JEFF WAYNE. " THE WAR OF THE WORLDS " CBS LABEL, UK 1978. DOUBLE LP. NM
Jeff Wayne – Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds Label: CBS – 96000, CBS – CBS 96000 Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album Country: UK Released: 1978 Genre: Rock Style: Prog Rock, Ambient Tracklist The Coming Of The Martians A1The Eve Of The War A2Horsell Common And The Heat Ray The Coming Of The Martians B1The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine B2Forever Autumn Written-By – Gary Osborne, Paul Vigrass B3Thunder Child Written-By – Gary Osborne The Earth Under The Martians C1The Red Weed (Part 1) C2The Spirit Of Man Written-By – Gary Osborne C3The Red Weed (Part 2) The Earth Under The Martians D1Brave New World Written-By – Gary Osborne D2Dead London D3Epilogue (Part 1) D4Epilogue (Part 2) (NASA) Companies, etc. Copyright (c) – CBS Records Phonographic Copyright (p) – CBS Records Published By – April Music Ltd. Published By – Jeff Wayne Music Published By – Leeds Music Ltd. Licensed To – CBS Records Pressed By – CBS Pressing Plant, Aston Clinton Made By – Shorewood Packaging Co. Ltd. Credits Featuring – Chris Thompson, David Essex, Jo Partridge, Julie Covington, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Richard Burton (2) Lacquer Cut By – BilBo (3) Written-By – Jeff Wayne Notes
Catalogue number "CBS 96000" is printed on the spine of the sleeve. "96000" is found on the rear sleeve. "96000" is printed on the labels..
This 2 record set is housed in plain white inner sleeves within a gatefold outer sleeve. It is accompanied with a 16 page colour booklet of album artwork, lyrics and credits.
© 1978 CBS Records. ℗ 1978 CBS Records.
AllMusic Review by Paul Collins [-] 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).
