I remember the first time I heard Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. It was Halloween night, 1978, and I was listening to the radio reading a book. This bizarre art-rock piece with Richard Burton narrating was playing on some station, and I was hooked. Two weeks later, November 18, 1978 to be exact, I bought the double album at Magic Mart. I know the precise date and place not because I'm compulsive retentive (surprisingly) but because the checkout lady tore open the wrapper and scribbled the place and date on the cover of the album. I listened to the album quite a bit over the next four years or so, before I copied it to cassette, and started listening to that, and then later when I bought the double CD when that came out.
This was intended to be the 25th anniversary version of the album, but it was delayed a couple of years - probably to coincide with the Spielberg movie - but it was well worth the wait. The album itself is remastered in SACD format, which I can play in the study, and which sounds pretty good. While Burton's narration is muddy (to me) when the music is playing, you hear many, many things that you've never heard before, and the treatment, a 12 x 12 hardback book with separate pockets for each of the seven discs and a 80 page color booklet inside on the history of the album, is fantastic. If any album deserved such treatment, this one does. It was, and is, an extraordinary concept.
Other pluses, which I've read the liner notes to, but haven't played yet (I'll post on those when I do), is a DVD with a 90 minute documentary on the album, a disc of dance music "dubs" of cuts from the album, and three discs of outtakes from the recording of the album, including prior and alternate versions of songs, and the entire Richard Burton narration (what was on the album was a fraction of what he recorded. That didn't make a lot of sense till I read the liner notes while listening to the album last night, and now I realize that for fans of the album (like me) these will really be something to listen to.
Looking at this yesterday, I realized how lucky I am - in the past year or two we've seen high quality releases of a lot of the movies, TV shows and albums that I've always liked, just like this one. From the DVDs of the original Battlestar Galactica, to a too-good-to-be-true new Battlestar series, to a Horatio Hornblower series that's slowly covering each of Forester's books and doing a very good job with each, to a Lord of the Rings trilogy that was beyond anyone's expectations (with extended DVDS that even exceeded that), to a rereleased widescreen (finally) with extras Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to rereleased Star Wars trilogy(ies) to a terrific new Spiderman movie series, to a reedited Star Trek: The Motion Picture... It's good to be me right now. Okay, Pearl Harbor was a bit of a misfire, but at least the music and aerial combat scenes were good. I'm still waiting on a remake of Midway that'll accurately portray the carriers Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown, but in the meantime, I have to be pretty happy with what I've got.
Update #1: Finished disc #3, the DVD containing the documentary on the making of the album. Wayne goes through the inspiration for the work, and deconstructs the music itself, sounding very much like the composer he is. The CGI accompanying it is crude, but it gets the point across, and gives you a good idea what visuals he thinks the story should have. Was also my first glimpse of what the real Primrose Hill and Horsell Common looked like.
The twins (at least) seem to like listening to the album (pretty loud) - their favorite part is the sound effect for the unscrewing of the cylinder. Here they are mugging for the camera (making the face I make to get them to smile) listening to "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray".