Tenebrae

Today's Jesus Christ Superstar was arranged by Nick Ingman (a conductor/arranger who has worked with many in the pop music world as well as in film scoring; Shakespeare in Love is one of his more famous projects) and released in 1971. The LP includes a letter of reference from none other than Tim Rice, who sounds in it as if he was listening over my shoulder this Lent:
"Since the original record release of our rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in October 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and I have been very lucky in that many musicians and singers have recorded their own treatments of selections from the opera. Some of these versions of Superstar have differed wildly from our original recording but as long as the new interpretation stands up in its own right as an interesting piece of musical production we don't mind whether it's performed by a symphony orchestra, a rock group, a middle-of-the-road choir or by a brass band (all of which has happened). If it's serious, and if it's musical, we are delighted and feel it can only help the work as a whole."
He goes on to particularly praise Nick's orchestrations, which are certainly pretty interesting, a mix of symphony and chorus not quite as easy-listening as Percy Faith but not quite rock and roll, either.
The other interesting bit in Tim Rice's blurb is toward the end, where he says, "I knew that we had no need to worry about Nick's work not being serious or musical, and I knew that we would have no need to avoid speaking to Nick for the next few years. (There are a few gentlemen who have tackled Superstar in such a way that I do not feel a strong friendship would be forged were Andrew and I to meet them.)"
Ouch!
And speaking of arrangements not quite passing muster with the creators, Greg sent me this li'l tidbit. Guess I won't be listening to that version next year!

The Disciples

I know nothing about this recording of Jesus Christ Superstar other than it is from the 70s, so I am not going to comment on it. Instead, let's continue our wrapping-up theme. Today I want to talk about my New Favorite Line.
I call it that even though I don't think I had an Old Favorite Line. I have favorite songs--early on in my life, I could just listen to "Everything's All Right" over and over, and later my allegiance switched to the "Trial Before Pilate." But individual lyrics? None of them stood out in particular.
Then I engaged in this Lenten experiment. When I heard the original Broadway cast recording, a moment came in the "Trial Before Pilate" I had not heard in the recordings I knew before this Lent--the brown album, the movie soundtrack, or Jesus Christ Superstar: A Resurrection (a version we will get to soon). It came right after Pilate seethes:
"Look at your Jesus Christ.
I'll agree--he's mad. Ought to be locked up.
But--that is not a reason to destroy him.
He's a sad little man,
Not a king or god--
Not a thief--I need a crime!"
The crowd answers him in staccato rhythm. I couldn't make out what they were saying in this version. I heard the same shouts in the BBC Radio 2 version but still couldn't make them resolve into intelligible speech. Finally I had to consult Greg. He said the mystery lines were:
"Kill him! He says
He's God--He's a blasphemer.
He'll conquer you, and us,
And every Caesar!"
(In some versions they say "And even Caesar"--I prefer "every.")
Why is this so fantastic? Because it cuts right to the heart of the Jesus Problem. Far from being "harmless," as Pilate later claims Jesus is, He is the most dangerous character there can be. And killing Him is not going to solve the problem He poses. Brendan Kennelly sums up the paradox well in his Book of Judas poem "No Image Fits":
"I had not understood that annihilation
Makes him live with an intensity I cannot understand."

Holy Week!

We are on the last week of Jesus Christ Superstar!
So, first up--the original Australian cast from 1972. Good Pilate in this one, and the Judas is willing to go off the beaten path of notes more often than some. Very effective use of a children's chorus singing "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ/Who are you, what have you sacrificed?"--especially because gradually a women's chorus picks up the chant. Jesus tends to indicate Drama by singing...at...half...speed.
I'm going to do some summing-up on my Lenten experience this week. First, let's take a look at how the decades are represented. Now, this isn't the full list--Greg still has a couple recordings to send me, but of the thirty-eight I have (yes, he did find a replacement for the duplicate), by far the most come from the 1970s--eighteen in all. And of those, none are from later than, I think, 1975; they cluster mostly around 1972. The next most-represented decade is the 2000s: thirteen recordings there. I also have seven recordings from the '90s, and none--NONE--from the '80s (unless, as I said, the recordings I have not gotten yet are from that benighted decade).
I would say that the largest stylistic variation are in the 70s recordings--what with Moog Superstar and The Soul of Jesus Christ Superstar and the two--count'em two--easy-listening offerings. The 2000s had Surferstar and what was billed by the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra as a "21st century tribute," but even these were pretty faithful to the original, whereas Soul and Moog just spun off into the ether.

