“Superstar” is the title song from the 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. (More from Wikipedia)
Early in my freshman year in college, a friend of mine in the dorm told me about the single “Superstar”. I was used to only the most reverent language being used when talking about Jesus; but even considering that Judas Iscariot is the one singing, and despite the frequent protests about “don’t get me wrong”, the lyrics were startling to me:
Every time I look at you
I don’t understand
Why you let the things you did
Get so out of hand . . .
Did you mean to die like that?
Was that a mistake or
Did you know your messy death
Would be a record breaker? . . .
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?
Jesus Christ
Superstar
Do you think you’re what they say you are?
“Superstar”, with lead vocals by Murray Head, was released in late 1969 before the album Jesus Christ Superstar was even completed, much to the chagrin of MCA Records. (Head later recorded the main single from another Tim Rice production, Chess, called “One Night in Bangkok”, which came out in 1975).
(October 2014)
