Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds

[bgmnts]

It's fucking ace innit? Just listened to the opening bit and then Thunder Child, and it's just incredible.

It just feels unique. I'm unsure if there is anything quite like it: it's such a synergy of hypnotic music (songs and ambience), interesting sound effects, superb narration and obviously an top class story. I think it adds so much to the story, and creates its own thing, one of the few adaptations to do so, and it makes the most of what it can do.

I did enjoy the more recent non musical one with Michael Sheen but it's not as engaging as a regular audio dramatisation

What does everyone think?

[jobotic]

Loved listening to my step-dad's copy as a kid and flicking through the pictures in the gatefold sleeve.

Can't remember how it goes but the Red Weed track freaked me out and I had to skip it. As did the dying Martian's Ullahs.

[non capisco]

Yeah, it's mint. Loved it so much as a kid it's impossible to have an objective opinion about it, everything on side one is a vivid string of powerful Proustian rushes. Surprised the creeping, anxious bassline from the start of 'Horsell Common and the Heat Ray' hasn't been sampled on more stuff over the years.

UUUUUUUUU-LAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

[Better Midlands]

I was fascinated with the album and illustrated booklet as a kid, probably the first record I played myself at 6 or 7 years old. The mixture of the early 20th century setting and the high-tech looking aliens intrigued me.

[lazyhour]

It's Wayne's '...Worlds'
It's Wayne's '...Worlds'
It's party time, excellent!

That coincidence (if you can even call it that) has only just struck me.

The album's great, obviously.

[non capisco]

Can't remember how it goes but the Red Weed track freaked me out and I had to skip it. As did the dying Martian's Ullahs.

The very end used to disquiet me, where it cuts to the future and NASA land craft on Mars and brown trouser it when they see green flares and then lose contact. The way it builds urgency with the WEEEEOOOOH noises speeding up and then it just cuts dead. I wasn't used to sophisticated downer endings at age 6. I like the post-HG Wells add-on idea that even though Martian invaders nearly completely fucked Earth up in the late 1800s as soon as mankind has the technology they can't resist poking their noses in and risking a reaction from, in the immortal words of Danny Dyer, "that mob up there".

[bgmnts]

Yeah I love that it sticks to the Wells tone of 'scientific/technological progress being a source of major anxiety' with that epilogue.

[Natnar]

I honestly think that the moment Beth gets killed was my first experience of a character dying that affected me as a child.

[binster]

Yeah, it's mint. Loved it so much as a kid it's impossible to have an objective opinion about it, everything on side one is a vivid string of powerful Proustian rushes. Surprised the creeping, anxious bassline from the start of 'Horsell Common and the Heat Ray' hasn't been sampled on more stuff over the years.

UUUUUUUUU-LAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Horsell Common is such a killer track top to bottom - bassline, swagger, electric guitar heatray solo... banging.

[non capisco]

Horsell Common is such a killer track top to bottom - bassline, swagger, electric guitar heatray solo... banging.

Listening to it again now and fully concur. The bit where Richard Burton's character is perplexed that life is carrying on as normal the next morning after he's seen a martian the night before climbing out of a spaceship with its "quivering, lipless mouth" and the bassline's carrying on churning queasily away underneath is so boss.

[daf]

No one would have believed, in the first years of the twenty-first century, that Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of Jeff Wayne's War of The Worlds (ft. Jeff Wayne) were being discussed from the timeless worlds of space.

Think I've only heard Forever Autumn - is the album any good then?

[ollyboro]

ee oo ee oo

[Natnar]

The 1980 disco mix of Eve Of The War is rather good

[bgmnts]

Think I've only heard Forever Autumn - is the album any good then?

I only heard it for the first time in my late 20s so, I don't have the nostalgic Proustian feeling or bias towards it others do, and I'd still heartily recommend it to anyone.

[binster]

Listening to it again now and fully concur. The bit where Richard Burton's character is perplexed that life is carrying on as normal the next morning after he's seen a martian the night before climbing out of a spaceship with its "quivering, lipless mouth" and the bassline's carrying on churning queasily away underneath is so boss.

I saw the live show back in the mid 'aughts and it was camp fun - the bit where they synchronise the on-stage massive tripod's head ray light shining into the audience so that it hits when the electric guitar sounds was peak 'pretending that I'm about to be vapourised in agony whilst also holding a lighter in the air' vibes.

[buzby]

The 1980 disco mix of Eve Of The War is rather good

The disco remix by NYC DJ Steve Thompson was released in 1978 in the US alongside the original single version, and in 1979 in Europe and Australia, a year after the single had been released. The remix used the album version as it's base, with Justin Hayward's vocals,

Hayward's contract for his appearance on the album did not include single releases, so for the original 1978 single version Wayne got Chris Thompson to rerecord the vocals.

When the album proved to be a hit and the single cracked the Top 10 Hayward's management renegotiated his contract, and the single was rereleased in 1979 using the US disco remix featuring his vocals in both 12" and (very rare) 7" edit forms. All subsequent reissues and remixes used the Hayward version.

[famethrowa]

It's Wayne's '...Worlds'
It's Wayne's '...Worlds'
It's party time, excellent!