Took a break from listening to Jesus Christ Superstar...

...in order to watch Jesus Christ Superstar.
Yes, it wasn't on the schedule yet, but tonight I sat down with a few friends (several of whom had never seen it) to watch the 1973 movie version.
We had palms on hand as decorations, which made one of our number speculate that the evening would be like a Rocky Horror event in which we'd become part of the action; this didn't happen (well, okay, there was a little bit of dancing along to the "Simon Zealotes" scene) but we did provide some commentary as we watched, a la MST3K. I'd never before noticed the similarity of the "Damned for All Time" riff to the Batman theme!
I promised some additional commentary on the emotional effectiveness of kitsch--why, in spite of my instinct to sneer at it, I still found The Living Strings and Living Voices' JCS heartwrenching. The best quote I can offer on the subject comes from Bill Flanagan's book U2 at the End of the World. He's reporting on a conversation Bono was having with friends about meeting the artist Jeff Koons. Koons told Bono that the most generous kind of art lets its audience decide how to react to it. Flanagan says, "Koons's philosophy suggests that with so much of contemporary culture devoted to trying to con some emotional response from people, the most honest art is a glass sculpture of a puppy, or one of those paintings of little waifs with big eyes--because that obvious, corny, simplemended art that wears its intentions on its sleeve is the only art attempting no subliminal manipulation."

Can you believe it took this long for it to happen?

I got a repeat Jesus Christ Superstar today. Given the crazy logistics of tracking down 40 different versions of the rock opera, you'd have thought this would have happened sooner, but Greg is a resourceful man. Nevertheless, today's version was the London recording featuring Alice Cooper as Herod. So--no new review today, and I am not going to listen to the next recording until I confirm that Mr. Matzker found a spare. Not to say that 39 versions of JCS doesn't also have a ring to it...

Sing Along With Judas

Today's Jesus Christ Superstar was from 1971. "Music from the Rock Opera Played by The Living Strings and Living Voices."
Quoth the Greg Matzker: "All I am going to say is, don't hate me for this one."
If earlier this week we had elevator music JCS, today we had glee club JCS. The Living Strings, Google informs me, were the creation of RCA Records when mood music had its heyday. All right--do you remember the pilot of WKRP in Cincinnati, where DJ Johnny Fever (who wasn't Johnny Fever yet, but that's another story) played The Hallelujah Tabernacle Choir's rendition of "You're Having My Baby?" Think of that, and you get a sense of what this was like. WIth very precise, clean harmonies surrounded by swelling strings from some unbilled European orchestra, male voices and female voices trade off on lines like "Nazareth, your famous son/should have stayed a great unknown/Like his father carving wood, he'd have made good."
The name should have been a tipoff. Hey, at least it wasn't Living Marimbas--another actual part of the Living Strings cohort. But "Living Voices"? As opposed to "Dead Voices," I suppose, which are nototoriously hard to record?
Maybe I shouldn't admit this, but as I listened I started finding it emotionally affecting in spite of, or perhaps because of, the off-the-charts kitsch. More to come when I am more awake...

Argentinian JCS, 2007

The ending countdown has begun...we are in the last ten days of Lent (we don't count Sundays, remember) so these are our final ten Jesus Christ Superstars!
Can't say much tonight as I am very tired. But I should mention that I watched a bit of the movie Romero this evening after listening to my daily Passion opera, and all of the talk by well-intentioned people advising Romero not to take the sacrificial path...yeah, it sounded kinda familiar. "We are occupied...have you forgotten how put down we are?"

