| re: Ted Neeley - Jesus Christ Superstar | |
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Posted by: |
steven_stuart 11:02 pm UTC 11/03/10 |
| In reply to: | re: Ted Neeley - Jesus Christ Superstar - rockfenris2005 03:55 am UTC 10/31/10 |
| > Ted also co-wrote the song "If you really want to" on Meat > Loaf's third album "Midnight at the lost and found" (in > case you didn't know that already. Well, you never know. I > presume all the time that people just know these things.) Oh yes. I heard that somewhere ages ago. Did you like the song? Gibson tells me that Meat and Ted became close friends before either met Jim, when they were in "Hair" together. Then Ted can be linked to Jim because they were both involved with Robert Stigwood at the same time. Its a small world. Of course both Jim and Ted have worked with the wonderful Yvonne Elliman. > That was released as a single, and it's one of the videos > on "Hits out of Hell" but it wasn't included on the actual > album. Does anybody know why? (And nobody say it's because > it's shit. I actually quite like it.) Oops. You've answered my question. I haven't seen the video. Is Ted in it? I wonder why it wasn't on the album if it had been released as a single. How odd. > The problem I had with the "Jesus Christ Superstar" movie > (though Ted is brilliant, of course, and Carl Anderson) is > that I think they should have stuck with Tim Rice’s idea > which was to make a more traditional biblical epic like > "The Ten Commandments". This would have looked amazing, > with the rock music in contrast. And I don't think it > would have dated. Well, the music certainly hasn't dated, > in my opinion. It's probably Webber's most vibrant score > (some of his later ones like "Aspects of Love" do tend to > drag a bit.) To me "Aspects" is very dull compared to "Jesus". One has to remeber that JCS mania broke out in the US. Stigwood had a team of people closing down the hundreds of amateur productions that started cropping up. Although, if there is anyone on the board who prefers "Aspects", I would be interested to hear from you. I wonder if filming everything in Israel was to make it more realistic or because they could make it inexpensively? There weren't many props. Bill Kenwright would have approved. Although I loved the casting. > I did hear that there are plans for a remake so it'll be > very interesting to see what that would be like (I don't > count the video RUG released in 2000. Jerome Pradon was > terrible, the worst Judas I have ever encountered.) Didn't ALW say that the Japanese stage version which played the West End a few years ago was his favourite JCS? > And this could go into a whole other topic, because I > don't think any of the film adaptations of Webber's > musicals have ever been done well. I didn’t think Alan > Parker did a good job with "Evita" either (but that was > always going to be a challenge) and I didn't like his take > on "The Wall" either. It was too depressing and dark. The > original album actually has a sense of humour. I liked the album of "The Wall" much better than the film. Did your hero Michael Kamen do the arrangements for both the album and the film? I know he worked on the film. I will be very interested to see what they have done with "The Wall" for the new arena show. Jim's friends Marc Brickman and Gerald Scarfe are both working on it. > "The Phantom of the Opera" Joel Schumacher directed was an > utter abomination. The Phantom is not supposed to be > beautiful, and his disfigurement was more like a rash. > That was the main problem I had with it, that and that it > needed to be darker. I hope somebody remakes it in the > future (the near future...) I was also disapponited. Did you see the video for "Cats"? It was meant to be a film but I think they realised that it had to be "straight to video". In my opinion, the show was much better. I don't think ALW shows make good films. Apart from JCS, which I love (partly because of the cast and partly because of the songs and the way Tim's lyrics eliminate any need for dialogue). Sondheim seems to do better when it comes to films. > I've never seen Ted live. I'm only judging by what I've > seen and heard, the film and bootlegs etc. And even then, > he's the best Jesus IMO. Ian Gillan on the original > concept recording is still very good. Oh yes. Ian Gillan. I used to be into Deep Purple. Well, I would still like them if someone put their album on. Wikipedia says: "He also was the voice of Jesus on the original 1970 album recording of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was offered the lead role in the 1973 film adaptation. Ian demanded to be paid not only for his role in the movie but insisted, without the consent of his manager, that the entire band be paid because filming would conflict with a scheduled tour. The producers declined and Ian continued on in the band. Citing exhaustion and a poor working relationship with the band, particularly Blackmore, Gillan left Deep Purple in the summer of 1973." > And I believe "Superstar" was Tim's idea, as was "Evita". Would there be an ALW without Tim Rice? Probably but the story would have been very different. Like would there have been a Jim without Meat? I think there would have been but we'll never know exactly what Jim would have done. I would guess that he might have become famous for writing Broadway shows. | |
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