Picture this: Summer 2020 in the Something Else! social-distanced review room, as the editor in chief gives out the assignments. I raise my hand for the Trevor Rabin box set Changes, but am overlooked. Wait, what about Rick Wakeman’s instant prog classic, The Red Planet? No luck.
Next, we discuss the new William Shatner song. It’s a remake of Wilbert Harrison’s 1969 favorite “Let’s Work Together” with Canned Heat, who scored a hit with their own cover a year later. No one wants it! Finally, the editor says, “Frazier, you like Toto, Yes and all that weird crap, take Shatner!”
OK, maybe that’s not entirely how it happened, but none of my pop-drinking, cigarette-smoking high-brow music campadres at Something Else! jumped on this. Well, shame on them. Now is a perfect time for a Canned Heat / T.J. Hooker collaboration. In all fairness to William Shatner and his new collaborators, “Let’s Work Together” is a great ride.
Canned Heat once again gives a swampy vibe to the song, enlivened by bluesy slide guitar from the legendary Harvey Mande, a walking bass and ’70s-style out-of-pocket rhythms by long-time drummer Adolfo “Fito” de la Parra. Shatner, for his part, does a competent sing-speak of the lyrics. It’s good, joyous fun.
This may not be nearly as great as the songs on William Shatner’s Has Been or the Billy Sherwood-produced Ponder the Mystery, but oh my, those are high standards.
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