1974 Dutch JCS

This Jesus Christ Superstar surprised me. I didn't expect such drastically shortened versions of songs, for one thing. It was (mostly) sung in Dutch, so I'm not sure which verses hit the cutting room floor, but with a number like "Damned for All Time," where Judas usually explains quite a bit about his motives for turning Jesus in, he got maybe a couple of lines sung before we were moving on. Any time there was customarily a few verses, there'd be at least one missing--with the exception I think of "King Herod's Song." Why the heavy Reader's Digesting of the music? Was it to get the whole musical on one LP instead of two?
Another surprise was the much more prominent role of choruses. On "King Herod's Song," for instance, every refrain ("So you are the Christ, yes, the great Jesus Christ" or words to that effect) was sung by a whole troupe of voices. It made it seem like the crucifixion was a far more communal act instead of the decision of a few powerful men.
The occasional smattering of English into the mix was something else that got my attention--in "Hosanna" the crowd sang, "Hey JC, JC, won't you smile at me?" instead of the Dutch equivalent, and in "Superstar" they sang "Who are you, what have you sacrificed?" and "Do you think you're what they say you are?"
I'll never know if they would have done the 39 lashes in English or Dutch, since the "Trial Before Pilate" was cut to bare bones. The only thing left was a staccato shout of the crowd and Pilate's final lines, and the only reason I know it was Pilate's final lines was that the last word sounded like "marionette"--and the English original has him ending with "Die, if you want to, you innocent puppet!"

Heaven's Hold Music

The aptly-named Percy Faith released his take on Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971, the year after "the brown album" came out, some months before the first Broadway performances, and two years before the movie. In the early 70s, JCS must have been inescapable...how inescapable, you ask? Percy Faith had a minor Adult Contemporary hit with "Everything's All Right"--a finger-snappin' string-heavy easy-listening instrumental. Imagine--you could have heard it playing in the elevator!
He doesn't do "Damned For All Time" or "Judas' Death" as mood music, which is just as well.
He also released an album of orchestral arrangements of Beatles songs in 1970. These two recordings are sold together these days. Should I comment on what it would be like to go from listening to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (with its "The way things are going/they're gonna crucify me" chorus) to "The Trial Before Pilate"? No, I don't think I should.

Drew Sarich as Jesus (Really)

Okay, so I was wrong. Yesterday's production of Jesus Christ Superstar featured St. Louis boy-who-done-good Drew Sarich as Judas. Today's was the one where he played Jesus. Greg wanted me to hear both versions so I could decide which I liked better.
And I have to say, Jesus wins hands down. If only for "Gethsemane"--the best version I've heard yet. Sarich is able to pull off the trick of going through the emotional wringer of Jesus' agony in the garden while still nailing all the high notes. More often I've heard the actor playing Jesus being technically proficient or emotional--or simply screaming. This was heart-wrenching but it was also some seriously great singing.
This production featured a female Herod--first time I've heard that. She would have impressed me more if she hadn't kept stumbling over her lines. I do think making Herod a trouser role for a chick is an interesting idea; I hope some other production I hear this Lent tries the same thing.
Pilate, in the trial scene, right after the 39 lashes, suddenly started speaking lines in German (this production was done in Germany). I wonder what he was saying--it didn't seem to fit the rhythm of what his next lines would have been ("Where are you from, Jesus? What do you want, Jesus? Tell me"), though those lines were omitted. It's interesting to me how jarring it is to hear someone talk after two hours or so of straight singing. It's also interesting to me that I don't find it at all strange that all the lines of dialogue are sung in JCS.
I was making invites for a JCS-watching party as I was listening to this. (It'll be Saturday, March 27th at 7 pm. Email me for further info.) For the front of the invite, I drew the angels from the cover of the brown album. I remember how as a kid I puzzled over that image, not actually getting what it was supposed to represent. I also remember when I first realized that the music from the first half of the show was more often than not "recycled" in the second half, and what a wealth of ironic commentary on the action was available because of this.

Drew Sarich as Jesus

Listened to a version of JCS today starring the St. Louisan Drew Sarich as Jesus. Intriguingly, I discovered that not only does my St. Louis friend Greg know him, but one of my Cincinnati friends does as well. (Does that make him their personal Jesus?) (So sorry. Couldn't resist.)
A good production, and Drew sang well. Once again I had it on for my drive to/from school. We've been talking about nonstandard units of measurement in the second grade class I'm student teaching. I can now say that the length of my trip to school is eight Jesus Christ Superstar long; that is, it takes from the overture to "Pilate's Dream" to get there.

1972 Original London Cast, or, if God is an American, then Pilate is...

Here's a good place to talk about accents. Have you ever noticed that when someone is supposed to be a Roman soldier/governor/emperor/what have you on stage or screen, they speak with a British accent? Go back and check out your standard sword-and-sandal epics, and you will see I'm right. It is as though the way we moderns think of Empire is through the Rule of Britannia, and we just transfer that back 2000 years or so.
British is the way Pilate "officially" sounds in JCS--a crisp, upper crust accent full of disdain--and I don't think it's just because the role's originator had spent fifteen years in London. I think that we just expect Romans to sound like this now (when really, shouldn't they be sounding a bit more like Tony Soprano?).
All of this to say Pilate had it tough in this version because everyone had a British accent.

Remscheid Cast

Lent is officially half over (this past Sunday was Laetare Sunday); it took me half of Lent to find a solution to my not-enough-hours-in-the-day-to-listen-to-Jesus Christ Superstar dilemma. The last couple of nights, as you may have noticed, I skimped by falling asleep to JCS--which makes it kinda hard to blog about JCS. Today I thought, hey, wait a minute. It takes me about a half-hour to drive to work.
I took my computer with me.
It was great, especially today with the Remscheid cast from 2003. I'm guessing this is a German production, but they sung in English (with just a slight tendency to overenunciate giving away the accent), so it was quite singalongable. Wonderful springlike weather, great driving music, and I got up to "Gethsemane" by the time I got home. Gonna try this again tomorrow!
This was a good production, fairly standard. I'm beginning to notice how long a shadow was cast by the early JCSs--the brown album and the movie in particular. Most people seem content to, for instance, simply imitate Carl Anderson's adlibs at key points in "Heaven on their Minds," which is contrary to the whole idea of soul singing. This Judas was like that, whereas the Jesus in this version did actually dare to change the timing of a word or two. Props to him.

Jesus Christ Surferstar

No, I'm not kidding. There is indeed a 2-CD set, "Inspired by the original soundtrack album," of tributes recorded by surf rock bands (Urban Surf Kings, Susan & the Surftones, The Atlantics). They don't skimp--this isn't a highlights reel, it's the whole show. Ever found yourself thinking, "You know, I love JCS, but what it really needs is to be vaguely reminiscent of the theme song to The Munsters"? Then this compilation is for you. Bonus: The cover image--Jesus riding a wave on a cross-shaped board. (Still not kidding.)
What's odd here (besides, you know, the whole concept) is that some bands elect to perform the songs as instrumentals while some include at least some of the lyrics. So the first words heard are "It seems to me a strange thing mystifying," and there's an Elvis-ish spoken section in "Judas' Death": "Aw, Mama, does he love me too?"

The Moog and the Dutch and some folks speaking Spanish on one of two continents

Playing a bit of catchup with the Jesus Christ Superstar versions I neglected to comment on last week.
1974's Moog Superstar reminded me of the lounge music revival of the early 90s, which means I was picturing JCS playing breezily in the background as hipsters drank martinis. What can I say about it...? Not a lot of vocals, a whole lotta Moog. Moog trying to be harpsichord, Moog trying to be out on some astral plane or another. Oh, and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" featured a female vocalist reciting the words as poetry. Before this, I thought that William Shatner's pop music/beat poetry delivery was something unique; maybe she was performing a homage to the Rocket Man?
Dutch 2005 came next. This seemed like a fairly standard version...until, again, "I Don't Know How To Love Him." Do you know the number one surefire way of impressing me? Going a cappella. And that's what the Dutch did! I suspect actually that the "backup band" here was a pre-existing a cappella ensemble, both because of the precision and innovation of the harmonies and because the Netherlands have a thriving a cappella scene.
I can't imagine why I haven't heard this attempted before--going instrumentless added to the intimacy of Mary Magdalene's confession here.
The other great innovation in this production was another Magdalene-moment--in the midst of the "39 Lashes," we start to hear Mary screaming, and then everything fades out but her solo rendition of "Could We Start Again Please?" It was a fantastic stopped-time setup. When it ended with her going back into hysterics as the countdown resumed, it was a devastating moment.
I'm listening now to either a 2004 Spanish cast recording or a 2001 Mexican one. (It came with two labels.) This one features a heavy reliance on dance-music beats--haven't heard any full-on remixes yet, thankfully, but the night is young.
Gonna obey the letter of the law if not the spirit tonight, and gonna keep this on as I head to bed...I will report on what effect this might have on my dreams.

"It is...from the devil."

