Turn back, O man

The words of 'Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways' were written by Clifford Bax at the request of Gustav Holst, who wanted to set them for his now famous anthem.

This setting is not by Holst but by Schwartz, as a part of his evangelical musical 'Godspell', written in the 1970s and staged at the same time as the now better-remembered 'Jesus Christ Superstar'.

Quite different from the other songs in Godspell, the style of this setting is somewhere between sultry and raunchy.