Finding Nimoy: Examining the Unsung Musical Merits of the Man Who Played Spock

(Complete aside: You may be asking yourself whether there's a website where you can check how many times Spock got laid during the original series. Google the subject, and a plethora of sources will appear.)

But The Way I Feel doesn't solely focus on Nimoy's libido. "Billy Don't Play the Banjo Anymore" protests Vietnam, while "Consilium," a spoken-word piece co-written by Nimoy, reads like a pep talk to beleaguered Trekkers: "Accept what life brings / And live it fully."

The cover of Leonard Nimoy's The Way I Feel

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Phoenix Convention Center

100 N. Third St.
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Category: Community Venues

Region: Central Phoenix

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Leonard Nimoy is scheduled to appear Saturday, May 28, at Phoenix Convention Center for Phoenix Comicon.

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The bid at serious artistic credibility didn't earn him the hits his Spock records did, but he soldiered on with two more efforts, The Touch of Leonard Nimoy in 1968 and his masterpiece, The New World of Leonard Nimoy, in 1970.

With former producers Charles R. Grean and George Tipton gone, the record is sparse, and the minimal country arrangements leave room for Nimoy's voice, developed at this point to an expressively ragged croon. Nimoy's performance of "Abraham, Martin, and John" articulates the mournful death of '60s idealism nearly as well as the beautiful Dion version. "I Walk the Line" and "Everybody's Talkin'," both iconic songs, receive tasteful renditions, while Nimoy chooses to give Jackie DeShannon's "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" a new feel, combining gospel phrasing, funky horns, and killer pedal steel.

The record features Nimoy's most moving song, the Mel Tillis-penned "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town." Kenny Rogers & the First Edition scored a bigger hit with it, but Nimoy's version is far more haunted and terse, telling the tale of a man paralyzed by "the crazy Asian war," as he begs his girl Ruby not to leave him. It's heartbreaking as Nimoy delivers this couplet in his wounded baritone, "If I could move, I'd get my gun and put her in the ground . . . for God's sake, turn around."

The New World of Leonard Nimoy proved to be the man's last foray into the studio, a doggedly beautiful end to a strange and brief musical career. Of course, Nimoy didn't stop his creative endeavors — writing, taking up photography, and acting — in the years that followed his musical end. In 2009, he reprised his role as Spock in J.J. Abrams' retcon of the Star Trek franchise. I'm hoping he'll consider reprising his role as a singer, too. After all, Has Been, Shatner's collaboration with Ben Folds, was shockingly excellent. Imagine what Nick Cave or T. Bone Burnett could do paired up with Nimoy and the right collection of songs. To let the man's singing voice go unheard? Well, that wouldn't be logical.