I think I heard from the opposition today.
One of my friends (who shall remain nameless--unless he wants to identify himself--because I didn't ask whether I could quote him) told me about asking a Russian exchange student for the newly translated-and-released Jesus Christ Superstar from Moscow. The student said he would not get it for him for the reason quoted in the title of this post. I listened to Moscow '92 a few days ago (is it the first Russian recording? Couldn't tell you for sure) and didn't think there was anything objectionable in it. As I've said before, though, I know there are people who find the very idea of JCS blasphemous, and perhaps the Russian exchange student was one of those.
Or maybe he was thinking of the version I listened to today.
This was the first JCS I found disturbing. A whole bunch of separate elements combined to give me this impression. In the overture, sections of the score were unexpectedly repeated or omitted--and when you're as familiar with the score as I am, any deviation is attention-grabbing. But I didn't think that was so bad at first because variety is the spice of Lent.
Then it seemed like the songs had gotten out of order somehow--was Jesus singing "Poor Jerusalem" immediately afterward? It was the melody for it, but what the words were of course I can't say. It was strange to hear it here because this song comes in most versions right after "Simon Zealotes" (or "Simon de Fanaticus," as his name is wonderfully rendered in the Dutch JCS I listened to yesterday).
Things just got weirder as they went. The melodic setting for the last moments of Jesus' trial before Pilate (where he sings, "Where are you from, Jesus?") showed up right after "Everything's All Right," but again, what were they actually singing? As this continued to happen, I formed a theory--maybe the Russian translators decided the audience wouldn't have the background knowledge of the story necessary to make sense of the show, and so they added musical numbers to provide more backstory. They just recycled melodies used elsewhere so as to preserve the show's integrity.
But what was this? "Hosanna" was like a dance remix of everything, incorporating elements of "Simon Zealotes," "Superstar," "Strange Thing Mystifying," "Death of Judas," "Last Supper," and probably a couple of other things I didn't recognize in regurgitated format.
It didn't make sense. And it certainly did not preserve the integrity of the show. It was like putting the show in a Cuisinart.
What else bothered me...
...the heavy reverb placed on most of the voices most of the time, making them sound less than human. It gave the impression the singers were stranded inside a cavernous, desolate space.
...the way choral parts were buried deep in the mix. I strained to hear them. Again, the impression was of great distance between everyone.
...the "wobble" used in some of the songs to make the instruments sound out of tune. This effect was used a lot in "The Temple"--together with another restating of the "Poor Jerusalem" theme.
...making "I Don't Know How To Love Him" a duet. ???? And then adding some of the melody to "King Herod's Song" into it--yeah, that musical theme does not have the connotations you want in this part of the show.
I could go on, but I'll spare you. I'll just say the overarching sense was of ugliness--ripping something apart and then putting it back together haphazardly.

So I'm not gonna write much about Jesus Christ Superstar tonight...

...even though over the past three days I have listened to, but not yet talked about, Russia 1992, 1974's Moog Superstar (by Terry Wallace and His Interstellar Moog Sounds, natch) and Dutch 2005.
I'm just gonna let you contemplate that lineup until I write again.

The man behind it all: Greg Matzker (Part II)

This is the second part of an email interview with the one responsible for finding forty different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar for me to contemplate this Lent. (Part I was yesterday.)


What are the qualities you personally look for in your "ideal" Judas, Jesus, Herod, Pilate, Mary Magdalene?


My ideal Judas--anger. When the show starts he is already not in a good place. I think of this character as Sweeney Todd. The madness is already there but let's not go too over the top too soon; we have to wait for the right moment in the show or soon you just don't care.
Jesus is interesting. Its not his story--not really, anyway. Its Judas's story. Most of the times I have seen the show they try to bring this character to the front and he shouldn't be. In almost every scene he is the secondary character. He needs to have this sense of loss, that he really doesn't know what his next move should be. But when he gets (lets say excited) the notes he sings should be done with conviction but almost never NEVER yelled.
Herod--camp all the way, only because it is the comic relief in the show that very much needs to happen at that point. The audience needs that break. I have seen it played gay, as a lounge singer (why not a gay lounge singer?) and I have even seen it done straight forward [which] honestly made me lose interest in the rest of the show; it made it seem like the show was going on WAY TOO LONG.
Pilate--what a mixed bag this is. In too many productions I have seen this almost as a throw away part becasue he is not on stage all that much. You need an actor here. This person needs to run the gamut when it comes to emotions, a lot of times all within the same song. This man is way too scared to do the wrong thing.
Mary Magdalene--someday I will find a recording of Janis Joplin singing ANYTHING from this part. This part really is the mother hen. Let's face it: it is the only real female part in the show. Whoever does this part needs to be able to hold her own, make her presence known each and every moment she is on stage even when she is not singing or part of the scene. Think of mothers. They are controlling but forgiving, loving but knowing when it is time to let you be you.


