Jesus Christ Superstar (Original London Concept Recording)

 (166 customer reviews)

Andrew Lloyd Webber's showtunesy, over-orchestrated bombast is nowhere to be found here. This is the original London Concept recording featuring Deep Purple's Ian Gillan as Jesus, and Murray Head's wonderfully anguished (and sometimes downright unsettling) performance as Judas Iscariot. This is not the hippy dippy passion of St. Matthew as told in "Godspell", but rather, much darker, much more intimate, and conveys the story of Christ as a man, who doesn't really want to die.The incredibly loud orchestra of the stage performance is toned down a bit, showcasing the excellent rock songs that made this album a #1 hit in 1971. I first heard this album when I was about 4 or 5 years old, and still, even today, there's a chill that runs down my back when Judas sings "Heaven on Their Minds" or when Jesus screams "just watch me die!" in "Gethsemane". Not one of the endless movie soundtrack, or broadway versions can hold a candle to this...Read more

Believe it or not, I first heard "Jesus Christ Superstar" when it was played for us in my freshman English class in high school (I think our student teacher was trying to show he was cool, because there was no assignment to go with spending two days listening to the album). I also remember trying to remember how the theme for the title song went so I could keep it in my mind and thinking that this really was an opera because the two main characters are both dead at the end, certainly a traditional ending in many operas. The controversy over this two-album studio production was like a firestorm and focused on two key issues: First, there was the uproar that rock music was being used to tell a religious story; you have to remember that this was a time when having a folk mass or service was seen as being cutting-edge radicalism in Christianity. But Andrew Lloyd Webber's music involves much more than rock, although certainly the guitar that opens the "Overture"...Read more

After thirty years, this is still moving. The performances nothing less than spectacular. Murray Head as Judas steals the performance, to my mind. The rest of Deep Purple never got from Ian Gillian what Rice and Webber were able to, but maybe portraying Jesus will do that for a Brother. Hearing Yvonne Elliman's positively angellic voice as Mary singing "Everything's Alright" would tempt even a Saint. I cannot recall who portrayed Ciaphas, but the depth of his voice is awsome.Aside from the great music, the story is much more multi-layered than I recall from Sunday School. The characters, including Jesus himself, seemed to be much more reachable. I remember listening to "I Only Want To Say", and marvelling about whether there was ever any doubt that came with being the Son of God. I saw Judas for the first time as a man who just had to do the things he did, and the disciples not as saints, but men with uncertainties too.Even if you don't...Read more