Hercules
40 Years: A Look at the Legacy of the God of Classic Rock
APRIL 27th 1972. Newcastle Music Hall. Thousands of people, with no idea of what to expect from the hyped up act about to come. And then he came onto stage. And what he played next has been stated to be the revolution of classic rock, and spawned almost four decades of loving fans and classic hits.
When Hercules McJesus first played publicly, it’s almost a well-known fact that he was instantly adored. The years of effort he put into song writing and practising created his status as an awe-inspiring rock artist. 38 years on, and he’s still a worldwide known figure. After eleven bestselling albums, and sold out gigs worldwide, Hercules has untimely passed away in 2007. His legacy though, did not die with him.
All eleven of his albums has been remastered, and are ready to be released unto the public once again, in honour of the 40th anniversary of his debut. In honour of both the remastered albums and his anniversary, we talk with people close to McJesus to see what the living legend was like, and to see how his legacy shall live on further.
‘Hercules was always an optimist, and you can see this in his songs’ speaks out his widowed wife, Gloria. ‘He was in darker places than I would have been able to cope with, but he always pulled through.’ One of these darker places that are well known among McJesus fans is the infamous incident with his brother, Zeus, who he regularly did collaborations with, when Zeus was murdered by a deranged homeless man after a gig in New York in 1994.
The blow hit Hercules hard, and even inspired his seventh studio album, named The Eagle (of which the name came from Zeus’ eagle from Greek mythology) and the hit single from said album of the same name.
Hercules and Zeus were of course a popular duo throughout the 80’s particularly, and went on the sold
out worldwide tour ‘Elysian’ from ’77 to ‘79. This tour is often said to be the highlight of not only both of their careers, but one of the greatest highlights of live performances ever.
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