Are you ever going to cast me as Pontius Pilate?


After listening to the recordings I have this to say: you will have to fight me for it. BRING IT ON. I would love to do the part and give you front row seats. I think I am ready, old enough and think I would do you so very proud.

The man behind it all: Greg Matzker (Part I)

...Artistic Director of Marble Stage Theatre and the fella who has kept me supplied with recordings of Jesus Christ Superstar this Lent. Here are the fruits of an email interview I did with him about this project.


How did you first come up with the idea of sending me forty different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar?


The sad truth on this is ...you asked for it. I remember last Easter, sitting there watching the movie, and I brought up how many cast recordings of Godspell I had. (Before you ask, I already checked--there aren't anywhere near 40 recordings out there.) And you said, "You know what would be fun?" At first I thought, "Yeah, that would be fun." Then the challenge began.
(Angela's note: let the record show I have no memory of this conversation...I had assumed that this was originally Greg's idea.)


How long did it take you to find all the different versions? Were you looking for any in particular, and if so, were any challenging to find?


First I had to even find out if there were 40 recordings out there. I went to the internet and got scared right away. I could find ONLY 40 official recordings out there, many out of print. I thought, "This is going to be a bust." Some of these recordings where so rare that there were blogs of people trying to find them. But I figured, hey, I have a year. If it doesnt happen I am sure Angela would forgive me. So I started sending out requests to friends ....then friends of friends.....then plain ol' strangers. To be honest I didn't have all 40 when I sent you the first recordings....Luckily, though, over the last year I found out there are much much more our there than just the original 40 that I found. I knew my mission could be completed. As far as finding any particular one: Yes and no. I knew a couple out there would be nice to have. But to be honest and fair I was just trying to find 40 recordings.


What was your opinion of the rock opera before this experiment began? What do you think of it now?


...I say that I have come to look forward to when we watch it together and having our talks about the show, movie, and yes, even the religious parts. However, now as I listen to each one I can't help but think to myself, "Man I would like to direct this show and use elements of some of these productions." It really is a show you can have fun with. It gives directors a chance to think outside of the box. I hate when people have no vision and just put on a show the same way it has been done 10,000 times. With these recordings, it is clear that theatres have stretched their artist minds and creativity [in good and bad ways].

The Jesus Christ Superstar That Shall Not Be Named

For the first time this Lent, I listened to a JCS I thoroughly disliked. There were some good performances in it, I will grant you--some fine work by Mary Magdalene and Judas--but I felt the guy who played Jesus spent more time conveying "Listen to me hit high notes" than he did conveying any emotional depth. "Is he even paying attention to what he's singing?" I thought more than once. I ended up putting on the Japanese JCS again as a palate-cleanser.
I'm not gonna even say what version of JCS this was. We're just gonna delete it from the record.
Tomorrow we visit Russia. Now that's something I eagerly anticipate...

Kingsway Youth Opera Company, 1971

Today--for the first time during this experiment--I caught myself thinking, "Gosh, I've listened to Jesus Christ Superstar a lot."
I guess it's taken three weeks for the novelty to wear off. Now it's taking on more of the flavor of a Lenten discipline.
"This one I think you are going to find very interesting," Greg said of today's installment, and if you know Greg, you will understand why I got nervous. "Interesting" can be taken any number of ways. But it was true--maybe he just knows my tastes. I like this one because it has a lot of rock'n'roll to it; in fact, something about the orchestration (horn-heavy) reminded me of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Or perhaps the Moody Blues, a band that's been on my mind because the weather has gotten lovely. The loveliness of the weather, by the by, is another reason I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of spending time sitting and listening to a recording instead of going to bask in the sunshine. Could I have done both at once? Basked and Superstarred? No, I don't own one of those newfangled electronic devices by which one can bring one's music along.
But back to the Moody Blues. (Does anyone else have bands they associate with particular times of the year?) The grandiose orchestral arrangements with rock swagger, coupled with the British accents of the cast--yeah, even the fact this was a vinyl recording with the wobbliness that comes to vinyl with age--all conjured the Moodies in my mind. And then I found out that this LP was released by Deram Records--the same label that released Days of Future Passed and the next five Moody Blues albums. The interconnectivity of all things.
I never was conscious of it before, but now that I think about it the albums playing in my house while I was growing up often had orchestration married to rock sensibilities--JCS, the Moodies' early work, ELO--not to mention the classical pieces I heard tended to have more raucous energy--pieces by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov.
It all makes sense now! (Or should I say, "My mind is clearer now"?)

