In 1975 Cousins recalled:
"'The Man Who Called Himself Jesus' should have been a hit single, but unfortunately we had problems with the BBC. ... When 'Jesus' came out, 'Jesus Christ Superstar' came out about the same week, and I considered that equally as controversial. Being a fairly spiritual/religious person, I found it a little bit offensive to me, 'Jesus Christ Superstar, who in the world do you think you are' whereas I found my own 'Jesus' song more sympathetic ... than that particular idea. Once you got the whole idea of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' in context, the song wasn't so offensive."
I think the single versions were all slightly remixed for radio play - none of them include the spoken word Richard Wilson intro which is the sole remaining evidence of the spoken links which were a prominent feature of the original version of Strawbs first album.
The promo version is dated 22 NOV 1968.
An undated promo copy from Australia.
News to me, but, courtesy of Alison Brown, we now know that A&M Argentina picked up on this release (albeit a few months later than other places, probably to coincide with the release of the album in June 1969). Wonder what the Argentinian record buying public thought of this one ....
