Streets: A Rock Opera

Untitled

Streets: A Rock Opera (often simply shortened to Streets) is a concept album by Savatage, dealing with the rise and fall of the musician DT Jesus. It was originally released in October 1991 on Atlantic Records. The album took almost a year to record, with pre-production beginning in October 1990. This would be the last Savatage album founder Jon Oliva would perform lead vocals on until the 2001 release of Poets and Madmen although he would remain active with the band as a composer and keyboard player.

Story and concept

The story features a fallen rock star called DT Jesus (DT is short for either De-Tox or Down-Town), 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 many years prior to his involvement with the band. Streets was never meant to be an autobiography. 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 coincidental 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" (which is based on a traditional Welsh lullaby, "Suo Gân"), 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. "Heal My Soul" was re-recorded by Savatage's off-shoot musical project, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, on a 2007 Wal-Mart CD sampler. "Believe" was re-recorded with Tim Hockenberry on vocals by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra on their 2009 album Night Castle.

Savatage would have liked to call the record Gutter Ballet, as the original play written by O'Neill was called Gutter Ballet, but the inclusion of the song on their previous record meant this was not going to happen. Instead, the band wanted to call the album Ghost in the Ruins. O'Neill said that "Streets was OK too", but Jon Oliva disliked the fact that A Rock Opera was tagged onto the title. Oliva has said he has only introduced any performance of the album simply as "Streets". Eventually, an album entitled Ghost in the Ruins was released in 1995 as a tribute to Criss Oliva.

During their 2007 tour, Jon Oliva's new project, Jon Oliva's Pain performed some of the album, in album running order, as a special surprise to audiences. Oliva himself noted on stage that some of the songs performed had never been performed live to an audience before.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Rock Hard (de)	9.5/10

In 2005, Streets: A Rock Opera was ranked number 310 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Criss Oliva, Jon Oliva and Paul O'Neill, based on a book written by Paul O'Neill

Original CD release

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Streets"	6:48
2.	"Jesus Saves"	5:13
3.	"Tonight He Grins Again"	3:28
4.	"Strange Reality"	4:56
5.	"A Little Too Far"	3:25
6.	"You're Alive"	1:51
7.	"Sammy and Tex"	3:07
8.	"St. Patrick's"	4:17
9.	"Can You Hear Me Now"	5:11
10.	"New York City Don't Mean Nothing"	4:01
11.	"Ghost in the Ruins"	5:32
12.	"If I Go Away"	5:17
13.	"Agony and Ecstasy"	3:33
14.	"Heal My Soul"	2:35
15.	"Somewhere in Time"	3:17
16.	"Believe"	5:42

Original LP release

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Streets"	6:48
2.	"Jesus Saves"	5:13
3.	"Tonight He Grins Again"	3:28
4.	"Strange Reality"	4:56
5.	"A Little Too Far"	3:25
6.	"You're Alive"	1:51
7.	"Sammy and Tex"	3:07
8.	"Can You Hear Me Now"	5:11
9.	"New York City Don't Mean Nothing"	4:01
10.	"Ghost in the Ruins"	5:32
11.	"Agony and Ecstasy"	3:33
12.	"Heal My Soul"	2:35
13.	"Somewhere in Time"	3:17
14.	"Believe"	5:42

1997 Edel Music CD reissue

No.	Title	Length
17.	"Desirée"	3:54

2002 SPV CD reissue

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Streets"	6:48
2.	"Jesus Saves"	5:27
3.	"Tonight He Grins Again / Strange Reality"	8:02
4.	"A Little Too Far"	3:34
5.	"You're Alive / Sammy And Tex"	4:58
6.	"St. Patrick's"	4:29
7.	"Can You Hear Me Now"	5:11
8.	"New York City Don't Mean Nothing"	4:03
9.	"Ghost in the Ruins"	5:31
10.	"If I Go Away"	5:17
11.	"Agony and Ecstasy / Heal My Soul"	6:11
12.	"Somewhere in Time / Believe"	9:02
13.	"Ghost in the Ruins" (Live in the Netherlands 06/10/93 - incorrectly listed as "live", it's actually the studio version)	5:20
14.	"Jesus Saves" (incorrectly listed as "live" it's a shorter studio version)	3:21

2011 EarMusic CD reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Length
17.	"This Isn't What We Meant" (acoustic version)	5:30
18.	"Morning Sun" (acoustic version)	4:41

