Flats and Sharps

A survey of some recent music news that has interested me. I also have a home improvement update that I'll post later.

After Forever, one of my favourite bands, has broken up:

Dearest Fans,

After nearly 15 years and with heavy hearts, we have decided to call an end to a great and exciting time as After Forever. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished, and especially of the road we took to get here. After Forever has never been a band that repeated itself; we always tried out new things, even though many of them were certainly done at a risk. We think that that has been one of the reasons we’ve always enjoyed enormous support from all our loyal fans.

.....

We know that this will be a big disappointment to you, dear fans, and it makes it that much harder for us. You have always given us your all and it was our pledge, in turn, always to give at least as much back to you for as long as we exist. In this moment, that’s unfortunately just not possible, so we'd rather leave you all the albums and gigs we achieved with maximum input...We'll miss you all.

Most Sincerely,

Floor, Sander, Joost, Bas, Andre and Luuk

After Forever was part of the Netherlands' metal scene, a particular branch of gothic metal and symphonic metal sounding acts led by clean-voiced female singers. Fellow travellers included Within Temptation (who courted the most attention in North America by adopting a more mainstream, Evanescence-like sound), The Gathering (although they transitioned from an atmospheric death metal band to a moody alternative rock, almost shoegazer sound), and Epica (founded by After Forever co-founder Mark Jansen).

After Forever was successful in Europe, but didn't really get the cross-Atlantic attention the other bands above did, likely because of the more progressive rock elements of their sound. But these elements, along with Floor Jansen's talents as a vocalist, made them one of my favourite bands. Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering), and Simone Simons (Epica) are all very capable of singing with a resonant, clean soprano (or mezzo-soprano). Floor not only outshines them in this capacity (q.v. "Monolith of Doubt"), she can also add a rough, rock edge when appropriate (a la "Face Your Demons"). I had the pleasure of seeing After Forever live over a year ago, and Floor has great performance charisma as well. I've seen The Gathering live, and watched videos of the other two, and don't get nearly the same presence that Floor gives off. Floor is a real-deal rock singer; the others are more like stage ornaments with pretty voices.



Watch for the high note at 2:57.



Floor really rocks out on this one, especially the bridge.

Farewell, After Forever. You'll be missed.

On a higher note, Italian gothic metal band Lacuna Coil, another favourite of mine, have a new album out in April, and hopefully their tour hits Ontario at some point. (Lacuna Coil have more of a straight-ahead rock/nu metal sound, and being Italians, an over-inflated sense of drama.)

Also, my hands-down favourite band, Dream Theater, have a new album coming out this spring, followed by another Progressive Nation tour! I think between all these concerts and the Stratford Festival I'm going to be pretty broke this summer...

She really is a Strange Little Girl...

Slayer's "Raining Blood"	Tori Amos' cover version

Are You Ready to Rock?

They've finally released the setlist for Rock Band 2!

And it includes Dream Theater's "Panic Attack". ERs across the continent should be warned they're about to see an increase in repetitive stress injuries starting in September:



Rock Band 2 will also include a new drumkit manufactured by Alesis, a company that actually makes electronic drumkits. Here's a video of the ION drumkit in action:



Now I have to save my pennies for September!

Metal makes the world go 'round

There will be a further delay in bringing the world up to speed on my life as I found a story that set my heart aflutter:

Metal goes global, with some surprising riffs
GUY DIXON

Globe and Mail - June 18, 2008

This is a story dripping with irony - ghoulish, blood-red irony.

It turns out that heavy metal, anathema to the moral majority, has spread Western ideals of freedom of expression and democracy more effectively than some more conservative means.

And globalization? The devil's music seems to be the definition of globalization at work, yet with the added bonus of letting metal fans worldwide feel the music is their own, allowing indigenous metal scenes to flourish.

That's the message of Global Metal, a documentary-film tour of not-so-obvious metal hot spots such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, which opens Friday in theatres in Toronto and Vancouver.

"No one's telling you that you should be a fan of Slayer or Morbid Angel. In fact, most people are telling you you shouldn't! But how does that thinking apply for kids coming from different cultures around the world?" film director Sam Dunn said.

