By Daniel Dern: Based on a chat with a friend who’s been watching classic sf movies this week but didn’t know about this version, which I’ve done brief lookups on for your edification and time-sinking… the War of the Worlds rock opera!
I remember hearing it back when it was a record album… “The chances of anything coming from Mars/are a million to one/a million to one.” (go to ~6 minutes of the YouTube audio URL, below…)
Somewhere I’ve got the 1996 CD which I obviously haven’t listened to in a bunch of years…
Here’s the general info, bunches of interesting stuff further down, via Wikipedia — “Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds” — including that there’s been a stage/tour live version with its own history-filled wbsite and a digitally remastered CD (2009) that advertised its featured players “Include the Late Richard Burton, the Late Phil Lynott and the Moody Blues’ Justin Hayward, Whose ‘Forever Autumn’ from this Album Became the Biggest Hit Single of his Solo Career.”
Listening/watching: I’m seeing most, tho not all, tracks (of the album/CD, there’s various versions across cassette, LP, re-issues, etc.). For example, not the first track.
YouTube has both the full album, and the show movie:
Album:
Video:
The video (possibly a different version?) is (also) available (free) through HooplaDigital.com (they partner with libraries, you use your lib card to get your free H/D account, good for 6-12 (varies per library) borrows per month… note, Hoopla has a decent amount of graphic novels, along with Hamilton and other stuff. (Android and iOS apps can download for offline consumption.)
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There’s a version with Richard Burton narrating, that I owned on vinyl a looong time ago, and a new version with Liam Neeson narrating. I just listened to the newer version and it’s almost identical to the original.
I lost a lot of respect for Jeff Wayne when I read about him threatening legal action against other audio adaptations of The War of the Worlds if they used the title of the novel. there were two recent ones from Big Finish and Sherwood Sound; they used the titles “The Martian Invasion of Earth” and “The Coming of the Martians.”
I loved this so much as a kid. We had it on cassette but there was an art-book that came with it.
I have the LP album framed, on the wall here. Best part of it was the bit about the ironclad, Thunderchild.
I had the LP and gave it away years ago. I bought the 2009 CD because that was what was on Amazon. I love this thing
This was my gateway album into heavy rock.