Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

by Jeff Wayne

Overview

Released 40 years after Orson Welles' infamous radio version of the H.G. Wells tale, Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds straddles old-style radio drama and contemporary orchestrated narratives by Rick Wakeman and David Bedford. And while it lacks the sophisticated arrangements of, say, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, it does boast an impressively odd cast -- this may be the only time that a member of Thin Lizzy worked with Richard Burton, and the presence of Julie Covington and the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward in very attractive singing roles attest to its pop/rock aspirations. It's Burton's sonorous tones that sustain this work; his frequent solo narrations are eminently listenable, whereas sections featuring dialogue with other characters often come off as a bit stilted. The music is competent studio rock, and "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" does strike just the right balance between Burton's narration and an accompaniment built around a buzzsaw guitar riff. Overall, it's pleasant as a period piece, and still a fine way to introduce younger listeners to Wells' classic tale. (And if you can find it in a vinyl, it comes with a nicely produced narrative booklet with gloriously lurid illustrations by Geoff Taylor.) The album was actually appealing on too many fronts for its own good in many ways -- the Justin Hayward-sung ballad "Forever Autumn," extracted from a much longer piece on the double-LP -- showed some signs of appealing to AM radio listeners and climbed to the Top 40 based on airplay alone, but by the time Columbia Records in America (missing this boat entirely) got copies of the single into stores so that people could actually buy the record, the song had dropped back down; in the meantime, the record became a favorite of discos and dance clubs in New York and elsewhere, where its extended, highly rhythmic, synthesizer-driven sections delighted deejays and audiences, and Columbia missed another bet by not releasing an instrumental-only assembly of those long passages. (In New York, for years after it went out of print on vinyl, the album was sought after by club deejays eager to spin it). ~ Paul Collins and Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2018
Label:	Sony Music
UPC:	0889854494315
Rank:	49685

Tracks

Disc 1

1. The Eve of the War/Narrator [Album Version]
2. Horsell Common and the Heat Ray
3. The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine
4. Forever Autumn [Album Version]
5. Thunder Child

Disc 2

6. The Red Weed, Pt. 1
7. The Spirit of Man
8. The Red Weed, Pt. 2
9. The Artilleryman Returns
10. Brave New World
11. Dead London, Pt. 1
12. Dead London, Pt. 2
13. Epilogue, Pt. 1
14. Epilogue, Pt. 2 (NASA)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jeff Wayne   Primary Artist,Piano,Conductor,Harpsichord
Clare Torry   Primary Artist
Ray Cooper   Primary Artist,Percussion
Ken Freeman   Primary Artist,Synthesizer
Chris Spedding   Primary Artist,Guitar
Gary Osborne   Primary Artist,Vocals,Accompaniment
Geoff Young   Primary Artist
John Lodge   Primary Artist
Phil Lynott   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Chris Thompson   Primary Artist,Vocals,Accompaniment,Featured Artist
Jo Partridge   Primary Artist,Guitar,Featured Artist
Ozzie the Owl   Primary Artist
Littlechap Strings   Primary Artist
The Real Thing   Primary Artist
Justin Hayward   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Anthony Quinn   Primary Artist
David Essex   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Geraldine   Primary Artist
Barry DeSouza   Primary Artist
Herbie Flowers   Primary Artist,Guitar (Bass)
Manny Lehman   Primary Artist
Barry Morgan   Primary Artist,Drums
Honorio Herrero   Primary Artist
Julie Covington   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Roy Jones   Primary Artist,Percussion
Richard Burton   Primary Artist,Featured Artist
Paul Vigrass   Primary Artist,Vocals,Accompaniment
Doreen Wayne   Primary Artist
Bob Saker   Primary Artist
Chris Amoo   Primary Artist
Lewis MacLeod   Primary Artist
Luis Varela   Primary Artist
Eduardo Jover   Primary Artist
Catherine Zeta-Jones   Primary Artist
Charles Dubin   Primary Artist,Director
Daniel Dicenta   Primary Artist
Anthony Hopkins   Primary Artist
Charles Davis   Primary Artist
Billy Lawrie   Vocals,Accompaniment
Paul Hart   Piano
Jerry Wayne   Director,Featured Artist
George Fenton   Santur,Autoharp
Barry De Souza   Percussion
Geraldine Wayne   Sound Effects

Technical Credits

Gary Osborne   Composer,Lyricist
Geoff Young   Mixing,Engineer
Phil Lynott   Cast
Jerry Wayne   Cast
Jo Partridge   Cast
Justin Hayward   Cast
David Essex   Cast
Gary Langan   Mixing,Restoration
Vincent Youmans   Composer
Jeff Wayne   Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Orchestration,Executive Producer
Irving Caesar   Composer
Julie Covington   Cast
Richard Burton   Cast
Paul Vigrass   Composer,Lyricist
Doreen Wayne   Writer,Composer
Laurence Diana   Assistant
Michael Bell   Booklet Design
John Pasche   Logo Design,Art Direction
H.G. Wells   Inspiration
Peter Goodfellow   Paintings
Brian Aris   Images
Chris Thompson   Cast
Geoff Taylor   Paintings
Gaetan Schurrer   Mixing,Restoration
Glyn Stanley   Adaptation
Julia Boyadjieva   Project Manager
Michael Trim   Sketches,Paintings