(2021) Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice - Jesus Christ Superstar [50th Anniversary Edition Remaster]        


Review:
“Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two and one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad,” wrote The New York Times‘ Clive Barnes on October 13, 1971 upon the New York debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Indeed, the original Jesus Christ Superstar album was a sensation long before it ever hit Broadway’s Mark Hellinger Theatre. A true hybrid of rock and theater, it was introduced as a record but destined for the world’s stages. The once-controversial rock opera has since inspired countless international productions, three Broadway revivals, film and television adaptations, concert tours, and well over 100 recordings from around the world. Now, the original 1970 album is celebrating its belated 50th anniversary with a reissue to be available in a variety of formats. UMe revisit Jesus Christ Superstar as a 3CD expanded box set. All versions have been newly remastered by Miles Showell and Nick Davis at Abbey Road Studios. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, Jesus Christ Superstar was the pair’s third musical together after 1965’s The Likes of Us and 1968’s Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  But those two shows hadn’t achieved much success with The Likes of Us going wholly unproduced and only several smaller productions of Joseph, a musical version of the Biblical tale.  An album of the latter was recorded by Decca, however, which was a step in the right direction.  The two soldiered on and returned to the Bible for their next show which would be a musical dramatization of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ.  But they were unable to secure a backer for a staging so it was decided to record an album of the show first. The 1970 concept album composed, orchestrated, and co-produced by Lloyd Webber with lyrics and co-production by Rice starred Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan as Jesus, Murray Head as Judas Iscariot, Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene, and Manfred Mann’s Mike d’Abo as King Herod.  It featured equally impressive talent among its musicians (Chris Spedding, Mike Vickers, Wings’ Henry McCullough) and supporting vocalists (P.P. Arnold, Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan).  Gillan recalled Superstar with fondness to Phil Sutcliffe in MOJO, describing it as “top-notch stuff” and a “career highlight.”  He even described being greeted on a 1980s tour of the USSR by fans who had “certainly never heard of Deep Purple, but they knew all about Jesus Christ Superstar!” But while classic status has long since been attained, Superstar initially earned the ire of many religious groups, and was a frequent target of protesters.  Even the BBC got into the act, initially banning the double-album set on grounds of being “sacrilegious.”  In the U.S., the album hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1971, with Murray Head’s single of the title song reaching No. 14 Pop and Yvonne Elliman’s “I Don’t’ Know How to Love Him” not far behind at No. 28.  Helen Reddy’s simultaneous cover of the ballad made it all the way to No. 13. The first authorized concert production of the musical arrived in the U.S. on July 11, 1971, with Elliman reprising the role of Mary Magdalene opposite Jeff Fenholt’s Jesus and Carl Anderson’s Judas.  The 1971 Broadway staging featured typically idiosyncratic direction by Hair‘s Tom O’Horgan and a star-making performance from Ben Vereen as Judas.  Fenholt and Elliman again took part, as did Barry Dennen, the concept album’s Pilate.  The Broadway show ran for a healthy 711 performances.  The 1973 U.K. staging bested that, however, with director Jim Sharman’s production  (starring Paul Nicholas as Jesus and David Bowie pal Dana Gillespie as Mary) lasting a then-record-breaking eight years in the West End.  Carl Anderson, Yvonne Elliman and Barry Dennen all took part in Norman Jewison’s 1973 film version, which cast Ted Neeley as Jesus, a role he would revisit in the ensuing years. Around the time of a 2012 CD reissue, Lloyd Webber indicated that the original master tapes – and with them, the possibility of unreleased material – had been lost.  That reissue was sourced from a copy of the original master tapes found in Lloyd Webber’s personal archive.  The new 50th anniversary reissue is presumably happening thanks to some recent audio discoveries.  All versions are newly remastered and the 3CD box set feature a disc of previously unheard tracks, said to be an impossibility in 2012. — SecondDisc





Track Listing:

Disc 1
01.Overture
02.Heaven On Their Minds
03.What's the Buzz / Strange Thing, Mystifying  
04.Everything’s Alright
05.This Jesus Must Die
06.Hosanna
07.Simon Zealotes / Poor Jerusalem
08.Pilate’s Dream
09.The Temple
10.Everything’s Alright
11.I Don’t Know How to Love Him
12.Damned for All Time / Blood Money

Disc 2
01.The Last Supper
02.Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)
03.The Arrest
04.Peter’s Denial
05.Pilate And Christ
06.King Herod’s Song
07.Judas’ Death
08.Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)
09. Superstar
10.Crucifixion
11.John Nineteen: Forty-One

Disc 3
01.Ascending Chords
02.Blood Money (guide vocal)
03.Herod’s Song (guide vocal)
04.I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Tim Rice and Murray Head vocal)
05.I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Murray Head vocal)
06.This Jesus Must Die (scat vocal 1)
07.What A Party
08.This Jesus Must Die (scat vocal 2)
09.Heaven On Their Minds (instrumental)
10.I Don’t Know How To Love Him (single edit)
11.Too Much (Heaven On Their Minds) German Single
12.Strange Thing (Mystifying) German Single
13.John Nineteen: Forty-One (B-side of MKS 5019)


Media Report:
Genre: rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits