Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)

Subject: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 06:18 PM

Last night Canada's national radio station, the CBC (stands for Canadian Broadcorping Castration) played a recording of Leonard Nimoy singing a song he apparently wrote, called "Bilbo Baggins". It's stunningly awful and is clearly a direct challenge to the unabashed musical hegemony of William Shatner, Nimoy's old pal and former starship Captain, justifiably famous for his own amazing recordings, such as "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Nimoy decided to up the ante by writing an original lyric with original music and even venturing into key changes that have to be heard to be believed.

The trouble with Nimoy though, is that he can sing...sort of...and it is the opinion of most critics that due to this weakness he will probably never equal the sheer grandeur of Shatner's recorded works. As for key changes, Bill is so great that he simply transcends that kind of thing. He doesn't need to stoop to flashy gimmicks like that in order to draw attention.

Still, "Bilbo Baggins" is worth a listen or two. It is probably the only notable pop song ever written about the famous hobbit, and it has a really memorable hook and some ditzy female backup singers who make Karen Carpenter sound really "Now".

The WSSBA gives Nimoy one and a half thumbs up for this respectable effort and awaits his next recording project with interest.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: kendall
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 06:33 PM

Did you ever hear him sing Proud Mary?

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 06:56 PM

Oh my God! Just click here while I go take some aspirin.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Amos
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 07:48 PM

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins is an affront to bad music. But I like the way he cavorts with 1960-styled gamines!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 08:25 PM

Got a few innacuracies there, LH. Though the voice of Nimoy did inflict that "song" on an unsuspecting world, he can be pardoned of the sin of penning it; It was written by one Charles R. Grean who also wrote a couple other clunkers for that first album of Leonard's (which came out in 1967, a full year before Shatner's cult horror LP, The Transformed Man, so it was Bill following Leonard's lead there), including "Highly Illogical" and "Spock Thoughts".

I have several Shatner and Nimoy classics on a copy of the Spaced Out CD., but my favourite bad ones are definitely "Bilbo Baggins" and Shatner's renditions of "Mr Tambourine Man" (especially the dramatic ending in which Bill must've hurt something as he shouted out "MISTER TAMBOURINE MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!) and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". They all crack me up every time.

And for another great laugh, Sebastien Cabot did an album in which he recited, to orchestral accompaniment, the lyrics of several Dylan hits (sort of like Steve Allen's old comedy bit on that theme, though I think this one was meant to be serious). "Like a Rolling Stone" has to be heard to be believed. He tried to adopt an American accent for the whole album, but just ended up sounding like dirty old Uncle Pervy.

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 08:30 PM

And kendall, yes, I've heard Nimoy's "Proud Mary". Especially moving is the bit where Leonard proves how hip he was by singing toinin' and boinin'.

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 08:52 PM

Thanks for the corrections, guys. I was almost overcome with emotion (or something like that) upon hearing Leonard's spirited rendition of "Bilbo Baggins", and neglected to research the matter as thoroughly as I might have.

I have to agree that the inchoate shriek with which William Shatner ends "Mr Tambourine Man" stands as probably the most exciting single moment in the history of popular music. Rumours that his left nut had gotten stuck in a paper shredder at the time are entirely false, by the way...

It's a pity that Nimoy did not write "Bilbo Baggins", but I'm sure he will achieve other lyrical wonders soon enough to rival it.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 11:34 PM

I have an old cassette tape of this if anybody just HAS to have it......

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: RangerSteve
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 05:57 AM

It's taking too long to download, so I only got through the first verse and chorus, but that much will be in my head all day. I have a 12 hour work day ahead of me with no opportunity to listen to the radio, so I'll be singing this song to myself all day. If I should happen to pull Nimoy over for a traffic violation, He'll be in big trouble. But, unfortunately, true justice only happens in Charles Dickens novels.

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: C-flat
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 06:10 AM

He must have been wearing his Trekkie ears when he recorded that!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 09:15 AM

Long ago, I listened to it. Once. I was either tone-deaf or drunk at the the time, or maybe both.

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 09:19 AM

I saw Nimoy perform in 'fiddler on the roff' and also as Arthur in 'camelot' - he was surpriselingly good.

Subject: RE: BS: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 03 - 01:24 PM

You can hear this (and much more) at miserablemelodies.com.

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 04:12 PM

Ah, but have you seen the video?

THE BALLAD OF BILBO BAGGINS sung by Leonard Nimoy.

(The site also has lyrics and a downloadable mp3 file, but it fails to credit the true songwriter, Charles R. Grean.)

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 06:26 PM

Talk about low production values! And the Spock haircut--do you suppose he did this between Star Trek takes?

SRS

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 01:13 PM

For those that must have it on CD
The song appears on one of Doctor Demento's anniversary collections although I don't remember which one. "Highly Illogical" appears in another of the anniversary collections. You can find them in the comedy section at Best Buy.

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 01:32 PM

Of course, for a member of the Trek cast (Next Generation) who can sing, Brent Spiner (Lt Commander Data) has a CD "Old Yellow eyes is Back"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 01:33 PM

I couldn't find this thread seconds after posting.

I'm sure before I posted it was in the music section!

How did this merit being BS ?

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Bag
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 01:46 PM

M' band has been covering The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins for some time!

It's a HOOT and a half!

:-)

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: GUEST,Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:50 PM

Nigel,

You're right this should be back upstairs. It is about music.

It is one of my favoirte songs - one of the nearly perfect "bad" songs, for several reasons, not the least of which is that a major Sci-fi person recorded a song about a major fantasy character.


Joe Clones - please punt this thread upstairs. I realize there are references to 'His Shatness," but they're limited and refer directly to his singing career.

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Teresa
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 06:02 PM

Oh, songs I love to go :-P over ... because i'm such a fan! I like it, for entirely different reasons, as much as I liked him in a particular piece, a soliloquy from the point of view of Vincent van Gogh's brother ... very moving piece. ah, but that was acting. I don't remember the name of the play; will look it up directly.
Teresa

Subject: RE: Nimoy challenges the Master! (Ballad/Bilbo Baggins
From: Teresa
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 07:34 PM

Ah here's more info about the play _Vincent_ and about himself. :)
Teresa

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF BILBO BAGGINS
From: Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 07:49 PM

Thanks for the move, Joe Clones. You are all gentlement and women and scholars.


By the way, here's the lyrics:

THE BALLAD OF BILBO BAGGINS

In the middle of the earth in the land of the Shire
lives a brave little hobbit whom we all admire.
With his long wooden pipe,
fuzzy, woolly toes,
he lives in a hobbit-hole and everybody knows him

Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Now hobbits are a peace-lovin' folks you know
They don't like to hurry and they take things slow
They don't like to travel away from home
They just want to eat and be left alone
But one day Bilbo was asked to go
on a big adventure to the caves below,
to help some dwarves get back their gold
that was stolen by a dragon in the days of old.

Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Well he fought with the goblins!
He battled a troll!!
He riddled with Gollum!
A magic ring he stole!
He was chased by wolves!
Lost in the forest!
Escaped in a barrel from the elf-king's halls!

Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Now he's back in his hole in the land of the Shire,
that brave little hobbit whom we all admire,
just a-sittin' on a treasure of silver and gold
a-puffin' on his pipe in his hobbit-hole.

Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
He's only three feet tall
Bilbo! Bilbo! Bilbo Baggins
The bravest little hobbit of them all

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Ni
From: Genie
Date: 05 Jun 10 - 09:20 PM

You can watch and listen to Nimoy singing this at YouTube now!

The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins (sung by Mr. Spok)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: Amergin
Date: 05 Jun 10 - 09:28 PM

God you can find almost anything on youtube these days....

Sebastien Cabot reading Like a Rolling Stone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: mousethief
Date: 05 Jun 10 - 10:13 PM

The only problem with the lyrics is that Middle Earth is not "in the middle of the Earth" -- I understand having to make things scan but it just looks like the songwriter didn't get Tolkien.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: ranger1
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 06:31 PM

Oh. Dear. God. We have the song on a Dr. Dimento collection, but I had been blissfully ignorant of the video until now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 06:58 PM

Sebastian Cabot does LARS with considerable panache...but he's no-o-o-o-o William Shatner!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: sciencegeek
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 03:18 AM

both my cousin & I were Star Trek fans back in the day... still are..not to mention Tolkien...

and the summer she spent with us included her bringing both Nimoy's and Shatner's albums along... LOL ... such memories... and she sang as poorly as they...

Bilbo is the only song I still remember from back then, it was kinda fun and the most bearable cut... and not as strained as Noel Harrison trying to sing Suzane...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ballad of Bilbo Baggins (sung by L Nimoy)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 04:39 AM

Oh no! I have only just got over the trauma of seeing it years ago. Why did you have to remind me?

:D (eG)