"The War of the Worlds [2005 Bonus Track]" (07/05/2005) Rock & Pop Original Soundtrack, Legacy RecordingsPerformers include: Richard Burton, Justin Hayward, Julie Covington. This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players. Original Soundtrack/Various Artists/Jeff Wayne: Jeff Wayne (piano, harpsichord); David Essex, Julie Covington, Phil Lynott, Richard Burton, Jo Partridge (vocals); George Fenton (tar); Chris Spedding, Justin Hayward, Chris Thompson, Gary Osborne, Herbie Flowers, Roy Jones, Ray Cooper , Paul Hart, Barry Morgan, Billy Lawrie, Paul Vigrass. Personnel: ...Chris Thompson, Gary Osborne, Billy Lawrie, Paul Vigrass (vocals, background vocals); Justin Hayward (vocals); Chris Spedding, Jo Partridge (guitar); George Fenton (autoharp, santur); Paul Hart (piano); Ken Freeman (synthesizer); Herbie Flowers (bass guitar); Barry Morgan (drums); Barry DeSouza, Roy Jones, Ray Cooper (percussion). Audio Mixer: Geoff Young . Recording information: Advision Studios, London, England (05/18/1976-06/30/1977). 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 Just about the only element of the entire War of the Worlds extravaganza that was not featured in the 2005 box set was the single-disc version released to prolong the life of the original double-album package -- which is a shame, because there are times when you really want to hear the music without the occasionally histrionic dialogue cutting and clattering through it. It is what it says on the packaging, a sweet abbreviation that transforms the full-blown story into a simple soundtrack. The hit take on "Forever Autumn" that presaged the main attraction is here, of course, together with the sweeping symphonics and AOR textures that were Wayne's greatest contribution to H.G. Wells' original fable. For all its good intentions, after all, the full feast can become a little overwrought in places (a late-'60s BBC production is far superior). But the music is impeccable and, from "Eve of the War" to "Brave New World," this highlights package might well be
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