He and fellow Canadian filmmaker Scot McFadyen skipped the usual German, Scandinavian and suburban North American centres, which they had already visited in their 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. That film served both as a general tutorial and as a defence against the usual criticisms of metal, ranging from its antisocial controversies to its perceived head-pounding dopiness.

The popularity of that first film allowed Dunn and McFadyen to continue their highly enviable ability to match their fondness for metal with burgeoning careers in film. And Global Metal, no longer bound by having to justify the music and its black T-shirted fans, thus has enough room to uncover a fascinating side story on the hidden quirks of globalization.

Take China. It hasn't been known for its metalheads. But metal has migrated there in an unusual way.

As a tax writeoff, record companies can destroy their inventory of remaindered CDs, particularly discs by bands no longer signed to the label. Often these are metal bands coming in and out (mostly out) of fashion. But instead of actually destroying the discs, the CDs are shipped through middlemen to China and dumped on the market there.

As Kaiser Kuo, a Chinese American who lives in Beijing and a founder of pioneering Chinese metal band Tang Dynasty, notes in the film, most of these CDs were worthless. But some were real gems and helped to get metal into the hands of Chinese kids.

Dunn adds that this "had, you could almost say, a random impact, where you could be walking down the street in Beijing, and there would be a street merchant. He or she would have a Madonna CD and a Slayer CD, and the person looking at it wouldn't have any reference points for either. So it enters on this equal footing, which is unusual."

And from that beginning, homegrown metal took on a distinct Chinese flavour. Tang Dynasty, the band started by Kuo, who was born in upstate New York and now works in digital marketing, incorporated ancient battle references and historical poems. A Chinese metal scene known for its particularly dark music was born.

"They created a metal which obviously had some relevance and meaning to Chinese people," Dunn says. And yet, although Western headbangers may get into Chinese thrash metal, there are other international metal offshoots that Western fans might simple declare dead wrong. The Japanese glam metal known as "visual kei" trades in thrashing speed metal, but then bands like X Japan will suddenly break into the schmaltziest ballad imaginable. Or there's the Israeli band Orphaned Land, which will suddenly shift from guttural vocals to traditional Middle Eastern singing.

"I think metal is being redefined by virtue of its spread. For the longest time, it was very much defined by the rules that you and I associate with metal, that it has to have certain hallmarks to be real metal," Dunn says.

"What's interesting is that the fringes of that core are starting to change. Introducing Israeli folk melody into metal may not be metal to some kids in the West; in fact, it may be something they feel quite opposed to. But in Israel and maybe in the [whole] region, there is something which to them still is metal," Dunn adds.

Then there's the rise of metal in countries emerging from dictatorships. The first Rock in Rio festival in 1985 was attended by nearly 1.4 million fans and prominently featured such era-defining metal acts as Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions and Iron Maiden. As guitarist Rafael Bittencourt of Brazilian metal band Angra notes, it's not as if heavy metal helped to free Brazil. But metal became a vehicle for joyous self-expression after the military dictatorship fell. (Global Metal, however, makes it seem as if the first Rock in Rio was a metal-only mega-show: The Go-Gos, the B-52s, Nina Hagen and Queen were also headliners. But we're on the topic of metal here, and Dunn is an avowed Iron Maiden fan.)

With the new documentary, Dunn and McFadyen, who have been friends for the past 15 years since attending British Columbia's University of Victoria, have planted their stake deep in the heart of the rock-doc niche. (Although the downtown west-side Toronto office of Banger Productions looks like a lot of start-up film and new-media offices around the city in some ways, the mounted horns outside the office door are a giveaway as to its specialty, as are the books of metal lore lining the shelves next to the Lonely Planet travel guides and Didi, McFadyen's black, metal-appropriate bulldog puppy, who makes her home most days in the spacious editing suite.

Banger Productions is now much in demand. On the office white boards are long to-do lists for upcoming major documentaries on Iron Maiden and Rush. In fact, Dunn and McFadyen's Rush film is said to be the first cinematic documentary of the publicity-shy band, rather than simply a typical concert DVD or a video-music channel profile. The members of Slayer also want to make a doc with the filmmakers.

Groups themselves want to work with the pair. After Headbanger's Journey, members of Metallica told the filmmakers something to the effect of, "Don't you dare make another film without us in it."

