'Cause when you're lying 'Cause when you're lying In bed at night In bed at night Watching roaches climb the wall If you called your dad he could stop it all Yeah You'll never live like common people You'll never do You'll never do What common people do What common people do You'll never fail You'll never fail Like common people Like common people You'll never watch You'll never watch Your life slide out of view Your life slide out of view And dance and drink And dance and drink And screw And screw 'Cause there's nothing else 'Cause there's nothing else To do To do I want to sing with common people like you I want to sing with common people like you I want to sing with common people like you [audience applause] - When I first meet the dancers I like to play the music all the way through and then explain to them what it is we're about to do, what kind of work we're about to do. And so I sat them down and, I put on the music ["Common People"] and I watch their faces. Sing along with the common people Sing along and it might just get you through - With every ballet I do I have a passage. Whether it tells one long story or whether there are storylets which is the way I approached this. With each one being a little self contained unit of its own little story. Each one of those songs tells a story. The CD is so personal to Bill and he wrote these things as recollections and memories and reminiscences of his own. - I was in my first year out of school and I was a pretty lonely kid. Very lonely kid in Montreal but I didn't know what loneliness was. Until you're in a strange city away from home, homesick beyond belief wanting something in this case, to be an actor. And it's winter and it's cold in Ottawa and the snow is falling, and the sounds of the peace bells in Canada's capital were ringing out and I was crossing this large lawn, huge field in front of a peace star. As I was writing the lyrics I resonated on that moment in my most extreme loneliness in Ottawa and brought it to life for myself in trying to reproduce the thought that as much as I yearned for all the inchoate things that I wanted, I still felt it hadn't happened, even now. ["It Hasn't Happened Yet" by William Shatner] I was crossing the snow fields In front of the capital building It was Christmas and I was alone Strange city Strangers for friends And I was broke As the carillons sang its song I dreamt of success I would be the best I would make my folks proud I would be happy It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened Yes there are nods in my direction Clap of hands A knowing smile But still I'm scared again I'm scared again I'm scared again Foot slipped Devils fall and so did I Almost I'm high On Yosemite The big gray wall Fear of falling Where to put my foot next Fear of failure I'm afraid I'm gonna fall Be at one with the mountain I whispered in the air Fear of failure Failure Fear of losing my hair Falling When is the mountain scared When do I feel I haven't failed I've got to get it together man It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened People come up and say hello Okay I can get to the front of the line But you have to ignore the looks And yet I'm waiting for that feeling of contentment That ease at night when you put your head down And the rhythm slow to sleep My heads sways and eyes start awake I'm there not halfway between sleep and death But looking into Eyes wide open Trying to remember What I might have done Should've done At my age I need serenity I need peace It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened yet It hasn't happened It hasn't happened - I said pretend you've got no money. She just laughed and said, "Oh, you're so funny." I said, yeah. You know, you're speaking this. I can completely hear that over the music and then you say, "Are you sure?" After you say, the sentence is, "Are you sure you want to live "like common people?" You go, "Are you sure," and then the choir kicks in. This is bizarre because you're talking about a gospel choir singing with a punk rock band. I've never heard that before. - [Man] That's great. - So it's, are you sure, and they're like, You want to live with common people And they speak for you. They're your chorus. It's going to kick ass. Bill was, I guess, offered the opportunity to make this record and it was such a clean slate he didn't know what, he had no idea what he was going to do exactly. - I'm very apprehensive because I know that when another record comes out they're going to say, "Oh here comes Shatner with another Transformed Man, "some weird wacky thing that we can poke fun at." I'm a little sore about being poked fun at. Hey Mr. Tambourine Man - Somewhere in the making of Star Trek, a grip, a guy, who ordinarily would have a belt around his waist with screwdrivers and hammers and nails and things, he's a craftsman. This guy was also a musician. He said, "Why don't we make," and we started talking on the set. "Why don't we make a record?" I said, well if we made I record I could tie the themes and get the theme and then use great literature and put new music to it and then take literature that songs, that had great lyrics at the time, and segue from the literature to the song. Wouldn't that be a great idea? ["Transformed Man" by William Shatner] I turned away from the city Teaming with desperate and haggard faces Away from the peddlers of hate and vengeance Away from the clock that decrees time is money Away from the arrogant and infallible Whose hands are stained