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GMC Forum _ Bands and Guitarists _ Jesus Christ Superstar

Posted by: TheOldOnes Oct 6 2008, 07:53 PM

For those not familiar with the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, it was a pretty ground breaking piece of work that was a big favourite of mine growing up on a Canadian military base in Germany in the 70's.

There were 2 versions of the opera that came out near the same time in the early 70's - one the official movie track and another version featuring a number of well known musicians at the time including Deep Purple's Ian Gillan. I didn't mind the movie track version but I was hugely impressed with the Ian Gillan version (sang as Jesus) - his voice to me is just absolutely perfect - far better, in my view, than any of the Deep Purple albums for which I also was a big fan.

A couple of years ago, I came across an album by Vanden Plas in which they sang a cover of one of the songs - a very good version - that led me go back to find the older Ian Gillan version and realized that, in spite of the 20 years, I found the opera to be as good as I remember.

Recently I came across another JCS cover tune by Queensrhyche - unfortunately I wasn't overwhelmed by the cover tune (nor by their other covers on the album). After coming across a number of references in metal music, I am starting to realize that the opera seems to still be inspiring to a number of metal bands particularly in Europe.

I am wondering if anyone knows of any more covers out there and if its been more of an inspiration than I thought?

(Note: This is not a post concerning religious music or such - as an evolution ecologist, I am ........)

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Oct 7 2008, 04:44 PM

You were not impressed by the movie version??? Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson delivered some of the best vocal performances of all times in my opinion.

Posted by: ItsMe Oct 7 2008, 05:08 PM

I was never a really big JCS fan but learned most of the songs for school bands and the theatre class in school. This year I ended up seeing the opera live in Boston and guess what: Ted Neely still does his Jesus as if he made the movie yesterday. It was definetly fun.

Posted by: TheOldOnes Oct 7 2008, 06:12 PM

No I didn't mind the movie version, I just preferred the Ian Gillan version. Perhaps it was that at the time I was a very huge fan of Deep Purple although I have heard both versions recently and I still prefer the Ian Gillan version. Either way, I love the opera (saw it 3 times in London as a kid) - which reminds me - my wife and I are planning to go to London later this fall and am wondering if the opera is still playing after all these years.

Despite my preference, it is clear that I'll definitely have to familiarize myself with the musicians from both versions.

Thanks for the response!

Posted by: Jesse Oct 7 2008, 06:24 PM

I remember some parts that we watched last year in high school music class... it was hella funny. There was this really weird fat king without a shirt or something singing to jesus "king of the jews" that he should show him that he could walk on water and stuff....

Posted by: Marcus Siepen Oct 9 2008, 11:05 AM

Neeley and Anderson were both on tour with JCS while we did our last US tour, unfortunately we never had the chance to see one of their shows

Posted by: FrankW Oct 15 2008, 12:27 AM

Ah, this brings me back...Ian Gillian had one of the best voices in rock. He could really sing. I had the studio version of JCS with him on it. I can't remember the singer who played Judas, but I recall that he was quite good also. Man, that was a really great album, Thanks for bringing it up.