MIGHTY ROCK
A new version of the great ‘ Jesus Christ Superstar’ is cause for rejoicing
If you’d come today you would have reached a whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication …
In the first nine months of 1971, a total of only six albums reached the top of the Billboard charts: “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison “Pearl” by Janis Joplin “4 Way Street” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones
“Tapestry” by Carole King.
Oh, and the concept album for “Jesus Christ Superstar” ( music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice), which was actually recorded and released before the musical was ever staged.
Those first five albums are widely considered to be among the greatest in pop/ rock history. The soundtrack for “JC,” as far as I know, has never made a list of the greatest albums of all time, and, like the musical and the movie and most of the various reboots over the years, it has often been derided as schlocky, sacrilegious, middlebrow claptrap.
I don’t care. I’m a major disciple of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” I felt that way when I heard the hit single for the first time ( no doubt on WLS or WCFL), and I still feel that way this week, as I’m keenly anticipating the live staging of “JC” on NBC, with John Legend as Jesus Christ, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, Brandon Victor Dixon as Judas Iscariot, Ben Daniels as Pontius Pilate and Alice Cooper as King Herod.
Yes, Alice Cooper! Hey, the lead singer of Deep Purple once voiced Jesus. The lead singer of Styx has played Pontius Pilate onstage. Why shouldn’t the man who gave us “Welcome to My Nightmare” portray the hedonistic Herod?
“Superstar” the single was released in November 1969.
Murray Head sings the lead. ( Some 15 years later, he would have a monster hit with “One Night in Bangkok” from the musical “Chess,” with lyrics by Tim Rice.) I’m sure the 10- year- old me didn’t even realize it at the time, but “Superstar” is told from the viewpoint of the spirit of Judas Iscariot, who has betrayed Jesus, has committed suicide — and is now challenging Christ:
Buddha, was he where it’s at? Is he where you are?
Could Muhammed move a mountain or was that just PR?
Did you mean to die like that, was that a mistake or
Did you know your messy death would be a record breaker?
Yeah, I could see how the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t exactly thrilled when “Jesus Christ Superstar” became a Broadway sensation, when Time magazine featured Jesus in a glittering robe and sparkling crucifix on its cover, when the movie version hit theaters, etc., etc.
As a kid who attended St. Jude the Apostle in South Holland from grades one through eight, sat through hour after hour of religion classes, attended mass about, oh, a million times, I just thought it was cool there was a rock opera about the last days of Jesus Christ.
I was probably 12 or 13 when I got the soundtrack album, which featured Ian Gillan as Jesus. The guy who pleads with God the Father on “Gethsemane ( I Only Want to Say)” on the “Superstar” soundtrack was the same guy taking the lead on “Smoke on the Water,” awesome!
The cast album also featured Yvonne Elliman’s heartbreaking and beautiful “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” and “Trial Before Pilate,” with Barry Dennen’s Pontius Pilate pleading with Jesus to listen to reason and give Pilate an excuse not to crucify him.
Don’t let me stop, your great self- destruction
Die if you want to, you misguided martyr
I wash my hands of your demolition
Die if you want to, you innocent puppet!
I didn’t find it cheesy or disrespectful or slight. I thought it was a fresh way to tell a story I’d heard a thousand times before.