1.) Leonard Simon Nimoy (March 26, 1931 - February 27, 2015) was an American actor, film director, poet and photographer best known for playing the character Spock in the Star Trek franchise, namely Star Trek: The Original Series .
During and following TOS, Nimoy also released several albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including Trek-related songs and cover versions of popular tunes. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films were released.
In addition to his own music career he also directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college.
Leonard Nimoy is a man of many and considerable talents. As an actor he has ranged from Star Trek's indomitable, inscrutable Mr. Spock, to Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, to Vincent Van Gogh in the one-man stage show Vincent. He has also appeared in plays such as Oliver!, The King And I, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Camelot, Twelfth Night, The Man in the Glass Booth, Caligula, and Sherlock Holmes. But Nimoy is more than an entertainer: in 1997 he narrated the A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews, and he received an Emmy nomination for best supporting actor for the 1982 TV film A Woman Called Golda, to go with his three Emmy nominations for Star Trek. He has also directed three of the best-selling movies of all time: two Star Trek blockbusters and Three Men and a Baby. Nimoy is also an accomplished photographer, vocalist, writer and poet.
2.) A New Zealand band named after the actor, Leonard Nimoy (Peter Wright, David Khan, Tracey Pagey and Mikel Goodwin) was active between early 1994 and early 1997. In this period they both entranced and appalled audiences around the country with a unique combination of beauty and brutality.
In hindsight, and in the best underground tradition, Leonard Nimoy advanced a range of political viewpoints, related to the making and performance of rock music. These not only included obvious issues of noise versus melody or improvisation versus structure (where the Nimoy always took a distinctly ambivalent middle course), but also a whole raft of other issues surrounding both audience and industry expectations of what rock music was supposed to do and how it was to be promoted and presented. As far as this latter area was concerned, Leonard Nimoy stressed band democracy (everyone wrote lyrics, got to scream into microphones and play guitar) and independence (their best music was self-recorded and released). Not surprisingly, in the New Zealand context, these principles ensured that the 4-piece never achieved more (in a material sense) than a modest, albeit enthusiastic, cult following.
To further complicate matters, Leonard Nimoy existed in a near continuous state of evolution during their 3 year existence. In a very real sense the band was always a project in search of itself. Not until early 1996 did the Nimoy adopt their most familiar and notorious form; a back to basics drum machine/guitar noise band, enlivened by acoustic skin and metal percussion and intent on the creation of the most brutal and morbid music possible. Sitting uneasily between rock excess and high-art minimalism, the group deliberately sacrificed structure and melody in favour of percussive and rhythmic slabs of noise, by which musical conventions were reduced to a kind of industrial wreckage. Bandcamp.
Alien
Leonard Nimoy Lyrics
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Spewn forth upon your pleasant sphere
So much like you and yet so unalike
Am I the you before, the you you were when your world was new?
Or am I the you, that you will be tomorrow?
Through me, you see your future or your past
I know not which
Your mind the distance could not comprehend
It was once my home, and calls to me when I look up into the void
But it is not the verdant place your planet is
That warms and cools you as the seasons go
Oh, no
My mind recalls a seething cauldron flung among the stars
And satellites and galaxies of boundless time
There, through evolution, I became the creature I am now
No heart or feelings show in me
Perhaps I am better off than you
For I see things without emotion, as they are
Some may envy me, but I pay a price to be from human feelings free
Perhaps in me, you see your destiny
From the land of endless night come I, an alien from afar
Spewn forth upon your pleasant sphere
So much like you and yet so unalike
In Leonard Nimoy's song "Alien," the singer describes himself as an extraterrestrial from a distant and dark world. He arrives on Earth, a planet similar to his own, but very different in many ways. The alien questions whether he is the human being before, the person they once were when this world was new, or the human they will become tomorrow. They have the ability to see the future or the past of Earth through him but he does not know which one it is. As an alien, he recalls his home, a cauldron of chaos thrown among the stars with boundless time, and he reminisces about his evolution to become who he is today. He is a creature without a heart or feelings, and he sees things always as they are without emotions. He questions if his ability to be emotionless is a desirable trait, or if it is something for which he has paid a price.
The song "Alien" is a poem that speaks to the experience of feeling isolated, different, or apart from others. Nimoy's lyrics suggest that the concepts of time, emotion, and identity are each critical in how people relate to the world around them. The alien from Nimoy's song has a unique perspective that allows him to see things from a distance, without bias or emotional attachment. However, Nimoy's lyrics also suggest that this separation from humankind comes at a cost. In a world where emotional bonds and identity are central to people's lives, being free from these things is a double-edged sword that has both benefits and drawbacks.
Line by Line Meaning
From the land of endless night come I, an alien from afar
I come from a distant, dark world and I'm an extraterrestrial.
Spewn forth upon your pleasant sphere
I was unwillingly thrust upon your planet.
So much like you and yet so unalike
Although I'm similar to you, we're also different.
Am I the you before, the you you were when your world was new?
Could I be the version of you that existed when your planet was first born?
Or am I the you, that you will be tomorrow?
Alternatively, am I the version of you from the future?
Through me, you see your future or your past
As a possible version of humanity, I represent the past or the future.
I know not which
I can't tell which one because I'm not certain.
For I come from that spark of light so far in space
I originate from a celestial body that's very distant and very bright.
Your mind the distance could not comprehend
The distance between our worlds is too vast for you to fully grasp.
It was once my home, and calls to me when I look up into the void
Sometimes I long for my old planet when I gaze up at the starry expanse.
But it is not the verdant place your planet is
It wasn't anything like your planet - your planet is far more fertile.
That warms and cools you as the seasons go
On your planet, you experience cyclical weather patterns that make you feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
My mind recalls a seething cauldron flung among the stars
Whereas my planet was a bubbling, volatile place amidst the cosmos.
And satellites and galaxies of boundless time
Where there were stars and galaxies everywhere, stretching out into infinity.
There, through evolution, I became the creature I am now
Through natural selection, I adapted to become this type of being.
No heart or feelings show in me
I'm incapable of experiencing emotions and I have no sympathy or empathy.
Perhaps I am better off than you
In some respects, it could be considered a blessing to lack emotions because I don't experience pain or sadness.
For I see things without emotion, as they are
I'm capable of perceiving concepts or events without being swayed by subjectivity.
Some may envy me, but I pay a price to be from human feelings free
Although some might covet my emotional detachment, I've made sacrifices in order to experience it.
Perhaps in me, you see your destiny
My being an extraterrestrial offers insight into humanity's possible collective fate.
Writer(s): Cy Coben
Contributed by Josiah D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.