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JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUND TRACK ALBUM)

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Various Artists (Concept albums & Themed compilations) Jesus Christ Superstar (The Original Motion Picture Sound Track Album) album cover
4.02 | 98 ratings | 8 reviews | 34% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1973

Songs / Tracks Listing

CD 1
1. Overture (5:26)
2. Heaven On Their Minds (4:22)
3. What's The Buzz (2:30)
4. Strange Thing Mystifying (1:50)
5. Then We Are Decided (2:32)
6. Everything's Alright (3:36)
7. This Jesus Must Die (3:45)
8. Hosanna (2:52)
9. Simon Zealotes (4:28)
10. Poor Jerusalem (1:36)
11. Pilate's Dream (1:45)
12. The Temple (5:26)
13. I Don't Know How To Love Him (3:55)
14. Damned For All Time/Blood Money (4:37)

Total Time 49:44

CD 2
1. The Last Supper (7:12)
2. Gethsemane (I Only Want To Say) (5:39)
3. The Arrest (3:15)
4. Peter's Denial (1:26)
5. Pilate And Christ (2:57)
5. King Herod's Song (3:13)
7. Could We Start Again Please? (2:44)
8. Judas' Death (4:38)
9. Trial Before Pilate (6:47)
10. Superstar (3:56)
11. The Crucifixion (2:40)
12. John Nineteen: Forty One (2:20)

Total Time 47:15

Composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice

Line-up / Musicians

Principal vocalists
- Ted Neely - Jesus Christ
- Carl Anderson - Judas Iscariot
- Yvonne Elliman - Mary Magdalene
- Barry Dennen - Pontius Pilate
- Bob Bingham - Caiaphas
- Larry T. Marshall - Simon Zealotes
- Joshua Mostel - King Herod
- Kurt Yaghjian - Annas

Other vocalists and musicians - not credited

Orchestrations / Andrew Lloyd Webber
Conductor / André Previn

Releases information

LP MCA Records 1973
CD MCA Records MCD 11000, 1993
CD (Remastered) MCA Records, 1998

Thanks to NotAproghead for the addition
and to NotAproghead for the last updates
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VARIOUS ARTISTS (CONCEPT ALBUMS & THEMED COMPILATIONS) Jesus Christ Superstar (The Original Motion Picture Sound Track Album) ratings distribution


4.02
(98 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(34%)
34%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(40%)
40%
Good, but non-essential (16%)
16%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

VARIOUS ARTISTS (CONCEPT ALBUMS & THEMED COMPILATIONS) Jesus Christ Superstar (The Original Motion Picture Sound Track Album) reviews


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Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by AtomicCrimsonRush
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars A very good album overall. These tracks stand the test of time and the conceptual theatrical elements are as powerful and emotive as ever.

Highlights include Overture that is a wonderful instrumental conducted with the usual expertise by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The vocal performances are outstanding on such tracks as Everything's Alright, Hosanna, and the showstopper, I Don't Know How To Love Him.

Other great tracks worth a listen include King Herod's Song, Judas' Death, and Trial Before Pilate. The masterpiece is Superstar that is majestic and powerful both musically and lyrically.

Some of the tracks are a bit dull taken on their own, but when listened to from begining to end, the album is a very well crafted theatrical work. The religious themes are not too heavy handed and basically follow the story of Christ as told in the Bible gospels. The music is uplifting and the lyrics are beautiful. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a master of this genre and this version is well worth a listen.

Review by fuxi
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is a fascinating work, and the Norman Jewison film soundtrack has a special meaning for me, since it was the first actual rock album I ever got to know (apart from an LP by French boys choir Les Poppys). I discovered it almost as soon as it was released, and I now know some people prefer Andrew Lloyd Webber's original studio version, which has Ian Gillan as Jesus, but I was raised on this soundtrack, and for me this will always be the One!

You may have noted that I called SUPERSTAR a "rock" album. I could have gone one step further and called it "crossover prog", because that's what it is. I don't care what horrors Lloyd Webber unleashed upon the world later in his career, starting with EVITA (many Progarchives reviewers still have some regard for his all-instrumental VARIATIONS) but in his younger years he rock'n'rolled (and he did psychedelic rock pastiche) like the very best of them.

