Joe Lacey - The Musical Touch of Leonard Nimoy: His fascinating musical career and discography

DARLENE LACEY & JOE LACEY PRESENT

THE MUSICAL TOUCH OF LEONARD NIMOY

His fascinating musical career and discography

2019 Darlene Lacey and Joe Lacey

All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers. Every attempt has been made by the Publishers to secure the appropriate permissions for materials reproduced in this book. If there has been any oversight, we will be happy to rectify the situation and a written submission should be made to the Publishers.

Darlene Lacey and Joe Lacey have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this book.

Print and electronic versions of this book designed by Joe Lacey, Los Angeles, CA. Cover illustration Joe Lacey

Typeset in Myriad Pro and Cooper Black.

All memorabilia, photographs and digital content are from the authors private collection. Diner Mighty has made every reasonable effort to contact copyright holders. If there have been any inadvertent omissions, these can be corrected in future editions.

Special thanks to Dan Howe for opening our eyes and ears to the music of Leonard Nimoy.

Published by Diner Mighty Graphics in 2019

Diner Mighty Graphics and the DM graphics logo are trademarks of Diner Mighty

ISBN: 978-1-7339842-0-1

Also available as a Kindle e-book

First Edition

To everyone who didnt when someone shouted,

Turn that crap off!

Not always successful, we tried a number of avenues and occasionally did some work which still makes me feel good. Those were complicated times and I think the work shows the effort to deal with hope, frustration, loss and love.

~ Leonard Nimoy, 2007

Table of Contents

PREFACE

The world is full of music, and we are lovers of it. We especially have a soft spot for the orphan music of the world recordings of long ago that were made with the best of intentions, yet, for whatever reason, have become either almost lost to time and/or the target of aesthetic bullying by casual listeners who quickly dismiss the music as the work of the seriously misguided or temporarily psychotic.

Which leads us to the musical career of Leonard Nimoy. Like many people, we were first exposed to some of his songs for camp value reasons (celebrity albums are usually train wrecks, plus these are by Spock!), but, damn it, no matter what Leonard Nimoy created in his lifetime, he always brought a charisma and style to it. Soon, we were grooving to his five-LP catalog. Our enjoyment, however, was dampened by our annoyance at the snarky attitude about Nimoys music that prevailed on the internet in the early 2000s.

In 2006, we decided to do something to turn the tide: we did a deep dive into the history behind these records and created the website maidenwine.com. The goal of Maiden Wine was to set the record straight and prove that Nimoys music wasnt a joke it was rooted in the exciting whirl of pop culture, social awareness, and flower power happening in the 1960s. Once his music was placed in its proper context, it all made sense, and best of all, this context was really cool and fun. Stir together a space alien teen idol, top notch producers, funny novelty songs, tender folksongs, and hordes of adoring fans, and you have the fascinating musical career of Leonard Nimoy.

Once Maiden Wine was launched, it didnt take long to see our work propagate across the internet. We knew we had truly achieved our goal when we received a thank you from the man himself for helping this new audience see his music in a different light.

Warp forward to 2019: What foolish humans maintain a website anymore? We decided to take our collection of stories, photos, clippings, discographies, and listings of musical stage, film, and TV appearances all things Maiden Wine and publish this book. We have updated and expanded the content to provide the reader with an informational guide along with an entertaining history behind the music.

All this being said, one might still ask, Whats so special about Leonard Nimoys music? As we will explore in this book, Nimoys music is a reflection of the times in which it was created: funny, serious, groovy, and square. It was the perfect time to capture the duality of Spock the alien and Nimoy the human in song, a unique blend that makes it both intriguing and endearing to this day.

~ Joe and Darlene Lacey

FROM EARTH TO THE STARS

A Star(ship) Is Born

September 8, 1966. On the surface, a day like any other, but in fact it was the day when the beloved character Mr. Spock first appeared in Americas homes on the groundbreaking science fiction television series, Star Trek . And with that appearance, a love affair was sparked between the public and the man who portrayed Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy.

Suddenly, the world was abuzz with questions and talk about Star Trek , Spock, and Leonard Nimoy. They were intrigued by the stoic, logical half-human, half-Vulcan Spock and curious to learn all about the human who portrayed him. Did he have any feelings? What was he like at home? Did he have a family? What were his hobbies? What were his favorite colors? What were his passions? Was he anything like Spock?

Nimoy appeared on magazine covers, in newspaper articles, on radio shows, on variety shows, and on talk shows. He was deluged with fan mail, besieged by mobs at personal appearances, and, to his own surprise, he became a sex symbol. In the midst of this Spockmania (or was it Nimoymania?), he also became a recording star.

In December of 1966, Dot Records executives approached the producers of Star Trek with the idea of releasing a Star Trek -themed album. There were already Star Trek toys, cereal prizes, model kits, and every other kind of product that the public was snapping up, so why not a record? The Star Trek cast had already revealed a musical side in the episode Charlie X (September 15, 1966). In it, Mr. Spock is seen for the first time strumming and plucking his Vulcan lyrette (a twelve-string instrument that resembles a hand-held harp) in the mess hall. Inspired by what she hears, Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) joins in, irreverently singing about Spocks dangerous sex appeal in Oh, On the Starship Enterprise (Girls in space, be wary! We know not what hell do).

Surely there was potential here, and the executives at Dot Records recognized it. They sent Desilu Studios executive Herbert F. Solow a proposal. Solow responded with the following memo:

I think we should push any record company that wants to do an outer space or Vulcan or any other single record or album, be it straight dramatic music, weird music, Nichelle Nichols singing, Bill Shatner doing bird calls or even the sound of Gene Roddenberry polishing a semi-precious stone on his grinder.