Jesus Christ Superstar, The Original Album....

[Yodelgoat]

I grew up with JCSS, and it has always been great music to my ears. I just never could picture Jesus as a screamer like Gillan. Its not exactly a theological masterpiece, But the passion was wonderful, and I get that. Without it, you got nothin' as far as a musical presentation. Incidentally, hearing "whats the Buzz" (and "the lemon song" - quite thematic a contradiction, but there it is..) Inspired me to learn the bass. Yeah, JCSS has kickin bass throughout. I still love the total 70's vibe I get off that whole album. I haven't heard the remix, but I hope they didn't kill it. It needs to sound 70-ish to keep its charm.

[scags]

Like everyone else, I had it when it came out, but haven't heard it since the early 70's.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Meh. He's a hell of a singer but I don't care for the Broadway-style hotdogging vocal mannerisms. I'll stick with Gillian, thank you.

[yoyiceu]

Paul Davis, singer for protoprog greats Gracious! is also in it, if I recall correctly.

[Hurm]

I happen to love a lot of the voices in the film version (maybe because it was the version I knew first and have grown accustomed to). Annas and Caiaphas (Kurt Yaghjian and Bob Bingham) are awesomely creepy!

[UnephenStephen]

my fave from the original album (love that 7 thing in the middle)..

[Duncan Glenday]

I find that I always listen to this record this time of year. I guess Ian Gillan got most of the publicity for his role as Jesus, but the real "superstar" (pun intended ) is Murray Head as Judas. Gillan reportedly did all of his vocals in one three hour session which is pretty amazing! I guess those were the days of come on in and roll tape! I also find the other performances and the overall writing to be exceptional.

A few prog and rock luminaries are involved with this: Kark Jenkins, John Marshall, Chris Spedding, Henry McCulloch and of course, Gillan.

Some great Good Friday listening!

Nice post - nice thread. Brilliant album.

"Gesthemane" is Gillan's greatest performance, IMO.

JCS is tightly connected with the 1973 TV movie for me.

Meh - I was never impressed by the movie.

I saw the stage show in London, though, and thatwas excellent - and included a few songs that had originally been written but could not be fitted onto the album.

[Wilton Said...]

Love this release. Very inspirational for me that resulted in my release The Butterfly Plague.

Wilton

[fictionmusic]

I saw the live show, I have the original album, and I enjoyed them both immensely.

I saw the movie and hated it. It lost the community rock band scene and edged toward Broadway.

[Smörgåsbord]

Meh - I was never impressed by the movie.

I saw the stage show in London, though, and thatwas excellent - and included a few songs that had originally been written but could not be fitted onto the album.

But you cannot take the stage show with you, can you? JCS is music AND theater, and I would love to see a recorded show that has the feel as the 1973 TV movie. I'm sorry but in the case of JCS any soundtrack alone doesn't cut it. For me, that is.

[UnephenStephen]

another groovy tune..

[J. D. Mack]

One of my favorite albums of all time (and one that I also listen to at this time of year). One thing not mentioned so far about this album - there were lots of attempts to marry rock and orchestral music in the late 1960s, and JCS is the only one to nail it, as far as I'm concerned. This is not a rock album with orchestral sweetening or an orchestral album with some rock instruments. It's a singular *thing* that blends instruments from both worlds into a seamless whole.

And the bass playing on "What's The Buzz" is possibly the most creative bass playing over two chords ever.

J. D.

[fictionmusic]

One of my favorite albums of all time (and one that I also listen to at this time of year). One thing not mentioned so far about this album - there were lots of attempts to marry rock and orchestral music in the late 1960s, and JCS is the only one to nail it, as far as I'm concerned. This is not a rock album with orchestral sweetening or an orchestral album with some rock instruments. It's a singular *thing* that blends instruments from both worlds into a seamless whole.

And the bass playing on "What's The Buzz" is possibly the most creative bass playing over two chords ever.

J. D.

I tend to agree. Some beautiful moments here with a totally modern ensemble.

That's why the movie never worked for me; the orchestrations were totally different with lots of pit brass and schmaltzy arrangements.