with blood I did Transform Man for Decca Records which was a big record company at the time and it was gone. It disappeared. It didn't sell particularly well and didn't get particularly good notices. From time to time, Transformed Man was trotted out an mopped because it was a six minute cut, at least I think is the reason why. It may not have been good. But one other reason is, it was a six minute cut, the literature and the lyric. On radio you play three minute cuts. So the choice was, play the literature with the music behind it, play the lyric that I spoke as I did the literature. Nobody knew what I was doing. I thought it would be obvious but apparently not. I'm going, Mr. Tambourine Man which is a song about drugs. Fix me And wait a minute, that's not the way what's-his-name sang it. What's that all about? It kind of was laughed at. I was okay. It was a bad experiment. - Some of the recordings Bill has made besides Has Been are quite well known, quite remarkable and like nothing I've ever heard in my life. Mr. Tambourine Man A couple guys asked for an appointment. Can they come and see me, they want to talk to me. They're sitting in my office and they're saying, "We'd like you to do a record." They had introduced themselves as the guys who owned Rhino Records. Because there had been a spade of actors doing singing and some were good and some were not good. They took the not good guys like me and, Leonard Nimoy, and they put them all together in a Rhino Record, Golden Throats or something like that. These guys are saying, "Would you make another record?" I know what's on their mind, they want another Golden Throats but I don't want to make another Golden Throats. I want another attempt, secretly in the back of my mind, is I want an attempt at a theme record. - What I told him, I thought that he just needed to tell stories from his life. You've got someone who's in his 70's who's had a really long television and movie career and people know him for the lines he has learned that writers have told him to say. Essentially you know him as an actor. So how interesting would it be to get a glimpse of his life, something we hadn't heard before. But Bill actually then emailed me about 50 finished lyrics. - What I want to do is distill the experience so that, find some common connection with the rest of the world. Commonality of experience. I wanted to write about something minute and amplify that into a universal experience, see if that can be done. So that from something so small that everybody says, "Oh, I've walked in that garden," and observe or feel something that they hadn't that is an observation by you on a very common experience. People think, "Oh wow, I understand "that experience. "I understand what he is doing and I understand that. "Not him so much, but I understand that." That is what I was after. - That's what the ballet's about. It's Bill as every man. They're all emotions that everybody has. They're the same ones. ["Together"] He says Phoenix Pegasus Grecian urn Midwest turn So much to learn Together Together She says our souls Are warm Lives Reborn From hearts That were torn Before before Perform perform Together Together they say A breath renewed Everyday With you Our arms Are moved We are not alone Not unloved Together Our souls are warm Our souls are warm Lives reborn Lives reborn From hearts that were torn From hearts that were torn Before Before Breath renewed Breath renewed Everyday with you Everyday with you Our arms our hold Our arms our hold We are not alone We are not alone Together Together Together Together Together Together We're ready I spent my college years with a friend of mine. I even remember his name, Brian McDonald, who was a ballet dancer who became a choreographer, a well known choreographer. Especially in Canada. He was with a Canadian ballet company and I got to see the Canadian ballet company start to form. I was enthralled with the ballet because the ballet has the same distillation that poetry has. It's the distillation of line. The beauty of the human form. The grace of a human line and then once you see it, you're forever fulfilled by it. - Dance is an expression. It is a language. Dance is an expressive art. It's not just about the athleticism. The athleticism is something that leads you to express something. Dances can make you cry, dances can make you laugh. They can move you in incredible ways without words that are extraordinary. It's a very ephemeral art form that is so, immediate to the human soul and to the human psyche. You see something that is so beautiful that it makes you cry. Dancers don't get rich. They do it because they love it. It's a hard life and you really have to, you really have to love it. There's a satisfaction and there's an ecstasy that you experience as a performer that's unlike any other ectasy you ever will experience. - When I give myself onstage I feel like to the extent of as many emotions as possible and it's probably the most gratifying thing that I've ever found in my life. - Margo's history was with the Joffrey Ballet School. She was one of the leading dancers and the I understand there was an injury involved and by that point she had already started I think, doing a little bit of choregraphic work and it just escalated from there. - I was 17 when I was asked to go to New York and join the Robert Joffrey Ballet. I was there for two years and then moved onto dance on Broadway and started assisting choreographers like Michael Bennett. As a result of my