Streets: A Rock Opera
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| Streets: A Rock Opera | ||
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| Studio album by Savatage | ||
| Released | 1991 | |
| Recorded | January–July, 1991 321 Studios, New York |
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| Genre | Progressive Metal | |
| Length | 68:33 | |
| Label | Steamhammer | |
| Producer(s) | Paul O'Neill | |
| Professional reviews | ||
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| Savatage chronology | ||
| Gutter Ballet (1989) |
Streets (1991) |
Edge of Thorns (1993) |
Streets: A Rock Opera is a concept album by Savatage, dealing with the rise and fall of the musician DT Jesus. It was released in 1991 on Steamhammer. The album took almost a year to record.
The story features a fallen rock star called DT Jesus, who has hit hard times. He is a drug dealer as the story begins. DT Jesus is just another lowlife on the streets of New York City. Streets explains the story behind DT Jesus and his rise to fame again and his second fall.
The concept of Streets is based on a book written by Paul O'Neill that was written many years prior to Paul's involvement with the band. Streets was never meant be an autobiography. [1] In fact, it was written in 1979 as a Broadway play and stored in a drawer at Paul O'Neill's home until Criss Oliva found it and suggested it be Savatage's next album. It is considered co-incidental that the life of lead vocalist Jon Oliva mirrored that of the main character DT Jesus at the time.
Songs like Jesus Saves and Ghost In The Ruins were "rocked up", said O'Neill, while many others, including Believe, Heal My Soul, and A Little Too Far, all appear in the same version intended for their Broadway performances. Other tracks like Streets and Strange Reality were written expressly for the rock opera.
Had the title track of their previous album not been completed in time, Savatage would have liked to call the record Gutter Ballet, but it's inclusion on their previous record meaned this was not going to happen. Instead, the band wanted to call the album Ghost in the Ruins. Eventually, an album entitled Ghost in the Ruins was released in 1995 as a tribute to Criss Oliva.
The album was originally due to be a double CD record, but record label Atlantic Records did not like the idea, so some songs were dropped from the record, whilst others were re-written over the years and eventually formed parts of songs on Edge of Thorns. Among the songs that were dropped were "DT Jesus". That song was later released on the From the Gutter to the Stage compilation; "Larry Elbows" (referred by some as the 17th track), "Stay", which involves the otherwise unknown character of Duke; "Desiree", "Tonight I Would Be King", "Sanctuary" (itself a rework of the Gutter Ballet outtake "Target"), and "Beyond Broadway". Originally the album would contain more spoken tracks than the one used for the introduction for Jesus Saves (which was a reworking of DT Jesus after Atlantic did not like the original version, and was recorded with only Jon and Criss in the studio, much like Gutter Ballet). The band have expressed no desire to re-release the album as a double CD as originally intended, partly due to the fact that the only recordings that remain are on audio cassette of the master tapes, and the fact that most of the original ideas for the songs were used in later works.
The band recorded a music video for the song Jesus Saves which received some airplay on MTV, and also recorded a video for New York City Don't Mean Nothing, but that video has been "lost" and was never aired.
Contrary to popular belief, Paul O'Neill did not write all the lyrics to the songs. Songs such as Tonight He Grins Again, Agony and Ecstasy and If I Go Away are songs that Jon wrote the words and most of the music to.
[edit] Track listing
- "Streets" – 6:50
- "Jesus Saves" – 5:13
- "Tonight He Grins Again" – 3:28
- "Strange Reality" – 4:56
- "A Little Too Far" – 3:25
- "You're Alive" – 1:51
- "Sammy And Tex" – 3:07
- "St. Patrick's" – 4:17
- "Can You Hear Me Now" – 5:11
- "New York City Don't Mean Nothing" – 4:01
- "Ghost In The Ruins" – 5:32
- "If I Go Away" – 5:17
- "Agony And Ecstasy" – 3:33
- "Heal My Soul" – 2:35
- "Somewhere In Time" – 3:17
- "Believe" – 5:42
- Bonus-track on the European Edel re-release
- 17. Desiree 3:54
- Bonus-tracks on the European SPV re-release
- 17. Ghost In The Ruins (live) 5:20
- 18. Jesus Saves (live) 4:02
[edit] Lineup
- Vocals: Jon Oliva
- Guitar: Criss Oliva
- Bass: Johnny Lee Middleton
- Drums: Steve Wacholz
- Keys: John Zahner (Touring Member Only)
[edit] External links
- Art and Faith Online: an analysis of the religious elements of Streets
- Lyrics
| Savatage |
| Jon Oliva | Damond Jiniya | Chris Caffery | Al Pitrelli | Johnny Lee Middleton | Jeff Plate | Paul O'Neill |
| Criss Oliva | Keith Collins | Steve "Doc" Wacholz | Zak Stevens | Alex Skolnick | Jack Frost |
| Discography |
|---|
| Studio Albums: Sirens | The Dungeons are Calling | Power Of The Night | Fight for the Rock | Hall of the Mountain King | Gutter Ballet | Streets: A Rock Opera | Edge of Thorns | Handful of Rain | Dead Winter Dead | The Wake of Magellan | Poets and Madmen |
| Live Albums: Japan Live '94 | Final Bell / Ghost in the Ruins |
| Compilation Albums: From the Gutter to the Stage | The Best and the Rest | Believe |
| Related articles |
| Doctor Butcher | Trans-Siberian Orchestra | Jon Oliva's Pain | Circle II Circle | Megadeth | Testament | Annihilator |