That coincidence (if you can even call it that) has only just struck me.

The album's great, obviously.

Yes that struck me yesterday, seeing the thread title, I was like wooooah!

The disco remix by NYC DJ Steve Thompson was released in 1978 in the US alongside the original single version.

And there was also that attempt, in the late 80's, to do a remix by the makers of Pump Up The Volume. Unfortunately it came to naught when they were told

Spoiler alert

"the chances of anything coming from M|A|R|R|S are a million to one, my friend"

[close]

Spoiler alert

yes I know it's a Al Needham joke, but too good to pass up

[close]

[dmillburn]

The War of The Worlds Immersive Experience in London is surprising good, and well worth a visit if you are a fan. It's not cheap (it's about £45 during the week and I think it's closer to £70 on Saturdays) and I doubt I would have gone on my own accord but I was given tickets for a birthday present a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. It's basically an interactive theatre thing with 20+ different 'sets' with live actors and a few, very well done, VR set pieces, and the whole thing was just short of a couple of hours with a break (it seemed to go on forever, but in a good way!).

[Norton Canes]

My dad bought it (as in, bought the album, he didn't die) on its release, when I was ten. Intrigued by the artwork in the booklet, I stuck it on the hi-fi and assumed my customary position when listening to the big record player - snugly tucked into the leg space of the hi-fi stand, which incorporated a desk. I had a packet of peanut cookies and crunched into the first one as the album began.

By the time it ended I was a petrified, shuddering wreck, completely unable to move from my little cubby-hole sanctuary and tormented by cries of 'uuuuu-lah!'. I've never touched a peanut cookie since.

[Norton Canes]

There's no way to spell the terrifying Martian cry 'uuuuu-lah!' without making it look faintly comic, is there.

[Shaxberd]

When I was about 15 I fell asleep watching a film at a mate's house and was abruptly woken up by him solemnly intoning "uuuuu-lah" into my ear through a kitchen roll tube. (He had just discovered War of the Worlds and had been raving about it on the bus to school the week before.) So I can't think of the tripod menace without chuckling a little bit about that.

[idunnosomename]

Amazed how common an experience being intrigued by the sleeve booklet then terrified by the music (28 ahhh)

Side 4 is a bit of a letdown after the multiple peaks of the rest, the corblimey David Essex artilleryman and his stupid song about living underground.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I had forgotten about it until "The Eve of the War" was used at the end of S02E02 of Fargo. Definitely one that has big nostalgic appeal for me, but it's just brilliant anyway.

[Johnboy]

It's probably my favourite album.

[daf]

Feel like one of those wallies on youtube who've never heard Bohemian Rhapsody!

What's the best version to get? Is there a deluxe one?

[dmillburn]

Best version is a tricky question as there's been a lot of different versions and there's another new collectors set due shortly I think (it was promised last year at one point) which probably bring even more.

I had the 7 disc Deluxe Collector's one from 18 or so years ago which had 2 SACDs with a 5.1 mix,a dvd, and 4 x cds with the original and loads of outtakes etc, but I sold it once I realised I would never own a device capable of playing the SACDS (and people had converted them to DTS cds which I could download, burn and play anyway so I did get to hear it that way).

I did like the 5.1 mix, and apparently there's a new Atmos surround version on Apple Music and a Sony 360 version which I'd like to hear so if you've got a suitable setup that might be worth investigating. It's a brand new mix for these two and not just the 5.1 with some Atmos effects on top.

Up until that 2005 release (where as well as the 7 disc one there was also normal CD and 2 x SACD releases) everything had used the original 1978 mix, but for those they remastered them in a new stereo mix when doing the 5.1 mix, which a lot of people think is inferior to the original because of changes to the sound rather than just the mix.

So I think a lot of people would say get a pre-2005 version, which should be easy to pick up cheaply (a couple of quid on CD from ebay/Amazon etc)

[Norton Canes]

Just seen this at an exhibition here on campus



Pretty sure it must have put a few Victorian kids off their peanut cookies

[idunnosomename]

Got the original 1978 vinyl off eBay about 17 years ago (my parents sold all their LPs).

Didnt pay very much for it, and still loads of them about so it still isnt very expensive.

Just love the massive gatefold and booklet

[phantom_power]

Picked mine up for a quid in a charity shop a few years ago and it is indeed excellent

[daf]

Best version is a tricky question as there's been a lot of different versions and there's another new collectors set due shortly I think (it was promised last year at one point) which probably bring even more.
 
So I think a lot of people would say get a pre-2005 version, which should be easy to pick up cheaply (a couple of quid on CD from ebay/Amazon etc)

Cheers - yes I think I'd prefer the original 1978 mix - I wouldn't want to find Burtons dark brown tones had been replaced by some piping Pasquale pipsqueak!

Got the original 1978 vinyl off eBay about 17 years ago (my parents sold all their LPs).

Didnt pay very much for it, and still loads of them about so it still isnt very expensive.

Just love the massive gatefold and booklet

Yes I may have a browse on ebay for the vinyl - as I do have a turntable (bought just before the current vinyl revival went 180gram / £30 mad - eg I got a bundle of Level 42 albums for a fiver!)