About The Album
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was created by composer Jeff Wayne based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Wells. It features Academy Award nominated actor Richard Burton, Justin Hayward (of The Moody Blues), Chris Thompson (of Manfred Mann), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy), Julie Covington (of Evita), and David Essex (Evita, The China Plates). Wayne conducts what would come to be known as the Black Smoke Band and the ULLAdubULLA string orchestra.
"Forever Autumn", "The Eve of the War", "Thunder Child", and "The Spirit of Man" are the most recognised individual songs on the album. "Forever Autumn" was a UK Top 5 single, sung by Justin Hayward. The album itself spent 290 weeks in the UK album charts. It was in the top 10 in 22 countries and reached #1 in 11 countries.
Most of the lyrics on the album were written by former Elton John lyricist Gary Osborne.
The album was one of the first recorded on 48 tracks, using two synchronised 24 track Studer A80s at Advision Studios in London. It was engineered by Geoff Young, who was instrumental in bringing the recordings together with only a 16 track desk. His skill in this regard was later recognised by George Michael, who worked with him to record "Last Christmas" and "Careless Whisper" using the same studio and equipment.
The repetition of "Ulla!", the cry made by the Martians, and certain musical refrains throughout the musical act as leitmotifs.
The official album comes with several paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that help to illustrate the story from beginning to end.
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“What a long strange trip it’s been.”
—Robert Hunter, U.S. rock lyricist. “Truckin’,” on the Grateful Dead album American Beauty (1971)