To tell you the truth, with the help of Tim Rice as lyricist he was considerably more convincing at creating true rock opera than Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, Peter Gabriel or whoever else you want to view as master of the genre. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to belittle the Who (one of my favourite bands) or THE LAMB LIES DOWN (one of my favourite prog albums!) but just think about it... Surely a true opera will move the listener because the characters come alive through arias (i.e. elaborate songs these characters sing on their own), duets, trios and ensembles (i.e. with many characters participating in a song either consecutively and/or simultaneously). Only when all (or most of) those ingredients are present can you talk of true opera. SUPERSTAR has them in spades, THE LAMB and TOMMY don't; they contain many inspired moments, but they're lacking pure drama. ("A Quick One While He's Away" comes closer to the spirit of opera.)

And "rock opera" means your opera also rocks! Well, SUPERSTAR rocks sufficiently, and if Andrew Lloyd Webber had never lost his street cred by (among other things) releasing one tacky West End musical after another, he would probably be seen as one of rock's great innovators. So if you're even mildly interested in exploring the possibilities of rock opera as a genre (full of silly anachronisms and all), give this one a go.

My favourite tracks (ooh, there are so many): Heaven on their Minds / Everything's Alright / This Jesus Must Die / Pilate's Dream / The Last Supper / Gethsemane / Could We Start Again Please, and of course "Trial Before Pilate". A special tour de force, SUPERSTAR's overture is actually a 100% instrumental version of that same "Trial". Now that's a trick Mr. Townshend could never have pulled off...

Review by TheGazzardian
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars I'm not going to lie, the fact that this is here blows my mind, although truthfully it makes sense.

I've been a fan of this musical/rock opera for a long time. After Les Miserables, this one is my favorite thus far. Obviously the two are very different in style and subject matter, with Jesus Christ Superstar of course featuring a rock ensemble as well as all the rest.

I actually have two recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar but this is the one I enjoy more. Truthfully the musical has always had its cheesy moments - for example, the excited "What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happ-en-in!" in What's the Buzz, or in the last supper when the Apostles sing "Always hoped that I'd be an apostle, knew that I would make it if I tried, then we we retire we can write the gospel so they'll still talk about us when we die." They're not exactly terrible but they always seemed a bit awkward to me. However, the vocals in this one are great, just enough conviction but not so much as to make the entire thing seem cheesy, but unfortunately I am not such a fan of the vocalists on the "New Stage Production Soundtrack" recording. They tend to go over the top and bring the album to a much more cheesy level.

This album contains some really great dark or morose moments. Whether you are Christian or not, you have to admit that the story of Jesus' last days really does lend itself well to a lot of great, emotional music. For example, in The Temple, after Jesus has cleared it out of the peddlers, he is approached by many poor and wounded, demanding of him, "See my eyes I can hardly see, see my legs I can hardly stand, I believe you can make me well, see my purse I'm a poor poor man" etc.. It starts off quiet, but slowly more and more voices are added to these lines as they repeat, slowly building up a crescendo of those demanding that Jesus take the woes out of their life. Another tense moment is the confrontation between Jesus and Pilate, the climax of the musical in my mind, where Pilate demands from Jesus to give him a reason not to hurt him. Jesus, having accepted his fate, give Pilate no reason not to do what the masses demand, and so against his desires Pilate flogs Jesus 39 times, counting out each flog with increasing intensity. This is a truly moving piece.

The portrayal of Judas in this musical is interesting. He is of course well known for being the man who betrayed his leader, Jesus Christ, and it would have been all too easy to make him a slimy, simpering fool who cared of naught but money. Instead, he is presented as all too human, feeling disappointed that Jesus is not doing what he expected him to do when he started following Jesus. He feels that he and Jesus have the same desires but that Jesus is botching it up. After Jesus is captured Judas is filled with such guilt that he kills himself. Even though he did wrong, you can't help but sympathise with him (to some extent of course). He is almost a tragic villain.

Of course the real villain are the priests who turned against Jesus, especially Caiaphas (who has a great, deep voice perfect for his character), and their characters are actually represented with enough sleaze that you truly dislike them. King Herod also makes an appearance, in one of the most lighthearted tracks on the album (called of course Herod's Song), which has a bit of a rag-time feel to it. "Oh, you are the Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ? Prove to me that your divine- change my water into wine!"

Of course, you guys aren't just interested in the plot and characters, although it must be noted that of course with this type of music those are the leading factor and as important as anything else. But how is the music? Well, actually, really good! The rock instruments are used to great effect, and some of the guitar lines are really great - maybe a bit of David Gilmour to them, in the sense that there are a lot of long notes that hold a lot of meaning. The riffs are amazing and the whole band/orchestra does a great job of building up tension, creating contrast and drama, and accompanying the singers. There are also some great instrumental moments, such as "Overture", which of course hints at a lot of the themes that are present on the album (as an overture is supposed to) in a really great way.

Overall this is an excellent musical and rock opera, and for the more dramatically inclined prog listeners it really shouldn't be missed. It is imperfect but there are a lot of moments on it that are likely to send shivers down your spine. A good thing, if you ask me.

Review by Gerinski
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars Although the original album is from 1970 my first experience with JCS came with the release of the movie in 1973, I was 7 years old and the insistence of my oldest sister who was then a teenage hippie eventually won over the reluctance from my grandmother who was a very traditional christian, and finally my father took us all to watch the movie. My grandma was quite upset by the unconventional interpretation of Jesus passion but we the kids got fascinated, my sister immediately bought the soundtrack album, books, posters, translations of the lyrics etc and this album became one of the most played at home on par if not more than the other classic albums of the period.

Musically it is one of the most accomplished attempts at mixing orchestral music with rock, with plenty of memorable melodies, recurring themes all over the place, elaborated arrangements and dramatic dynamics, by far the rockiest work I have have heard from Andrew Lloyd Webber and much better than other rock operas of the time like Hair or The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

This is a real rock opera musical so the vocal melodies and singing performances of the different characters are very important, and they are excellent in my opinion. Whether one prefers the original version with Ian Gillan and Murray Head or the movie soundtrack will probably depend on which one you heard first and the most, and for me this means that I prefer the soundtrack. Gillan may have been a great screamer but there is no doubt that Ted Neeley could scream too!

The lyrics by Tim Rice go through the last week of Jesus life with a modern twist and put quite some focus on reminding that the actual responsibles for Jesus execution were not Judas Iscariot or Pilate (who are depicted rather as victims for history) but the Jewish High Priests, Caiaphas in particular, an aspect which I believe is faithful to the biblical accounts but which seems overlooked in many traditional passion plays. This was emphasized in the movie by adding a new song which was not in the original album (Then We Are Decided) which represents the moment when Caiaphas and Annas decide to conspire against Jesus. The other main character is Mary Magdalene providing the contrast of a female voice and some of the most lyrical moments.

Jesus is mainly presented as just a man, without making reference to any divine qualities, no miracles, no resurrection, the only concession to any supernatural powers being his prediction during the last supper that Peter will deny him three times and Judas will betray him. So as in many good concepts the interpretation of his story is up to the listener and it doesn't matter whether you are a believer or not to appreciate the lyrics storyline.

The movie on top offered an original scenography combining the idea of filming on location at Middle East ruins mixed with modern atrezzo and it is drenched with a lovely hippie feel, watch it if you can.

This needs to be listened to from beginning to end, the first disc is very good but the most climactic moments are in the second disc with Gethsemane, Pilate and Christ, Trial Before Pilate or the moving closing adagio John 19:41.

Keeping in mind that this is not a traditional prog-rock album but rather a Broadway musical, this is a great musical work and should appeal to many open minded proggers, for myself it was also an important album in my childhood and will always remain a masterpiece.

Review by octopus-4
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
5 stars I've seen this album on the home page and I have realised that I haven't reviewed yet what has been a fundamental album for me. As the reviewer before me (Gerinski) I met this spectacular rock opera with the movie release, but I've had the possibility to see it on stage in London in 1975. I'm not religious even if I'm from a catholic country and the religious aspect doesn't influence my judgement at all, my background helps me only in better understanding the story and how it has been interpreted.

This is the movie soundtrack. The original piece doesn't have "Then We Are Decided?" and has some little differences in the lyrics, however the musical arrangements are almost the same.

Let's first introduce the singers: Ted Neeley (Jesus) has a powerful and quite high-pitched voice. Suitable for metal clean singing. Consider that Ian Gillan has interpreted this part in the first version. They are not much dissimilar. I have lost his tracks. He sings as chorist in Meat Loaf's debut "Bat Out Of Hell" and this is all I know of his career after the movie.

Carl Anderson (Judas), recently passed away had one of the most beautiful voices that I've ever heard and a big part of the movie success is due to him and of course to his character. Unfortunately, out of this movie he has done just some barely listenable soul music with a short excursion in newage. It's a pity seen a so big talent wasted in tis way.

Yvonne Elliman (Magdalene) is a great interpreter. She's probably the only one capable of playing as actress other than singing. She's very expressive and it's a pity that the video- music of the 80s has ignored her. There's one song sung from her in the Saturday Night's Fever soundtrack. Also the other main interpreters would deserve to be mentioned but this wants to be a review, not a book.

Now the songs:

As in classic opera the overture is a short suite which anticipates the main musical themes of the opera. After you have listened to the whole album I suggest coming back to this track to better appreciate it.

The story starts immediately with what I consider the best song of the whole opera. "Heaven On Their Minds" is a rock masterpiece sung by a great vocalist. This version can't be compared to the original one in terms of vocals. The guitar sound is acid, vaguely inspired to the Californian psychedelia of these times.

"What's The Buzz" fades in.The Apostles (Peter's voice is another excellent one) ask Jesus about his plans. Unlike Jesus they live on Earth, but instead of calming them he starts speaking of his bad omen. Then Yvonne Elliman tries to restore the situation but Judas accuses Jesus for his "lazyness". Magdalene is a pretest to express all his hast for the inaction. The rock-blues of What's the Buzz is replaced by the melodic "Strange Thing Mistifying". Now it's the turn of Jesus to get angry setting all the apostles to an operatic choir.

A sudden transition introduces the priests who are the bad guys. The contrast between the falsetto of Kurt Yaghjian and the very bass voice of Bob Bingham appears for the first time and wiil be one of the remarkable characteristics of the opera. This song has been added to the movie and is not present in the theatrical version.

Back to the apostles, now it's Mary Magdalene who sings one of the big commercial successes taken from this soundtrack. She shos all her love to Jesus and Judas takes again the pretest to attck him. This is the first real clash between the two and it's underlined by a very rocking final. This is also one of the most moving moments of the movie when after the harsh discussion Jesus takes the hand of Judas.

Next there's one of the most famous tunes which has received also a lot of parodies during the years, one very funny from the Italian band Elio e le Storie Tese. It's where Caiaphas bass voice resounds strong, one of the topic songs. Up to now it has been just an introduction to the characters, now the story begins.

Even "Hosanna" is quite famous. It's sung by a choir alternated woth Jesus and is about the entrance of Jesus in Jerusalem (what will cause the reaction of the priests and the Romans). Musically it's one of my least favoorite songs but it doesn't mean that it's poor.

Just to show us the historical moment, "Simon Zealotes" appears with a good ballet and one of the funkiest songs, but the piano intro is one of the proggiest things. It's just an appearance for another impressive singer (Larry T. Marshall). The short "Poor Jerusalem" is Jesus' answer to him. It's a short acoustic piece which anticipates the appearance of Pilate (Larry Dennen) It's a finger picking guitar which makes me think to Pink Floyd's "Crumbling Land", bat more and more dark. "Pilates Dream" is his personal omen about his role in the crucifiction and its conequences.

Now a famous episode from the Vangelis (no relation with the Greek keyboardist). Jesus goes to the temple and founds it full of merchants. In the early 70s it's a metaphor of the capitalism and it's more than actual even today. The choral theme will come back several times later (with the lepers and the trial). Not the best song, but very functional inside the opera.

After all this drama an intimistic song by Yvonne Elliman. "I Don't Know How To Love Him" has been another big success and it's a stupendous love song but I must say that I don't see anything prog in it.

"Damned For All Time/Blood Money" is the most uptime and rhythmated rock songs of the album. Opened by a Hendrixian guitar solo gives room to another excellent performance of Judas. The first song of the medley is closed by Hannah who reprises "This Jesus Must Die", then Blood Money is just a coda with Judas realizing which kind of betrayal he has just done.

"The Last Supper", "Gethsemane" and "The Arrest" can be taken as a single song and are what is closer to a prog suite. It's opened by the Apostles choir, very melodic and with a liturgic mood, then there's the last discussion between Judas and Jesus, closed by the second with one of the most powerful high-pitched screams that I've ever heard "Get Ooooooout"" The guitar closes this first part, then Jesus remains alone and climbs the hill to speak to his father. This part has the most moving lyrics and I think wasn'tt liked by the catholic church because Jesus shows entirely his human side and his doubts and concerns. The song is sad, acoustic and is more or less based on the same chords of Pilate's Dream (I don't think it's a coincidence. Then The lepers appear and the musical theme changes again (the same of the temple). AfterJesus is covered by them we go back the the site of the last supper. "The Arrest" is opened by a reprise of What's the Buzz and is closed by the intro of "The Last Supper". End of the suite. Another reprise for "Peter's Denial" which is closed by another melodic short piece of Yvonne Elliman. It's followed by "Pilate And Christ". I think Pink Floyd's "The Trial" is partially in debt with this song. Here is Pilate's voice which is remarkable.

"King Herod's Song" is a funny interlude based on an easy tune and a dixie-NewOrleans rhythm. The trombone has a bit of Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's)

Time for the last melodic love song of Yvonne Elliman. "Could We Start Again Please?"is the transition to go back in the drama. "Judas Death" is tha darkest moment together with the crucifiction, but while the crucifiction is a noisy collage, Judas Death is a proper song with Judas screaming ad crying "You have murdered me".

"Trial Before Pilate" is where the theme of the Temple is reprised for the third time. It has its importance in the story but if there's a track that I sometimes skip is this one, specially because it's closed by the 39 lashes with Pilate counting the lashes over the guitar theme which introduced "Heaven On Their Minds".

"Superstar" is one of the most well-known songs ever. I've got tired quite soon of its main theme, but the soul/funky part with Judas and the angels is one of my preferred. What remains is tragedy, darkness and noise. This is how the story must end, very few to say.

Even with some weak moments this is a masterpiece, I don't know how much prog, but it has been fundamental for me. I have learned English thanks to its lyrics and I have acquired the taste for concepts albums thank to it,

Please forgive me if there's anything wrong, but this is one of tha few cases of a review written only basing on my memory without relistening to the album. The only real negative thing is the production that's surely below the quality standards, even for MCA,

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
4 stars I will try a perilous exercise in reviewing both the original rock opera album and the movie that was shot a few years (two or three) later in the same text, while trying to refrain my atheist verve. A relative unknown, Tim Rice came up with the idea and the main JCS musical theme (with an mesmerizing descending chord riff), and through a certain course of events, he was put up with the well-known Andrew Lloyd-Webber and the rest is history. JCS is among the most famous rock opera ever written and one of the few that got ts successful adaptation on film. In my book, it ranks up there, with The Who's Quadrophenia and Tommy operas, and the amazing Broadway musical Hair (written by Rado, Ragni and McDermott). Unlike the two Who pieces, JCS also had a long career as live on-stage musical, along with the afore-mentioned Hair.

As far as the music is concerned, the rock opera and the film soundtrack are fairly close to each other (well side 4 is rather different, since the original score was modified for not being cinematic enough), the main difference residing in the singers being totally, if you'll except that Yvonne Elliman (in Magdalene's role) played/sang on both versions. But you won't find prestigious names like Ian Gillan (JC), Murray Head (Judas) Mike d'Abo (Herod) or John Gustafsson (Quatermass) as Simon, Madeleuine Bell (Stones The Crow) and many other characters were staged by equally good singers on the scene. This hardly means that the movie's singers (but dancers as well) are any less worthy, though. On the purely instrumental/musical side, the average proghead will be happy to find Soft-Nucleus man Karl Jenkins, Chris Spedding, Jeff Clyne and John Marshall, a few of the UK jazz-rock horn-men stalwarts (such as Harry Beckett and Kenny Wheeler) and the rest of Quartermass' line up. Other names include Mercer (Mayall), Hubbard (almost everyone on the scene) and Tony Ashton (G&D) and many more.

Progheads will also be pleased that JCS' music is very much progressive rock (the full-blown kind) with plenty of time sigs, complex interplay and plenty of mood changes, and while the vocals must remain clearly intelligible for the public to follow the storyline, but it doesn't hinder the general "prog" qualities of this ambitious oeuvre. If not familiar with this "opera", one could've feared that the music would veer outside the rock sphere, but outside the ridiculous and goofy King Herod piece (for obvious "villain" reasons), it remains "rock", and extremely enjoyable. Even the evil priests parts and Roman authorities are treated with full respect, whether in the opera and in the movie; this, despite the priest's sinister very low-range vocals, and Pilate's relatively twee vocals. Special attention was carried out with and to Judas' parts; both in the story (it was written from his point of view) and Murray Head's vocals are at least as impressive as JCS' Gillan vocals. However, in the movie, the Judas part is carried by a great black actor/singer/dancer, which probably nowadays would raise a few objections (black = traitor?) from the equal opportunity inquisition tribunals. But nothing of that was intentional in such innocent times, as the blessed early 70's' Love & Peace era.

The movie was shot on a very low budget with no real decor but a desert and oasis close to old temple ruins. Only the fortress and city gates/entrances had some kind of scaffolding structure, the whole set being made-believe that all material needed was transported in a single school bus, but obviously the filming ware and crew was not taken into account. The choreography is overall very interesting, modern and slightly acrobatic. The setting is very much a Palestinian one, maybe even slightly anti-Zionist, as evidenced by the law forces being represented with the apparition of supposedly Israeli tanks to break festivities and repression. In that regard, the Pilate and King Herod pieces (better in the original opera than in the movie) maybe served as inspiration to Roger Waters' The Trial piece on his own conceptual Floydian tour de force The Wall.

All of the movie's images are of course based on the original score, but a lot of the talent of the director is that the movie's images simply magnify the power of the music. In that regard the two Who opera/movies don't manage this stunt nearly as successfully, though Milos Forman's movie adaptation of the Hair Musical manages it better than JCS, IMHO. Of course, Rice's main JCS theme, repeated sporadically throughout the course of the opera, plays a magical and spell-binding role, the descending riff helping in the hypnotic and enthralling mood.of the project. This repetition of the theme helps out a lot, while the Hair opera doesn't and must rely on pure new musical highs like the opening Aquarius and closing Sunshine/Flesh Failures. However, to JCS' merit, the actual music remained the same on the movie and album (or remained faithful) while the Hair movie saw a full funkier revamping of the music, while the vocals were more or less faithfully respected. In Hair's defence, there was more thazn a decade between, the creation of the musical and its movie adaptation.

Despite being an uncompromising proghead, I'd also tend to admit I prefer the version without the "prog" singer and prefer the movie, because the images carry the opera during its inevitable weaker moments, because there are a few, because of its all-too wordy storyline , something The Who avoided with some brilliant instrumental passages. Enough vain (and totally subjective) comparisons: despite my fairly-uncompromising atheism, I am forced to recognize that this JCS thingie is a very successful one, whether in its original vinyl form or its filmed version.

Review by siLLy puPPy
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars Everybody has heard of Andrew Lloyd Webber's collaborative effort with Tim Rice named JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR where Webber crafted the absolute perfect music to fit Rice's lyrics creating one of the catchiest and most widely acclaimed rock opera's of all time. While it's often thought of today as a Broadway production turned album and film, it was in fact started as a rock opera album that debuted in 1970 as a rock album following late 60s rock opera debuts by The Pretty Things (S.F. Sorrow in 1968) and The Who (Tommy in 1969). The Broadway play debuted in 1971 and two years later after the phenomenal success of both album and play came the film which in 1973 which was also an outstanding success. This particular release is the soundtrack of the film and just as captivating as the original album.

Generally speaking i really have to love the music on a soundtrack to want to listen to it apart from the visual aspects that are inextricably tied to every cadence and qualifying musical correspondence to the theme at hand. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is one of those albums that holds its own as the original rock opera album, film or soundtrack (haven't seen the play but hear it's good too). Well, i love the original 1970 rock opera but the 1973 film soundtrack does have its own special characteristics that make it an essential supplement to your JC SUPERSTAR experience despite not equalling the overall impact of the first release.

First of all, the production of this release is a lot better and a whole bunch of new tracks were included to make this one a more exhaustive depiction of the story. This includes "Then We Decided" which is conspiracy between Caiaphas and Annas which contemplates the demise of our hero. Also new are extra lyrics in "Hosanna" which is a Mary and Peter duet in "Could We Start Again Please?" There are other differences but have been described in better detail than i care to elaborate upon. All i can say is that i really love listening to this. It does have an early 70s type of dated feel to it but it's done so well that when i have the desire to hear an early rock opera, the JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR definitely hits the spot. The story is an enthralling aspect to understand the philosophy and struggles of the man who managed to get a whole religion to carry on his name.

Latest members reviews

3 stars This version of the musical is not really bad, it's just not able to stand up to the original cast recording with Ian Gillian and Murray Head. (Which I have already blessed with 5 stars.) The singers here do not seem to have the energy and vibrancy of the original players, and the music doesn't ... (read more)

Report this review (#282525) | Posted by mohaveman | Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | Review Permanlink

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