At this time of year, without fail, this is the album that gets a lot of play in my household. This is the only Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice work that I fully enjoy. It's often the case that what is supposed to be a rock musical ends up sounding more like rock music with its guts ripped out then resurrected as elevator music.

Jesus Christ Superstar has the best of both worlds. It's theatrical, literate, engaging and it's real rock music strongly influenced by psychedelic rock. It's that injection that makes the whole story of Jesus' final few days all the more intoxicating and exciting..and a bit naughty!

Webber and Rice originally intended the project as a stage show but couldn't back the show financially and had to find another route to find interest in their project - record a rock album instead. It worked. The album became a huge hit, then later a successful Broadway show of its own. Legendary director Norman Jewison would soon tackle the production as a fully-realized film project.

Sometimes I've felt like Rice's work has been overshadowed by Webber's lazy musical compositions. I find his music to be repetitious and bland. I know that musicals are about themes and that these themes are repeated for effect, but it seems like Webber would rely on two or three themes to carry a show. JCS doesn't feel repititious to me, and the lyrical content is really smart. My favorite songs:

Heaven on Their Minds
Everything's Alright
This Jesus Must Die
Hosana
Simon Zealotes
The Temple (love this one!)
I Don't Know How to Love Him
The Last Supper
King Herod's Song
Trial Before Pilate

I know I sound like an old man, but I wish rock music was this exciting and theatrical anymore. Webber and Rice were so young to be so informed about rock and it's potential as a musical. They weren't the first to do it, but they killed it (er, uh...nevermind) with this one.

There have been many releases of this over the years. The first one above is the one I grew up on, but the other is my favorite. Any other fans?


...
[Edited 3/2/06 15:27pm]

I haven't seen the whole thing, but the bit I saw was like a parody. I literally thought it was Monty Python or some other comic genius.

I know I'm not being fair, since I haven't seen the whole thing, and I don't know it well like Evita. But Evita seemed more natural.

NDRU said:

The movie has its good and bad points, but I was referring to the music. That much I think is flawless.

King Herod's Song is the shiznit.

I love the movie and soundtrack. I really can't get into the theatrical version.

Never saw the movie, but the album always was a Lenten tradition in my household. I can remember coming home from Stations of the Cross on Fridays; my parents would always play the entire album, front to back. Last year, I went and bought my own copy of the album, and was surprised to realize that I remember almost every single song on the soundtrack.

Axchi696 said:

I had the exact same experience. It'd been many years since I'd listened to it when I rediscovered it a few years back. I thought I'd remember a song or two, but most of them were filed away in the back of my mind.

“One thing I’ll say for him, Jesus is cool” –Ciaphas

Wow. I have been wanting to start a thread about JCS for a while now. Recently, I caught the movie on TV and watched it with my 8-year-old nephew. He cracked my up when he asked me why everybody was “singing like James Brown.”

The music is phenomenal. I’ve never been what you call an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, but he and Tim Rice did their thing here. It was their first, and best collaboration. No one since has had the talent or nerve to bring such an innovative project to the mainstream. Who would have thought that Judas could be convincingly portrayed as a tragic hero (thanks in big part to the late, great Carl Anderson)? The music, from my favorite era of Rock, is fire. The lyrics are genius. I love Ian Gillan as Jesus on the concept album (though I’ll always be partial to Ted Neeley from the movie version.) The guitar is hot, especially on that reoccurring lick that I believe is titled “39 lashes. I’m actually surprised no hip-hop artist has sampled that one yet. My favorite songs:

-Everything’s Alright
-Superstar (as performed by Anderson in his white, Elvis-meets-the-J5 getup
)
-The Temple
-Gethsemane
-Damned for All Time (kinda reminds me of the Batman theme)
-The Last Supper (song that lead my nephew to make his “James Brown” comment)
-Could We Start Again Please (from the film, I like Yvonne Elliman’s voice better here than on the slightly whiny “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”)
-John 19:41 (beautiful, yet so somber)

JCS has been done and redone, but the 1973 movie is perfection. Musically, visually, cast-wise…it is more intelligent, more creative, and even more spiritual that any “passion play” I’ve ever seen. It’s not really a “religious” film, meaning it does not present the events in the Bible as undisputable, one-dimensional truths. Nor does it try to convert. In fact, it questions many modern Christian beliefs, while smartly leaving everything open to interpretation by the individual watching it.
In terms of format, it’s no stretch to say that the movie inspired what would eventually become the golden age of music videos almost a decade later. The scenes are separated into musical vignettes that could stand up on their own on a music channel, even today. You can almost see shades of “Thriller” in one scene where a mob of lepers ambush Jesus in a somewhat zombie-like fashion. Overall, each scene is great to look at and listen to. (Angels with big white afros, crazy-ass Simon and co doing backflips in the desert lol, lots of fun.)






[Edited 3/2/06 19:47pm]

SefraNSue said:

I like her voice and I like that song. One thing's for sure - Helen Reddy's version (which was a bigger hit just before Elliman's version made radio airplay) was whiny! I'll post another time on some of my fave lyrics from this. They really are incredible.

RipHer2Shreds said:

The movie is dissed at the expense of the music. It is a wonderful soundtrack.