Jesucristo Superestrella, 2001

So the Jesus Christ Superstar du jour is another Mexican cast recording, this one from 2001. This one came with a libretto, so I could, employing my scanty Spanish knowledge and handy-dandy Google Translate, see some of the translation choices--in Judas' first song, for instance, it is Eden, not heaven, that is on their minds. And "What's the buzz/tell me what's happening?" is rendered "¿Dime que significa esta rumor?" or (roughly) "Tell me, what is this rumor?"
(Ooh! I should use Google Translate on the other phrases I was curious about. Let's see..."Allting är okej nu" is indeed Swedish for "Everything is okay now," and the same song title in Czech turns into "Everything is as it should be" when it's re-Englished. While "Proc ten shon?," the Czech title for "What's the Buzz?" becomes "Why the rush?" Huh.)
Today's experiment in JCS-suitable activities was studying for an exam. It worked out well, I think. In fact I was at first planning to just kinda sit around doing nothin' while listening, and something made me decide to get online and look up practice tests, so it was quite the positive motivator. Time to draft the research paper: "JCS and Behavior Modification."
(And how was this version? Good. No complaints, but no surprises either. Greg promises the really far-out versions are coming in the second half of Lent. Speaking of, happy day before Laetare Sunday, everyone.)
[Update: Oops, I counted wrong. We don't reach the halfway point of Lent until next week!]

The Soul of Jesus Christ Superstar, 1972

Okay, I gotta share the Amazon link for this one. This is just what it sounds like it would be: JCS as soul music, all funkified. It was a big change today--even though I've been listening to renditions in Swedish, French, Spanish and Japanese, essentially the songs have remained the same. Sure, there are minor variations. Sometimes Caiaphas and Annas are buffoons and sometimes they are genuinely frightening characters. Sometimes Pilate comes across as vicious throughout and sometimes he has more depth. But essentially everyone has been working from the same template.
The template gets chopped into itty bitty bits on The Soul of Jesus Christ Superstar. We start out with an overture which has little to do with the original overture, is mostly gospel piano, and which includes the Soultown Singers testifying "Jesus Christ is a superstar!"--in case we wonder where these performers are going to be coming from theologically.
We follow this up with "Superstar," because running order is one of those elements that is nonessential to JCS's soul. Also not important: the full complement of lyrics for a given song. Take "The Last Supper"--the only part that's included is the part the steadily-getting-drunker apostles sing. Oh, and "Gethsemane"? Jesus' big number? Sammy Turner, Soul's Jesus, sings up to:
Let them hit me hurt me nail me to their tree
...before retreating back to the lines
Then I was inspired, now I'm sad and tired
After all, I've tried for three years, seems like thirty
Could you ask as much from any other man?
...which is where the song ends.
Why? Are they trying to tell a different story than the one JCS tells? Is it because they want to keep things in a particular groove, and there are too many musical shifts in the middle of songs in the original version?
I have to give them credit for taking the source material and bringing it into new territory. I almost feel though that I'm getting the day off from Lent; have I really listened to JCS today?

Is Allting Allright (Ja!) or Okej?