It should also be said that Dunn looks the part. With shoulder-length hair and wearing the perennial black metal T-shirt, he has appeared in both Headbanger's Journey and Global Metal as our guide to metal fandom. And yet, although he's as approachable in person as he seems on film, what's that look in his eye? A piercing clarity? And what's that he mentions, with his toothy grin, about possibly doing a documentary about Satan?...!

"We're even talking to Telefilm about it," adds McFadyen, also grinning, as he notes Bill C-10, which proposes to allow Ottawa to deny tax credits for films it doesn't like. Canadian Christian leader Charles McVety has been among those supporting the controversial bill. McFadyen and Dunn, even though they are serious about a Satan doc, both break into ironic laughter. It's the same laugh coming from the metalheads around the world in their documentary.

I loved Dunn and McFadyen's first documentary on metal, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. Although, as Dunn notes in the interview below with George Stroumboulopoulos, it was basically a metal primer that didn't really teach veteran metal fans anything new, it was a serious and thoughtful take on a major subculture by an academic who is also an insider (Dunn has a Ph.D in cultural anthropology and is a lifelong metalhead).

Dunn and McFadyen are interviewed on CBC's "The Hour".

I've recently become aware just how wide the world of metal is. Although I like the metal that hails from the genre's "traditional" homes of England, Northern Europe and the USA, I'm also a big fan of a few Italian metal bands. But in more recent years I've grown to like some of the following:



Sepultura is Brazil's best-known metal band, rising to prominence in the early 1990s opening for Ozzy Osbourne. Although their earlier albums were faithful to the forms of American thrash and hardcore music, 1996's Roots album incorporated elements of music from Brazil's indigenous peoples, notably the Xavante tribe.



Israel's Orphaned Land combine elements of thrash, death and progressive metal with traditional musical forms from North Africa and the Middle East. Lyrically, they express a desire for understanding and brotherhood between the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), warning of dire consequences for all if peace is not achieved (most eloquently in their 2004 release, Mabool, or "Flood"). This distinguishes them from the earlier major Israeli metal band, Salem, who memorialize the victims of the Holocaust while railing against Israel's enemies.



Mainland China's Tang Dynasty sets legends from early Chinese history to heavy riffs, making them soulmates with the metal sword-and-sorcery epics of the European power-metal scene.



Much like the Scandanavian black metal bands of the early 1990s embraced an anti-Christian image to stand against a culture they considered oppressive, Taiwanese black-metal band Chthonic embraces myths from Taiwan's history to speak in favour of Taiwanese independence from mainland China. This has been a highly controversial political stance in their native land and has attracted criticism from the People's Republic of China. They are also noteworthy for the incorporation of the erhu, a traditional 2-stringed bowed instrument much like a violin, into their music. And bassist Doris "Thunder" Yeh is totally hot.



Eluveitie is a Swiss folk-metal band incorporating bagpipes, fiddles, and even a hurdy-gurdy into their heavy sound. Lyrically they derive from legends of pre-Roman pagan Europe.

Which only goes to show that Tenacious D are right: You can't kill The Metal!

Eine Kleine Fenstermusik

This is interesting: music made only with Windows 98 and XP sounds:

For He So Loved the Stage, He Sent His Only Begotten Singer...

Just got back from seeing a production of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley, who played Jesus in the Norman Jewison film and the original Broadway production--almost 35 years ago! I linked to some clips from the 1973 movie in a previous post.

This is Neeley today:

Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious!

-Psalm 66:2 (NIV)

Canon in Glee

I have never seen such a hilarious rant on classical music before:

Reading on a Dream...

Just what we've been waiting for--a library musical!



Supposedly the rest of the library patrons were unsuspecting but I personally think it was staged. How else did they set up all those cameras?

Thriller--Bollywood style!

This was quite amusing:

Future Sound of London

Radiohead releases their latest album for download on a "pay what you want" model.

The Eagles decide to cut major recording labels out of the distribution of their newest album.

Trent Reznor, the man behind Nine Inch Nails, happily confesses to downloading music from peer-to-peer and torrent sites (would that Lars Ulrich, Metallica drummer and notorious foe of internet downloaders be as candid about his tape copying past).

Are we seeing the decline and fall of the recording companies?

Ask not for whom the modem tolls...

J'accuse!

So, law enforcement in Canada has more important priorities than hunting people who download music from the internet.

