War of the Worlds
There have been a few War of the Worlds movies and television series and some adaptations based on the story. There was also the famous Orson Welles broadcast in 1938 which apparently some Americans took as an actual news broadcast sparking panic. I actually have that radio broadcast on vinyl!
Per the IMDB website [1], there have been several movies, but the two most prominent are: the 1953 version and the 2005 version starring Tom Cruise. The 1953 edition was more direct, but included some deviations such as flying heat ray vessels which I do not believe were part of the original HG Wells novel. The 2005 adaptation with Tom Cruise also deviated a bit from the classic storyline in which a journalist narrator is the key protaganist speaking to the audience.
There have also been several television series adaptations. My favorite was the 1988–1990 series [2] with Jared Martin and Richard Chavez in which the premise is that the Martians were defeated in the 1950s and went into hibernation and are now coming back and inhabiting human bodies. Martin leads a small team working to covertly to stop them from taking over. There was also a recent British television mini-series in 2019 [3] of which I have viewed bits and pieces while channel surfing but never watched in its entirety. I may have to make an effort.
But the real purpose of this article is to tout the MUSICAL adaptation! While I have an eclectice musical taste and collection on CD and vinyl, I consider myself largely a fan of progressive rock. From the ProgArchives.com [4] a definition of Progressive Rock Music reads:
“Progressive rock (often shortened to prog or prog rock) is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a “mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility.” The term “art rock” is often used interchangeably with “progressive rock”, but while there are crossovers between the two genres, they are not identical.
Progressive rock bands pushed “rock’s technical and compositional boundaries” by going beyond the standard rock or popular verse-chorus-based song structures. Additionally, the arrangements often incorporated elements drawn from classical, jazz, and world music. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy. Progressive rock bands sometimes used “concept albums that made unified statements, usually telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme.”
Progressive rock developed from late 1960s psychedelic rock, as part of a wide-ranging tendency in rock music of this era to draw inspiration from ever more diverse influences. The term was applied to the music of bands such as King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Soft Machine and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Progressive rock came into most widespread use around the mid-1970s. While progressive rock reached the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, neo-progressive bands have continued playing for faithful audiences in the subsequent decades.”
Indeed, I am a big fan of the bands mentioned above as well as others. Coming out of the prog-rock genre, one could argue was “rock opera.”[5] A Wikipedia entry for rock opera defines it as: “A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been adapted as rock musicals.” I would take issue with the term “not scripted for acting” however. A rock opera is no different than a regular classical opera in that one has a storyline which must be brought to life via music. Famous musical rock operas include Jesus Christ-Superstar, Godspell, Hair, and Tommy.
Which brings me to the direct subject of the article: Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds! I first heard this album in the summer of 1978 while working as a park ranger on third shift at Pioneer County Park in Muskegon County, Michigan. The park campground was located north of Muskegon right on the Lake Michigan shore making it one of the more popular summer camping destinations.
We third shift rangers usually had WLAV (97.9FM) on the radio in the ranger office. You can read more about the station’s history at its wikipedia page [5]. The station is currently a Classic Rock format, but in 1978, the station went to AOR (album oriented rock) at night. The DJs would literally play entire albums on third shift. A quirk of atmospherics, however, combined with our lakeshore locations, meant we could occasionally get an AOR station out of Wisconsin! So one night, we were getting the broadcast in from across the lake and the station begins playing Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds! Captivating!
The music was straight up rock opera telling the story of the War of the Worlds. The protaganist narrator for the journalist in the book was none other than the stentorian voiced actor Richard Burton! Burton would read segments from the book setting the stage for the musical number to follow.
“No-one would have believed in the first years of the 20th Century, that we were being watched by intelligences greater than man’s — yet as mortal as his own. That as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinised as narrowly as creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.” This is the opening line followed by orchestal introduction and the first song on the album, “The Eve of the War” sung by Justin Hayward, of the Moody Blues!
Other performers on the album include Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzie), David Essex, Gary Osborne, and Julie Covington (best known for recording the original version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”, which she sang on the 1976 concept album Evita). All four had a solid career in rock operas.
The album has 13 tracks across four sides (of the vinyl). The song “Forever Autumn” actually made the radio as a single. The song was lead in by Burton’s narration of the text:
For three days I fought my way along roads packed with refugees, The homeless, burdened with boxes and bundles containing their valuables. All that was of value to me was in London. By the time I reached their little red brick house, Carrie and her father were gone. Cue the song with further interspersed narration of the journalist relaying the Martian attacks on humanity.
Another song on the album which I have also heard once in a while on the radio is “Thunderchild” again with narration. As ships were departing the English port to escape the attack, Martian 3-legged machines moved in to attack them. The British warship Thunderchild heroically charges to the attack, cutting down one or two of the Martian machines before being heat ray destroyed, her sacrifice allowing the ship carrying the journalist’s girlfriend (as well as other ships) to make it out to sea and safety.
One cool thing about the albums in the 1970s was some of the fantastic artwork on the covers. Genesis and Yes were well known for this especially. The War of the World’s album not only came with a great cover, but being a double album on vinyl, the whole thing opened up with even more artwork in the fold. To top it off, there was also a multi-page album insert booklet the size of the album itself with illustrations. (The CD has the same artwork but of course in CD case size).
Examples below with the discovery of the Martian pods in the beginning and the destruction of the Thunderchild warship.
Frankly, I would love to see this staged live- it would be fantastic. But absent getting a copy of the musical on vinyl or CD you readily find it on Youtube [6].
Enjoy!
[1] https://www.imdb.com/list/ls058900268/
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094578/?ref_=ttls_li_tt
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(British_TV_series)
[4] https://www.progarchives.com/Progressive-rock.asp#definition