association with him I was asked to choreograph Oh! Calcutta! when I was 21 and also appeared in the show. As I broke into choreography, there were very few female choreographers at the time who were invited to do big things. - She is a wonderful artist, Margo is. It was a complete surprise to me as to how well it turned out and what Margo did was use her dancers to capture the words. - This is about life. This is about social personal things and you should laugh about certain things and you know, think about others. She was really happy to see that we were not sort of taken aback by it, that we were openly going, what is this going to be like? - She's definitely very artistic and she knew what she wanted. - She brought something out in me that maybe a confidence or something that I did not have before and so, and I respect choreographers that make you work like that. - You can just see how quickly her brain works because I can't imagine doing that much choreography in the time that she had. - I put it together like a jigsaw puzzle and I tweak it and push it according to their physicality and how it looks from my mind's eye and my body to their body. It might just get you through Laugh along Laugh along With the common people Laugh along even though they're laughing at you And the stupid things that you do 'Cause you think that poor is cool [sighs] Ben Folds turns out to be a genius. He'd take a look at the lyrics, he'd start to tinkle away in a keyboard. What is he doing? He'd go through a feeling. Feeling became a melody line or it became a character. He characterized the song. Wow. - How did this happen from a few words to this great creative performance art that gives you that feeling of love or that feeling of togetherness. - Familiar Love is one of my favorites on the record and such a, it's such a great Bill moment because he's, he's literally performing this to his wife who is sitting right here in the booth working across and he's in the vocal booth and he's just saying it to her. [laughs] - Oh no! X rated song. Bill that's awesome. [laughing] - Familiar Love I think is my favorite. It's so tender to me. And it's so, what a relationship is about. ["Familiar Love" by William Shatner] I know what she's going to do And I can't wait for her to do it She knows me and I know her What I hate and what I prefer I know her scent I know her touch Where to hold her And just how much My lady belongs here And so do I We know what the truth is And where to lie Oh how I love her Familiar I've had the one night stands Waiting for the phone to ring Waiting for the phone The shakes of anxiety The flaccid response to nerves The hideous revelation of character The unfamiliar smell of breath and skin Unexpected noises from within My lady belongs here And so do I We know what the truth is And where to lie Oh how I love her Familiar But my love is familiar She knows me and I know her What I hate what I prefer I know her scent I know her touch Where to hold her And just how much My lady belongs here And so do I My lady belongs here And so do I We know what the truth is And where to lie Oh how I love her Familiar Sliced apples, almond butter, and feta cheese Let's feed the dogs and send out for Chinese Watching moves on the TV and fall asleep Arms wrapped around So happy We weep Yeah Lizzy that's for you Oh I know I love that - I'm from the rock and roll generation and so are lots of the directors of companies, ballet companies today. They want to include the culture that's part of their generation in the ballet and in the art form that they do. I like to work with popular music and I like to work with music that an audience, that will draw an audience to the ballet maybe for the first time. - [Man] At first when I heard the music I was like, whoa, this is something else. - I remember the first day when Margo had thrown it on and we're all like, are you kidding me? This is going to be great, this is going to be fun, you know? - Bringing popular music into the ballet world and it was something that I was pushing for because I thought it was very important to bring young people in to the ballet and make them come to the ballet. It wasn't just about Tchaikovsky, and Mozart, and Bach. It was about music that they knew and understood. - I mean, I think that the marriage of the two, classical technique and some modern influence along with pop music is a really great blend and I get really inspired by it. - There's a lot of choreographers today who are using popular music. I saw a piece with music by Rufus Wainwright recently and it worked tremendously well. People have used the Beatles, they've used the Rolling Stones. - As far as the audience goes, I think there's so much more they can relate to if they don't know classical music that well or if they don't know ballet, all of a sudden it's this thing where they can actually hear lyrics and they can relate to that as well as just relating to the movement that they see. - With the movements they're changing, the movements are becoming more modern and we're mixing modern and ballet together with a ballet based technique and bringing things up to date. Bringing things forward. - When you look at Margo's piece using William Shatner's words and Ben's music, you think this could be the future of dance. Injuries are very common. I mean this is a sports industry. One of our dancers injured herself in the dress rehearsal. - At the final dress, the dancer who was dancing Ideal Woman hurt her shoulder during one