I wish the recording industry would stop looking a gift horse in the mouth.

You can't kill The Metal

OK, this news nearly made me squeal with glee like an anime fangirl:

Swedish metallers OPETH will support DREAM THEATER on the prog-metal giants' next North American tour in April/May 2008. More details will be announced soon.

Two of my favourite prog-metal acts on the same bill!

SQUEEEE!

What happens...After Forever?

Me & Floor Jansen

Well, my new favourite band of the moment, After Forever (MySpace), came to the Funhaus in Toronto for an intimate but exciting show.

The opening act was Montreal's Unexpect (MySpace), whom I can only describe as the Dillinger Escape Plan kidnapping Arcade Fire and forcing them to perform Phantom of the Opera or be ground up by a chainsaw. A very twisted and interesting sound, to be sure.

After Forever themselves performed majestically, rocking the hell out a cozy venue like Funhaus. Actually, it was nice to be in a club like Funhaus again: exposing ductwork and rafters in the ceiling; single, small bar with few taps; one pool table. I missed the ambience of low-rent goth-industrial clubs like Vatikan and Necropolis.

Not so funny bunny

So according to Mad Jenny, today is Rabbit Day.

Oh sure, they look all cute and helpless and twitchy, but what evil lurks beneath that cottontail of evil?

Peter Cottontail is coming to eat your children.

Anya tried to warn us all, didn't she?

The metal chick wet t-shirt contest continues...

Some time ago, I compared the music videos for Nightwish's "Nemo" and Evanescence's "Lithium". Among the many points of similarity between them, both lead singers (Tarja and Amy) end up submerged in water.

I need to add another video to the list: After Forever's "Energize". Watch lead singer Floor Jansen end up in the water during the chorus:



I don't think otherwise Floor matches up with Tarja and Amy. This video alternates between a forest during an autumnal windstorm, and a burning soundstage. No snow-covered field to be seen. Also, while Floor is wearing pseudo-Victorian goth attire in this video, it's not her usual style of dress. A straight-ahead rocker chick, Floor usually wears sleeveless T-shirts with jeans or PVC pants.

All kidding aside, After Forever rules!

The mirror has two faces

So I just got back from seeing two bands that are ostensibly from the same scene, but with vastly different approaches. Italy's Lacuna Coil and the Netherlands' The Gathering. Both are female-fronted European goth-metal bands, but couldn't be more different.

We got there too late to see the first opener, Stolen Babies, and only caught the last two songs of In This Moment's set (again, both female-fronted metal bands, but not goth-metal).

This was The Gathering's first night on the tour, replacing their countrymen Within Temptation--whom I would have preferred to see, but The Gathering were quite good. They have more of a slow-paced, somber alternative sound than a true metal sound (though their earlier stuff is heavier). Here's an example; one of their more popular songs, "Saturnine":



Also interesting is how, well, normal The Gathering are. They dress quite casually--jeans and shirts, no weird hairstyles. Like my sister (who was with me) said of lead singer Anneke's outfit, "That's something I would wear". They were very humble in appearance and mannerisms. The guitarist, René, looked like a shy geek (complete with glasses) and the bassist, Marjolein, gave these cute little golf claps to the audience. At one point, Anneke mentioned how their last stop had been New York City: "It was nice, but also, not so nice," she stammered. "But tonight is like bliss for us."

Lacuna Coil was the complete opposite. They were very theatrical with very showy PVC outfits and a fairly impressive light show. The two lead singers, Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro, were incredibly dramatic in their stage presence and rapport with the audience. During one duet, Andrea was on his knees while Cristina towered over him. Of course, being Italian they were gesticulating wildly all the time. Here are some pics from my phone:

Lacuna Coil in blue Doppler Shift.	Lacuna Coil in red Doppler Shift

Here's Lacuna Coil playing Jimmy Kimmel Live:



So, it was a pretty cool night, even if both bands stuck pretty close to the recorded versions of their songs and didn't really mix things up much.

Bring back those golden oldies...

Senator Vivienne Poy will be visiting our library system for Asian Heritage Month, the annual observance of the history and cultural contributions of Asian-Canadians to our country. Poy, as Senator, introduced the Senate motion for the federal government to recognize this event.