"Streets: A Rock Opera - Narrated Version" 2013 EarMusic director's cut

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Streets"	6:48
2.	"Narration to "Jesus""	1:05
3.	"Jesus Saves (Original Version)" (previously titled "DT Jesus" and released as a bonus track)	4:49
4.	"Narration to "Tonight He Grins Again""	0:18
5.	"Tonight He Grins Again"	3:26
6.	"Narration to "Strange Reality""	0:35
7.	"Strange Reality"	4:54
8.	"Narration to "A Little Too Far""	0:16
9.	"A Little Too Far"	3:23
10.	"Narration to "You're Alive""	0:25
11.	"You're Alive"	1:51
12.	"Narration to "Sammy And Tex""	0:17
13.	"Sammy And Tex"	3:06
14.	"Narration to "St. Patrick's""	0:42
15.	"St. Patrick's"	4:15
16.	"Narration to "Can You Hear Me Now""	0:30
17.	"Can You Hear Me Now"	5:09
18.	"Narration to "New York City Don't Mean Nothing""	0:57
19.	"New York City Don't Mean Nothing"	3:59
20.	"Narration to "Ghost In The Ruins""	0:21
21.	"Ghost In The Ruins"	5:29
22.	"Narration to "If I Go Away""	0:15
23.	"If I Go Away"	5:15
24.	"Narration to "Agony And Ecstasy""	0:22
25.	"Agony And Ecstasy"	3:32
26.	"Narration to "Heal My Soul""	2:03
27.	"Heal My Soul"	2:33
28.	"Narration to "Somewhere In Time""	0:37
29.	"Somewhere In Time"	3:15
30.	"Believe"	5:41
31.	"Larry Elbows" (previously unreleased)	4:09

Production

The album was originally due to be a double CD record, but record label Atlantic Records lost reels of the sessions in their vaults. These "lost tracks" were re-written over the years and eventually formed parts of songs on Edge of Thorns and later works. The album as a double CD as originally intended will never see the light, partly because the only recordings that remain are on audio cassette of the master tapes, and partly because most of the original ideas for the songs were used in later works. 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). However, a 31-track narrated version of the album was released by EarMusic Records on September 27 2013.

Outtakes

• Larry Elbows
• Beyond Broadway
• Up to You
• Life Goes On
• Stay
• Desirée
• Tonight I Would be King
• Island of the Kings
• Sanctuary

Among the songs that were dropped was also "DT Jesus", later reworked into "Jesus Saves", a song which will be properly released on the 2013 director's cut version of the album, and also available on the From the Gutter to the Stage compilation. "Desirée" was later released on the 1997 Edel re-release of the album as an acoustic version sung by Zak. "Stay" involves the otherwise unknown character of Duke and was supposed to follow on from "Ghost in the Ruins", and appears on the 1997 re-release of HOTMK, also in an acoustic arrangement). "Sanctuary" was a new version of the Gutter Ballet out-take "Target". "Larry Elbows" (referred to by some as "the 17th track"), which will be included in the 2013 reissue, is based on an old demo by the band, "Before I Hang", which also appeared on Jon Oliva's Pain's album Global Warning. The track was also used as basis for the Edge of Thorns song "Follow Me". "Beyond Broadway", another track written for the album, was also reworked by Jon Oliva and parts of the song formed "Lies" on the Jon Oliva's Pain's album Festival.

The band recorded a music video for the song "Jesus Saves" which received some airplay on MTV, and featured long time Savatage cover artist Gary Smith playing the role of DT Jesus. A video was filmed for "New York City Don't Mean Nothing", but that video has been "lost" and as of 2011 has never been aired.

Personnel

• Jon Oliva – Vocals, piano, keyboard, drums(On "Jesus Saves" and "Can You Hear me Now")
• Criss Oliva – Guitar, backing vocals, bass(On "Jesus Saves" and "Can You Hear me Now")
• Johnny Lee Middleton – Bass, backing vocals
• Steve "Doc" Wacholz – Drums

Additional musicians

• Robert Kinkel – Keyboard
• John Zahner – Keyboard, rhythm guitar, backing vocals (touring member)
• Female Background Vocals by Abi Reid
• Child Background Intro (on "Streets"): Mozart's Magic Flute
• Director of Children's Choir: Elena Doria
• Children's Choir Conductor: Bob Kinkel

Further credits

• Produced by Paul O'Neill
• Recorded and Mixed at 321 Studios, NYC, Jan-July '91
• Mastered by Greg Calibi/Sterling Sound, NYC
• Engineered by John Kayne and James A. Ball
• Assistant Engineer: Joe Daley
• Second Assistant Engineers: Scott Pizzo, J Kael Trstram, Jay DeVito
• Technical Assistants: Chris Fountain and Kurt Johnson
• Photos by William Hames
• Back Cover Illustration by Gary Smith
• Cover Development by Tory Chartier