of the lifts and was able to continue to perform the rest of the ballet but not this particular piece. Jackie who was her understudy stepped up to the plate and was the one who ended up having to do the performances of Ideal Woman. We had to work in the theater, we had no chance to go back to the studio to rehearse. She had to do all her rehearsals onstage. She had done all the lifts separately but she'd never done them together in a sequence one after the other and they come off fast. They're really one after the other. She took a deep breath and did what dancers are supposed to do. She stepped up to the plate and she hit a home run. I want you to be you ["Ideal Woman" by William Shatner] Don't change Because you think I might like you to be different I fell in love with you I don't want you blonde I don't want you not to swear Not to swear It's you I fell in love with Your turn of phrase your sensitivity Your irrational moves Well maybe that could go But everything else I want you to be you I want you to dance whenever you feel it Up by the bandstand In the parking lot Up on the table Well maybe the table could go But I want you to be you I love what you wear 'cause you're wearing it That shawl That clinging dress The svelte black jacket Those leopard capris Well maybe not the capris But I want you to be you I love what you eat You want yogurt You got yogurt Papaya It's yours Chewing gum Chew away I just want you to be you Spit out the gum it doesn't work Cha cha cha When you sleep you are the most beautiful In the moonlight your soft skin glows Your hair sprawled on the pillow a vision The murmuring breath The slight snore The slight snore I want you to be you I think what you've hit on is exactly what we should do. The thought was Henry might take a moment, some moments to think about what he's, what he can't get behind. Has Been has been a unique experience for me. I was, fully conscious, which I don't think I was back in the Transformed Man. I was sort of unaware but here I was aware. I was aware of what could be jeopardized, I mean, reputation-wise. I was aware of, not feeling adequate. I was aware of the adventure of this thing that was in front of me. Making music with musical greats. Then Ben started bringing people in who were great artists, world recognized artists on this album. - On that last take I... - [Ben] Henry is our generation's popular spoken word artist. - We just pick up right in just so we never stop. - I thought how cool would that be to get those guys screaming at each other. - We thought, how about I Can't Get Behind. He says, "Oh, that's great." He started writing some of his own stuff and we incorporated the stuff I wrote, some that he wrote. - We kept this beautiful thing going. He said, "I'm like, and he's like, and she's like. "It's all, he's all, and she's all." I wrote some things that I can't get behind and we do it as a call and response. - Leave me the hell alone! - Eat more, spend less! - Hey the Colonel is breakdancing, give me a break! - Drink responsibly! - I can't get behind any of that! - That's Henry Rollins and Bill in a shouting match. It was the first, that was the first collaboration I dreamed of for this record when I talked to Bill. - It became an explosion of rhythm. [imitates drumming] Rhythm. Rhythm. [imitates drumming] And we're all in it together. - I can't get behind that! - I can't get behind that! - We're taking the rhythm of the Skins into our lyrics and we're changing the lyrics and we're going around. Spam Size matters No it doesn't Yes it does No it doesn't Yes it does No it doesn't! Yes it does - Rhythm of speech is where everything is. I can't get behind that Me neither Everybody knows everything about all of us That's too much noise I can't get behind that I can't get behind that - William Shatner and you? Huh? I was like, I know, man. - Because I'm bewildered by the world as it is right now, bewildered that all of us see this terrible fate of the world coming like a catastrophe. Like a tidal wave. Oh my god, that's 100 feet high. It's coming this way. Maybe I should get out of the way. No! I think I'll watch it come. That's what we're all doing. We're in a catastrophe that's about to happen and oh wow, well maybe there's a catastrophe. Maybe we should do something about it. I can't get behind any of that. Let's go, ready From the top ["I Can't Get Behind That" by William Shatner] My favorite shows on TV have twelve minutes of advertising I can't get behind that kind of time Eat quickly, drive faster, make more money now I can't get behind that My kids say He said to me, and I'm like, and he's like, and she's like It's all, he's all, she's all I can't get behind that kind of like, English That'll be six to eight weeks before delivery The rising oceans, the warming temperatures The dying polar bears No, tigers, in fifty years Rising poison in the air and water I can't understand why the price of gas suddenly rises When oil goes up But takes months to go down long after oil falls I can't get behind any of that I can't get behind the Gods Who are more vengeful, angry, and dangerous If you don't believe in them Why can't all these Gods just get along I mean they're omnipotent and omnipresent What's the problem What's the problem What about the men who say, do as I do Believe in what I say for your own good or I'll kill you I can't get behind that I can't get behind that Everybody knows everything about all of us That's too much knowledge I can't get behind that I can't