Tonight's pressing question: does Jesus Christ Superstar make good house-cleaning music? More precisely, does Jesus Christ Superstar, the 2009 Swedish cast, make good house-cleaning music? It's worth noting that I have found a Romanian CD, Epoca de Aur, does the best job at keeping me on task when it comes to the performance of domestic duties. It has just the right mix of upbeat material and incomprehensible lyrics. I thought the Swedes could do right by me at least in terms of incomprehensibility, but of course I'm way too familiar with these songs to not know what's going on at any given time, and if I know what's going on, I start thinking about what's going on instead of paying attention to my labors. Also, I find myself slowing down during the slower numbers. On the other hand, one is less likely to whine about how hard it is to clean house when one is listening to Jesus confronting the prospect of being hated, hit, hurt and nailed to a tree.
And how does this version compare to last night's? Good news--sometime between 1972 and 2009, the Swedes fired the saxophonist. Also, I had the sense last night that the cast was putting in a lot of effort, and that's a bad thing--a rock opera should never sound like work. Maybe the singers have a bit more training in this version or something--I don't get that sense of constant struggle, of wrestling with the (admittedly) demanding score, and that makes for a much more pleasant listening experience. I have to mention in particular the great falsetto employed by the 2009 Jesus, something he seems to be able to just launch up there at will.
This cast employs a different translation, I think, because instead of "Everything's Alright" being rendered "Allting är allright" as it was yesterday, it's "Allting är okej nu." Help me out, linguists: does that mean "All things are okay now"? If so, what are the theological implications of things being "okay," not "alright"? It's not quite "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well," is it?

How Jesus Christ Superstar is affecting my life.

As we are now two weeks from Ash Wednesday, this is a good time for some reflection on what Lent has been like so far. In fact I just has someone ask, "Are you tired of Jesus Christ Superstar yet?" No, not quite; in fact, when I couldn't get to sleep last night, I got out the Prague recording and listened to it while I was falling asleep. So yes, in one evening I ended up hearing "Vse Je Tak, Jak Ma Byt" four times.
Is it putting a crimp in my social life? A little; I did beg off hanging out late with friends tonight in order to finish listening to the 1972 Swedish cast recording. (What I enjoyed most about the Swedish contribution: the oh-so-close-to-English song titles: "Allting är allright," "Dömd för alltid." What I enjoyed least: the curious over-reliance on the saxophone. I mean, seriously, it just shows up in the middle of a scene with a part that is only vaguely related to what all the other instruments are doing. The net result is that you're envisioning the Last Supper, and there's Jesus and Judas arguing, but then whoops, in walks a wandering saxophonist. He's oblivious.)
How's Greg doing, since he's listening to all of these recordings too? In a recent email he confessed, "These songs officially will not get out of my head at this point. I think I actually had a dream I met a Galilean."

Czech JCS--Original Prague Cast

Oh, my gosh. This one's so wonderful. I've listened to "Vse Je Tak, Jak Ma Byt" ("Everything's All Right") three times now, that's how wonderful this is. And I nearly started crying during "Gethsemane"--which is all the more impressive when this is the tenth--or maybe eleventh, or twelfth--time I've heard this song in the last two weeks.
Maybe one of the reasons I like this recording so much is because my family on my mom's side is (mostly) Bohemian, so I feel a cultural affinity here. I'm certainly glad that my Czech repertoire of phrases might be expanded by this experience. Before this recording, I only knew "Bez práce nejsou koláce", which means "No work, no tasty fruit- or cream-cheese-filled pastries." I'm almost tempted now to travel to Prague and ask of random passersby, "Proc ten shon?" I say "almost" because I'm worried that I really would be saying the Czech equivalent of "What's the buzz?"--that is, the most dated bit of 70s slang imaginable.
Maybe it's because it seems to take three times as many syllables to deliver these lines in Czech, or maybe it's, again, the subtext of hard rock being sung in a communist milieu. Whatever it is, I get the strangest sense, listening to these songs that I think I know so well, that far more is being said than I've ever heard before.

Kiwi JCS

...Yes, the 1994 New Zealand cast recording. I don't recognize any names in the cast. Overall impression? They sound so young. Strong voices and some unique elements to the arrangements--I particularly liked the extended a cappella outro in "The Last Supper," when the apostles are well and truly in their cups.
But no, this version doesn't measure up to the Japanese.
Ooh! But Judas goes intriguingly off script! In his big showstopping "Superstar" number (here only followed by the instrumental "John 19:41" because this is a highlights recording and I guess "The Crucifixion" isn't a highlight), when the angelic soul-girl choir is singing
"Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ,
Who are you, what have you sacrificed?"
and
"Jesus Christ Superstar,
Do you think you're what they say you are?"
At the very, very end, when Judas usually just ad-libs on the theme of "I only want to know," there's a musical break, and Judas' last words are:
"I am a sinner who's lost his way
Down on my knees, I am here and praying.
Jesus...I think I know..."