Streets: A Rock Opera
| Streets: A Rock Opera | ||||
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| Studio album by Savatage | ||||
| Released | October 4, 1991 | |||
| Recorded | January–July, 1991 321 Studios, New York |
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| Genre |
Progressive metal Heavy metal |
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| Length | 68:33 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Paul O'Neill | |||
| Savatage chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Streets | ||||
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| Alternative Cover | ||||
Narrated Version of "Streets: A Rock Opera".
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Rock Hard (de) | 9.5/10 |
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. It was also Jon Oliva's last album as lead vocalist until 1995's Dead Winter Dead and 1997's The Wake of Magellan, where he shared lead vocal duties with Zak Stevens (singing lead on two songs from each album). He resumed lead vocal duties exclusively on 2001's Poets and Madmen.
Savatage had thought about making a rock opera after their successful collaboration with producer Paul O'Neill in making Hall of the Mountain King. During the recording of its follow-up in 1989, guitarist Criss Oliva found a play and accompanying music written by Paul O'Neill, which the band intended to use on their album. Soon after, however, the band felt they were not ready yet, and postponed the idea for their next record. The record they were working on still received the name of the play, Gutter Ballet, and one of the tracks from the play was also recorded for Gutter Ballet, namely "When the Crowds Are Gone". The band then decided that their next album would be based on the play, and the band entered the studio to record what would become Streets.
After the Gutter Ballet tour however, rhythm guitarist Chris Caffery left the band on friendly terms to rejoin his brother's band, where he could play lead guitar instead of rhythm guitar. He would later rejoin Savatage in 1995 for the recording of Dead Winter Dead and has remained a member ever since.
The album was originally due to be a double CD record, but late in the recording process Savatage decided to compress the story into one album. Jon Oliva and Paul O'Neill have since stated that they would have liked to release it as a double album later on, 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, along with Can You Hear Me Now).
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Wikipedia