Ian McKellen and The Fleshtones - Sonnet XX

Online readings are all the rage right now. Musician are giving concerts online, poets are recording their performances, live book readings pop up here and there. The future is here. I was dreaming about it for years.

Things went so far that even Sir Patrick Stewart is reading Shakespeare's sonnets on Instagram.

But it is not what this post is about. Patrick Stewart is great at performing Shakespeare's sonnets, no argument here, but he can't hold a candle ещ other esteemed Shakespearean actor - Ian McKellen.

The story goes. Back in 1987 Andy Warhol had a show on MTV. It was aptly titled "Fifteen Minutes" and it was all about capturing zeitgeist the hard way. One of the episodes featuring the band Fleshtones. They were gearing for a tour to support their new album, so a segment on a Warhol show was just what they needed. Eventually, they taped two segments for the show.


One segment was a glorified lip-sync of their bulldozer lead single  "Return of the Leather Kings."



The other segment featured a band jamming in the background while Ian McKellen performs a Shakespeare's sonnet 20 while wearing the most unfashionable jacket ever as if he was Serge Gainsbourg. 




McKellen performs the sonnet with so much subtle swagger and it gels so well with the music - you instantly want them to record an entire album like that. Just because it is so simple and yet so cool. Things just can't get any better.

The resulting track was later released on the "Fleshtones Present: The Big Bang Theory - Time Bomb!" compilation. The credits went like that: Zaremba / Milhizer / Spaeth / Warren / Streng / Shakespeare.