get behind that Yeah And what about student drivers using my streets to learn If you learn to play the drums you got to go to a studio Go to a parking lot for God's sake Why are you jeopardizing my life I can't get behind a student driver I can't behind a driver who drives like a student driver If you're going to drive an urban assault vehicle Then get off the phone and keep your eyes on the road Lifetime guarantee Whose lifetime, not mine I haven't that much time left Let's make it yours Everybody's got a longer life than me The leaf blowers Is there anything more futile Car alarms Clap off Clap on Spam Size matters No it doesn't Yes it does No it doesn't Yes it does No it doesn't Yes it does My phone rings Make millions in minutes It's a computer Lose inches in hours Leave me the hell alone Eat more spend less The Colonel is breakdancing Give me a break Credit terms raised I can't get behind any of that I can't get behind so-called singers That can't carry a tune, get paid for talking How easy is that Well maybe I could get behind that Well I can't If you have to fix it with a computer Quantized, pitch corrected, and overly inspected Then you can't do it And I can't get behind that I can't get behind a fat ass [audience laughing] - Man, talk about, like ahead of the curve. It's basically the world is caught up with Shatner. The world kind of went, "Damn, you've been laughing the whole time." - Did I throw you somewhat? On the airplane going to Nashville, still with my notebook in hand and I haven't finished writing. I read, I just finished something with an actress and the actress whether she had said it or not but it wasn't a tabloid, "Oh, I didn't want to take a picture with that has-been." Me. Wow. Has-been. I've never been referred to as a has-been before. What a pity. And then I thought, has-been, what's wrong with being a has-been? I mean you got to stop doing something at some point. Even if you're just going to die, fall down, I'm dying. Yeah, but now you're a has-been, dead. I mean, it just, you can't keep going at the pace you go at when you're 20 but maybe you didn't do anything when you were 20 and maybe you're a one hit wonder. But a one hit wonder hit a great song or maybe you just were successful making a pancake. A great pancake and never able to repeat the pancake but you did it once. I never understood the word has-been and I examined it. Ben in his genius said, "Let's make it a Western." Huh? ["Has Been"] Has Been You talkin' to me You talkin' to me You calling me has been What'd you say your name is Jack Never Done Jack Glad to meet ya, who's your friend Dick Don't Say Dick What do ya know And you friend what's your handle Don Two Thumbs Don Riding on their armchairs They dream of wealth and fame Fear is their companion Nintendo is their game Never Done Jack and Two Thumbs Don And sidekick Don't Say Dick Will laugh at others failures Though they have not done shit I've heard of you The ready made connecting with the ever ready Yeah Never was talking about still trying I got it Forever better gossiping about never say die May I inquire about what you've been doing mister Jack Never Done Jack And you partner What's the news of the world, Dick I don't say Dick Don of all the people you must be the tattler Two Thumbs Don What are you afraid of failure So am I Has been Has been Has been implies failure Has been Not so Has been's history Has been was Has been Has been Might again [audience applause] We make decisions on our life from instant to instant constantly filled with the apprehension that we don't know what we're doing. That is this the right decision to make or is this not the right decision? We never know. The decision that you make today may not worth the right decision an instant later, a day later, a week later. So you've got to forgive yourself and you make the decision based on the resonance of how it feels that moment. You make a decision. Yes I will do to that movie, in my case. Yes I will make that record, yes I will write that song. Grecian urn Frequently it turns out to be the wrong decision. Are you then to say I made the wrong decision, I better stop Midwest turn making decisions? Or do you say okay, I made the wrong decision there but it shouldn't prevent me from making another decision now. By the way Together that decision which is wrong, I got over here, now I'm in the wrong place but maybe if I go from here to there which I couldn't get to from there before I made that decision, maybe if I get here will be the right decision. And so it becomes a series of interconnected dots. That's the story of your life. The series of interconnected dots of decision. As you go to put the last dot and fall over, that's your life. - When I heard the interview with William Shatner on NPR about Has Been, I thought wow, he's venturing out. He's going somewhere else. This is really fantastic. - So we wrote a poem to each other... - In this time in his life that he's taken all these steps, Boston Legal and this CD, then also gave me the courage to find him, to call him and say, not just say, oh gee wouldn't it be nice to do a ballet to this piece and let it sort of drift away and be forgotten. It was just an idea. Now here it was a completed piece with the audience loving it, the dancers loving it and we love it too. ["Together"] Together Together they say A breath renewed Everyday With you Our arms Are moved We are not alone Not unloved Together We're ready |
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