Damned For All Time / Blood Money Lyrics – Jesus Christ Superstar

Song Overview

Personal Review

This two-part burner - “Damned for All Time/Blood Money” - catches Judas mid-spiral, arguing with himself while bargaining with power. The lyrics keep jabbing, the lyrics keep justifying, and the groove won’t let him off the hook. Snapshot: a man convinces himself that betrayal is salvation, then takes the silver anyway.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The track is split in two scenes. First comes a twitchy rock pulse - Judas alone with his conscience, parsing motives at speed. Then the shuffle of “Blood Money” enters like a smoky backroom, where the priests speak in bureaucratic half-truths and the deal hardens. It’s rock opera doing noir.

The rhythmic engine fuses late-60s/early-70s blues-rock with theatrical declamation: bright electric guitars and organ in lockstep, drums driving straight 4-on-the-floor, horns punching phrases. That hybrid feel explains why the song lands like an argument set to motion - quick steps, quick rationalizations.

Emotionally, the arc moves from fevered justification to cold transaction. Judas starts desperate - nearly pleading for absolution - and ends logistical, naming the time and place. In one breath he begs not to be judged, in the next he schedules an arrest.

“Just don’t say I’m / damned for all time.”

The language is plain and biting. Phrases like “I have no thought at all about my own reward” work as self-talk, the sort of line you repeat until you believe it. When Annas and Caiaphas counter with “This isn’t blood money, it’s a fee,” they launder a moral act with a clerical term - classic institutional euphemism.

“We just need to know where the soldiers can find him.”

Historically, the scene nods to the Gospel tradition of thirty pieces of silver - the shorthand symbol for betrayal across centuries. The show avoids number-dropping and lets the coin clink echo in your head.

Production-wise, the concept album brought in players from Britain’s rock scene, including musicians linked with Joe Cocker’s Grease Band, which is why the groove feels road-tested rather than pit-orchestra tidy. Sax and guitar add nervous energy - think club stage heat rather than polite pit.

Culturally, this lands in 1970 - turbulence everywhere, a public already arguing about protest, authority, and ends-justify-means rhetoric. Judas isn’t a cartoon villain here; he’s the office moralist who crosses a line and drafts a memo to explain it. That ambiguity is the show’s boldest choice.

“I don’t want your blood money.”

By the end of the track, it hardly matters what Judas wants. He has chosen. And the choir’s “Well done, Judas” seals it with a terrible cheer - the kind a crowd gives when a deal gets done.

Creation history

The cut appears on the 1970 concept album Jesus Christ Superstar, written and produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, recorded in London, and released October 1970 in the UK and US. The album’s success sparked the stage productions the following year.

On film and TV, the sequence is staged in the 1973 movie and shows up in later revivals - including the 2012 arena tour and the 2018 Live in Concert broadcast - each time tweaking the power dynamics in the room.

Verse Highlights

“Damned for All Time”

Judas frames betrayal as responsibility. The language is full of hedges - “I came because I had to” - classic self-exculpation. Harmonically the guitar-organ figure keeps stepping forward, like thought spirals you can’t switch off.

“Blood Money”

The groove loosens into a shuffle as negotiation starts. The priests recast ethics as expense reports - “our expenses are good” - and the lyric’s legalese turns the stomach on purpose. The choir’s closing benediction chills the room.

Key Facts

• Featured: Lead vocal - Murray Head (Judas); with Victor Brox (Caiaphas) and Brian Keith (Annas).
• Producer: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice.
• Composer/Lyricists: Andrew Lloyd Webber (music), Tim Rice (lyrics).
• Release Date: October 27, 1970 - U.S. album; October 16, 1970 - UK album.
• Genre: Rock opera with blues-rock shuffle and theatrical recitative.
• Instruments: electric guitars, organ/electric piano, bass, drums/percussion, tenor sax, brass.
• Label: Decca/MCA.
• Mood: fevered, fatalistic, transactional.
• Length: 4:36 (album listing).
• Track #: Side two, track 7 on the 1970 concept album.
• Language: English; biblical allusions to Matthew 26’s betrayal scene.
• Album context: closing cut of LP side two, immediately preceding the Last Supper sequence.
• Music style: tight riff-led verse moving to a shuffle; stacked choral responses at close.
• Poetic meter: conversational iambs and clipped anapests - built for breath and bite.
• Recording: London sessions with rock players drawn from the UK scene.
• © Copyrights: Decca/MCA era masters; authorship Rice/Webber per original release.

Questions and Answers

Was this medley ever released as a standalone single?

No - the album yielded singles like “Superstar” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him,” but “Damned for All Time/Blood Money” remained an album track tied to the story arc.

Who sings Judas on the original concept album cut?

Murray Head delivers Judas’s lead - with Victor Brox as Caiaphas and Brian Keith as Annas.

Where does this scene appear on stage and screen?

It’s in Act 1 of the concept album and staged in Norman Jewison’s 1973 film; later productions like the 2012 arena tour and 2018 live TV broadcast also feature it.

What’s the biblical anchor for “blood money”?

Matthew 26:14-16 recounts Judas agreeing to betray Jesus for silver; the musical mirrors the negotiation while staying focused on character.

Any notable musical details worth listening for?

Yes - the tight guitar/organ figure that jitters under Judas’s monologue, and a tenor sax burst that amps the paranoia before the shuffle of “Blood Money.” That contrast is the drama.

Awards and Chart Positions

While this specific track wasn’t a single, the Jesus Christ Superstar concept album hit number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs in 1971 and finished as the year’s top album in the U.S., helping propel the property to the stage and screen.

How to Sing?

Judas sits high for a rock tenor. Typical published ranges for the role run roughly D3 to D5, with “Damned for All Time” living in the bright mid-upper tessitura; save headroom for the choir-topped coda. Treat the verses like breath-managed speech: consonants do the moralizing, vowels ride the groove. Keep the tempo lean, avoid over-melisma, and let the belt sharpen when Judas talks himself into the inevitable. Caiaphas and Annas sit lower and darker - support the resonance rather than chasing sheer volume.

Songs Exploring Themes of betrayal and moral compromise

“Judas” - Lady Gaga. Different era, same magnetism of the wrong choice. Gaga folds religious iconography into dance-pop drama, where loyalty and desire keep colliding. Vocally it’s a pop belt with gleam; lyrically she toys with devotion and damage. Compared to the rock-opera cut, the beat is club-tight, but the theme - running toward what will ruin you - feels like Judas with a mirrorball.

“The Confrontation” - Les Misérables. Not a betrayal scene, exactly, but a face-off about law, mercy, and what it means to do right. Valjean and Javert duel with principles instead of coins. The harmonic tug reminds me of Judas’s argument-with-self - except here the argument is sung by two men across a moral canyon.

“Sympathy for the Devil” - The Rolling Stones. If “Blood Money” narrows in on a single deal, “Sympathy” pans out to complicity on a civilizational scale. The samba groove is seductive, the narrator grins through history, and the question is whether listening makes us bystanders or accomplices. Put next to Judas’s shuffle, it’s a reminder that evil often arrives dancing.