Synopsis
Jesus gathers his twelve apostles together. He knows what lies ahead and asks his friends to remember him when they eat and drink. Looking around at their blank faces, Jesus becomes incensed and tells them that he must be mad to think that any of them will remember him after he dies. He turns on Peter, telling him that he will deny ever having known him by the end of the night, and then reveals that one of his apostles will betray him. Judas leaps up and confronts Jesus, and an argument between the two men ensues. Jesus tells Judas to get on with what he has planned, and Judas accuses Jesus of ruining everything that they have achieved together.
Lyrics
Relevant Insight
“…the final showdown between Jesus and Judas is played out against the background of the Apostles getting more and more drunk and sleepy, blissfully unaware of the dramatic clash going on around them. Their singalong chorus, ‘Look at all my trials and tribulations,’ is enjoyably daft and gets dafter as the wine kicks in. Words are slurred and confused by the third time around and I also included a pot reference (‘What’s that in the bread? It’s gone to my head!’) as a tribute to the dominating atmosphere in Olympic Studio Two [where the album was recorded] at the time. […] But the core of the scene is the Jesus/Judas argument. […] Andrew’s musical illustration of the altercation was superbly constructed – heavy rock music, almost heavy metal, being ideal for the clash and switching wonderfully at unexpected moments to the inebriated corn of the Apostles’ chorus.”
– Tim Rice
Further Analysis
Once again, we pick up the threads of recurring musical themes. The apostles’ repeated chorus is new music – with the lyrics reaffirming their relatively uneducated, shallow outlook, and one melodic dynamic relieving the other as the tension continues to amplify, to the scene’s advantage – but when Jesus and Judas argue again, it is to the same music they argued to in “Everything’s Alright,” even though the subject of their dispute has changed. This time, Judas is pissed because things would still have been okay if Jesus had just listened to him! And he feels Jesus forced him into betrayal. Judas is disgusted with Jesus and his naiveté; he’s also probably drunk. This friendship is over. The end of this argument uses a short fragment from “Superstar,” which will return as the last song in the show. Jesus then sings a short section, “Will no one stay awake with me?” introducing a new melody that will be used later as a musical betrayal motif.
In the lyrics, Rice’s cleverness is again evident, both to his credit and detriment. In the case of the former, check out the “you liar, you Judas”/“Christ, you deserve it!” exchange, with the characters referring to each other in conversation and invoking the modern use of the names. As for the latter, well… let me clear up once and for all a reference made by Judas toward the end of the song to Jesus being a “jaded mandarin.” I’ve heard enough jokes about the Last Supper being at an all-you-can-eat Chinese joint or Jesus’ penchant for citrus fruits to be tired of them all.
Mandarin is not just a type of orange, a form of the Chinese language, or a term for an official in any of the nine top grades of the former imperial Chinese civil service (or clothing characteristic of what they’d allegedly wear or porcelain objets d’art depicting them). The root word for mandarin in Hindi means “counselor,” and – unfortunately, given this definition’s origin in unkind Asian racial stereotypes – the term came to refer (in colonialist British parlance) to a powerful official or senior bureaucrat, especially one perceived as reactionary and secretive.
All this to say: when he calls Jesus a “jaded mandarin,” Judas says that Jesus is corrupt, washed up, and useless as a leader.
Could Tim Rice have found a better way to say that? Probably. But this is the method he chose, and for better or worse, it has gone down in history ever since, including a recent parodic reference in the second season of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon! to a “sour macaroon.” Oy…
Old vs. New
(Note: You may need to enlarge images to enable an accurate comparison.)
- The new score adds two bars of intro upfront (melodically reminiscent of “Well done Judas…”) that the old score doesn’t have. This reflects the end of an entr’acte that has appeared in most productions post-1996. The complete band parts for each variant of the licensed versions include the start as Bars 150-154 of “Damned for All Time/Blood Money,” but these are confusingly not present in the vocal score. A sample recording that is most similar to the score can be found here, and there are also alternative takes (both minus the “Well done Judas…” motif) from the 2000 film and the NBC Live concert, where a guitar-driven variant appears after “Herod’s Song.”
- Bars 13-14 (after the very first “…pool of wine”): At this point, the new score inserts “Boys” echoing “pool of wine,” much like the echoes of “pool of wine” and “if I tried” that typically appear in the final chorus on older recordings and in most productions. (Indeed, such an echo appears in the old score – and not the new – at just that spot, i.e., what would now be Bar 154.) However, curiously, 13-14 is the only place where the echo appears in the new score. (My theory is that it’s a case of confusion in music prep, which persists even though the licensed score under Lloyd Webber’s supervision is far cleaner than before.)
- Bar 126 (rehearsal “H” in the new, rehearsal “F” in the old): A metronome marking in the old score (“𝅘𝅥 = 108”) is missing in the new.
- Bar 142 (rehearsal “I” in the new, rehearsal “G” in the old): A metronome marking in the old score (“𝅘𝅥 = 92”) is missing in the new.
- Bar 154 (rehearsal “J” in the new, rehearsal “H” in the old): A metronome marking in the old score (“𝅘𝅥 = 64”) is missing in the new, replaced by the indication “Tempo moderato staggeroso.”
- Bar 170 (rehearsal “L” in the new): A metronome marking in the old score (“𝅘𝅥 = 60”) is missing in the new.