[Rand Kelly]

When I saw the movie it was already on tv and in those days nobody was running their tv through their stereo,so there was little to get excited about. I just thought,this is what it is and maybe I can find something to like about it. I agree that Gillan has always been the best Jesus in this play. Steve Balsamo,is he the same guy who is part of Freudiana?

[YESHEAD777]

I will always be partial to the movie soundtrack and esp. Ted Neely. His "Gesthemane" rocks my world everytime I hear it!

[ChrisXymphonia]

Steve Balsamo,is he the same guy who is part of Freudiana?

Don't think so but I might be wrong. He is however all over Woolfson's POE musical. Too bad that one never got properly recorded with Alan Parsons at the helm of the engineers / producers desk. There is a reasonable quality recording of the song Immortal (with full orchestra) recorded at the same gig as the earlier posted Gethsemane. Too bad the person who recorded Immortal from the tv broadcast of that show recorded it too loud so it is a bit distorted at times.

[Pekka]

I've seen two staged productions of this, it really works as a theater piece, it's just that the pit bands didn't sound like this record. That hyperactive bass playing style had gone completely out of fashion, unfortunately.

I was involved in one staged production and tried and was allowed to play in that "hyperactive" style. Great fun!

[Guitarplyrjvb]

Here's a link with an interesting bio of Alan Spenner, the bassist on this recording.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alan-...r-mn0000931986

I had no idea the guy was such an integral part of Roxy Music and was in Spooky Tooth. He also has links to King Crimson, Free, McCartney & Wings, Joe Cocker and Ted Nugent. He apparently also had his own band, Kokomo. Anybody heard of this? How is the Spooky Tooth record, "The Last Puff", that he's on? I really need to hear more of this guy's playing!

I've also heard The Grease Band's eponymous record is very good. Anyone heard this? Apparently it's still in print.

[TheLongshot]

It shows how much I haven't paid attention to JCS, but I didn't realize that Gethsemane was from it. The version I'm familiar with is Vanden Plas' cover:



I know I've seen the TV version a couple of times, but it never made an impression on me. That being said, Gethsmane is an awesome song.

[bigbassdrum]

Here's a link with an interesting bio of Alan Spenner, the bassist on this recording. I had no idea the guy was such an integral part of Roxy Music....

He's excellent on the live "Heart Still Beating ..."

[DarthVander]

An all-time favourite of mine too, and a huge influence vocally. Just love all the voices on the original album, especially Gillan and Murray Head of course.

Paul Davis, singer for protoprog greats Gracious! is also in it, if I recall correctly.

Yep, he sings the part of Peter (he only has a couple of short lead parts though) - that's what made me check out Gracious, really good stuff.

The 1973 movie has some great voices, not really a fan of how they keep messing with the phrasing of songs though.

Gillan will always be the one true Jesus for me, but this live version by Neeley has some absolutely incredible screams:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rzw3UC98k

Balsamo is a great singer technically, but completely lacks any rock edge in his voice or delivery. In general Webber seems to have gone for really watered down, West End-style interpretations on subsequent versions (1996 London cast, 2000 movie and the current arena tour).

The best version (after the original album of course) has to be the 1992 Australian one - some really cool modern (well, I guess now slightly dated-sounding 90s-style) arrangements and great singers - apparently Webber hated, which usually means it's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofdOLB4krEwhttp://

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Wow, that Aussie "Heaven on their Minds" kicks ass.

[mkeneally]

A couple of people have referred to the film as a TV movie; in the US, at least, it was first released theatrically. Of course it's been shown on TV a zillion times since.

The first live rock show I ever saw was a concert presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971 - still have the badge I got that night! The guitar intro to "Damned For All Time" that night was one of the crucial events which made me realize that I wanted to do music for the rest of my life, preferably onstage somewhere.

[thos]

The first live rock show I ever saw was a concert presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971 - still have the badge I got that night! The guitar intro to "Damned For All Time" that night was one of the crucial events which made me realize that I wanted to do music for the rest of my life, preferably onstage somewhere.

I'm curious - Who were the performers?

[Guitarplyrjvb]

Another thing about this work is the astoundingly young ages of the composers. I think Andrew Lloyed Webber was 21 and Tim Rice, the lyricist, was 25. Pretty precocious! Ian Anderson was in his very early 20's when he wrote Thick as a Brick and Passion Play. Mozart was....well you get the idea!