One of Senator Poy's goals is to amend the words to the national anthem, changing the line "True patriot love in all thy sons command" to the more gender-inclusive "True patriot love in all of us command". She produced as support for this measure, a recently-unearthed copy of Robert Stanley Weir's original 1908 English lyrics, where the line is question was rendered as "True patriot love thou dost in us command". (Weir revised the lyrics three times after writing these--one of the later versions is the official anthem.)

Reading over the original lyrics, I'd actually be in favour of instituting them as the official English language lyrics, since they are actually fully inclusive. Poy's change would leave the reference to God in the anthem (incidently, this never appeared in any incarnation of Weir's lyrics, but was added by the National Anthem Act of 1980), excluding the 16%+ of Canadians who are non-religious, not to mention polytheists, some Buddhists, and the like. The one potential stumbing block would be the line "May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise", but that's in the third verse, so we could just omit it from the official anthem (the rest of that verse doesn't add anything not already said in the second).

As an aside, the French lyrics (which were written earlier) have never changed since their authoring. The French lyrics make explicit references to Christianity and militarism ("Car ton bras sait porter l'épée, Il sait porter la croix!"), though most contemporary Quebecois have little passion for either.

Shuffle Meme

OK, for this web meme, get your iPod or equivalent mp3 player, set it to shuffle, and answer these questions in order with the song that comes up.

How does the world see me?
Arcade Fire, "No Cars Go"

I'm apparently a place inaccessible by most vehicles. Maybe I'm a mountain!

Will I have a happy life?
Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing"

I guess I'm going to prison for fraud.

What do my friends really think of me?
The Sword, "Freya"

I wait in Valhalla for the souls of warriors slain in battle? Is that a metaphor for being a shoulder to cry on?

Do people secretly lust after me?
Beck, "The New Pollution"

Only women who like their men dirty. Grrowwwl.

How can I make myself happy?
Luca Turilli, "Black Dragon"

I have to get in touch with my draconic heritage and fight evil. Great--apparently I'm Eragon. :-(

What should I do with my life?
Les Miserables soundtrack, "Confrontation"

I need to have a dramatic confrontation with my nemesis. Am I Jean Valjean or Inspector Javert in this equation?

Will I ever have children?
Oasis, "Wonderwall"

I am, and they're apparently going to save me from depression.

What is some good advice for me?
Coheed and Cambria, "Devil in Jersey City"

Don't pick fights in Jersey City. Good advice for anyone who isn't one of the Sopranos, really.

How will I be remembered?
Dimmu Borgir, "Nocturnal Fear"

Can't get any plainer than that. My ancient Mesopotamian gods will give everyone nightmares.

What is my signature dance song?
HIM, "Your Sweet 666"

A goth metal love song. I guess that does sum me up fairly succinctly.

What do I think my current theme song is?
The Arrogant Worms, "Sam, the Guy from 'Quincy'"

'Cause I won't stop beating (or in this case, exhuming) dead horses!

What song will play at my funeral?
Rhapsody of Fire, "Emerald Sword"

Clearly there is too much epic and symphonic metal on my iPod. But, Vikings have the best funeral rites!

What type of women do I like?
MC Hawking, "Fuck the Creationists"

Well, I certainly don't like ignorant or overly credulous women, that's for sure. I assume that the F-word here is being used as a dismissal, not an invitation to sexual intercourse.

What is my day going to be like?
Gin Blossoms, "Follow You Down"

It's a crap shoot.

Just oaking around

Well, yesterday I linked to a story about Keith Richards snorting his dead father's ashes with some cocaine. Apparently, it was just an April Fool's Joke:

"It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool's joke," said Bernard Doherty, a Rolling Stones spokesman, about Richards' quote in NME magazine...

...In a statement posted on the Rolling Stones Web site, Richards said: "The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak. I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn't take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide."

However, it says a lot about Keef's reputation that people took this at face value.

An Easter Vigil

OK, this story from AlterNet reminded me why Trey Parker and Matt Stone are such comic geniuses. I don't really watch South Park religiously (ha!) anymore, but this reminded me that the show still has its bite (link includes three clips from the episode).

This comic makes me wonder about the episode's conclusion, though.

On a related note, I came across this posting via The News Blog:

Coming to the US my biggest shock was how seriously people took religion. It was a form of religious intensity that I had never encountered. In Saudi I had endured a totalitarian theocracy (is there another kind?) but I had never seen the man on the street be so wrapped up in their religion. I had never met people who defined themselves, first and foremost, on the basis of their religion.

Which is all the more interesting considering how ignorant many Americans are about their religion:

The United States is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in all things supernatural -- from God and the Virgin Birth to the humbler workings of angels and demons. Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount...

...Approximately 75 percent of adults, according to polls cited by Prothero, mistakenly believe the Bible teaches that "God helps those who help themselves." More than 10 percent think that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc. Only half can name even one of the four Gospels, and -- a finding that will surprise many -- evangelical Christians are only slightly more knowledgeable than their non-evangelical counterparts.

I wish I could say I was surprised, but then I regularly have arguments with family members who know very little about what their Catholic faith is actually about.

Well, I for one will be spending Easter in my annual ritual of watching Jesus Christ Superstar (Norman Jewison version, of course).

"Heaven on Their Minds" (JUDAS)



The first song after the overture. Featuring a fantastic performance by Judas (Carl Anderson) and one awesome guitar riff! One of my favourite pieces. I wish Webber could have kept writing like this.

JUDAS
Listen Jesus I don't like what I see
All I ask is that you listen to me
And remember I've been your right-hand man all along

You have set them all on fire
They think they've found the new Messiah
And they'll hurt you when they find they're wrong

"This Jesus Must Die" (CAIAPHAS, ANNAS, SANHEDRIN)



High Priest Caiaphas and his brother-in-law Annas convince the Sanhedrin that Jesus is a threat to their power and must be eliminated. Excellent contrast between Caiaphas's (Bob Bingham) deep bass and Annas's (Kurt Yaghjian) falsetto.

ANNAS
What then to do about This Jesus-mania?
Now how do we deal with the Carpenter King?
Where do we start with a man who is bigger

SANHEDRIN MEMBER
Than John was when he did his baptism thing?

CAIAPHAS
Fools you have no perception!
The stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high
We must crush him completely
So like John before him, this Jesus must die

"The Last Supper" (JESUS, JUDAS, APOSTLES)



Jesus (Ted Neely) confronts Judas about his forthcoming betrayal. The confrontation scene is one of my favourites.

JESUS
Peter will deny me in just a few hours
Three times will deny me - and that's not all I see
One of you here dining, one of my twelve chosen
Will leave to betray me -

JUDAS
Cut out the dramatics! You know very well who -
Jesus
Why don't you go do it?
JUDAS
You want me to do it!
JESUS
Hurry they are waiting
JUDAS
If you knew why I do it . . .
JESUS
I don't care why you do it!
JUDAS
To think I admired you
For now I despise you
JESUS
You liar - you Judas
JUDAS
You wanted me to do it!
What if I just stayed here
And ruined your ambition?
Christ you deserve it!

JESUS
Hurry you fool, hurry and go,
Save me your speeches
I don't want to know - Go! Go!

"I Only Want to Say (Gethsemane)" (JESUS)



Jesus's solo piece where he pleads with God to spare him the coming pain and suffering. Neely's most passionate performance.

JESUS
Why, why should I die?
Oh, why should I die?
Can you show me now
That I would not be killed in vain?
Show me just a little
Of your omnipresent brain
Show me there's a reason
For your wanting me to die
You're far too keen on where and how
But not so hot on why

"Trial Before Pilate (including The 39 Lashes)" (JESUS, PILATE, CAIAPHAS, CROWD)



Pilate (Barry Dennen) is one of my favourite characters.

JESUS
You have nothing in your hands
Any power you have
Comes to you from far beyond
Everything is fixed
And you can't change it

PILATE
You're a fool, Jesus Christ
How can I help you?

CROWD
Crucify him! Crucify him!
Remember Caesar
You have a duty
To keep the peace
So crucify him!
You'll be demoted
You'll be deported
So crucify him!

"Superstar" (JUDAS, ANGELS)



Speaking from heaven, Judas questions the whole enterprise.

JUDAS
Every time I look at you
I don't understand
Why you let the things you did
Get so out of hand
You'd have managed better
If you'd had it planned
Now why'd you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?

If you'd come today
You could have reached the whole nation
Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication