The Eve Of War (War Of The Worlds: Ulladubulla The Remix Album - Jeff Wayne - Soundtrack)

Member Name: Excelle

Product:	War Of The Worlds: Ulladubulla The Remix Album - Jeff Wayne - Soundtrack
Date:	26/04/01 (1375 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb, original, and atmospheric

Disadvantages: Can be a bit cheesy at times (but not often!)

I'm always wary of modern adaptations of old books. It's very easy for the person to get carried away with new technologies, and forget the concepts of the original book, in favour of new and 'better' visual or audible effects and impressive special touches. The original story is lost in a myriad of technological advances and the point is lost.

Luckily, this didn't happen with Jeff Wayne's musical version of H.G. Wells' The War Of The Worlds. It did happen in the film version, which I hated, but Jeff Wayne has kept faithful to the original story, inflating the story with atmosphere and imagination. It's a popular album, with quite a cult following now, and with good reason.

- The original author
The War Of The Worlds is a novel written by early science fiction entrepreneur H.G. Wells. Born in 1866, Wells was one of the first to broach this new genre, years before his time in this kind of story. With books like 'The War Of The Worlds', 'The First Men In The Moon', and another of my favourites, 'The Time Machine' Wells managed to predict some of the great advances of the 20th century like tanks and the atomic bomb. Something of a visionary, Wells never strayed from his 'common man' view in his stories, and maybe it's this that made his so universally popular. He died in 1946 at the age of 80.

- The style of the adaptation
Jeff Wayne and his father Jerry Wayne put together this adaptation of H.G. Wells' epic novel in 1976 and 1977 after many years of preparation. It's cleverly done, and while the story is a clear part of the production, the music and it's style is ever-present throughout. It's an original style, and while the music isn't Mozart by any stretch of the imagination, it's certainly well styled to the subject matter.

The 90 minute production is presented on two CDs, one for each book of the novel (The Coming Of The Martians
and The Earth Under The Martians), with a 30 page booklet containing the words from the CDs, some artwork, and some information about the artists involved in the production. The production itself is told as a voiceover over the music specially created for the purpose. So you'll have a small piece of narrative, and then some instrumental work, and then the music will fade slightly and you'll get more narrative. It's a style that works exceptionally well, and it adds atmosphere to the already tense text.

- The story
Set at the latter part of the 19th century, the story tells of an invasion by the Martians, travelling to Earth and dominating the frightened people with their three-legged tripod killing machines. It's a wonderful story at the best of times, but Jeff Wayne gives it even more life than it previously had, and so we end up with an epic production that really stands out as a classic of it's time. The music and the narrative combine to give you a vivid mental picture of what is happening, and the accompanying artwork by Geoff Taylor gives you a clear definition in your mind of exactly what everything looks like.

It should be noted that this adaptation is not a literal translation of the book. Although most of the chapters are in the book, there are minor changes and omissions, but nothing that takes away from the bulk of the story. The main events and characters are still present, with only a few missing, and the absent parts of the story are just the less significant parts removed so as to reduce the length of the production as a whole.

- The production
So, you know a little about the whole story now, so what of it piece by piece? Well, the story is told as if from the perspective of a journalist, who provides the narrative that makes up the novel itself. Presented in the booklet as more like a script, the journalist provides a voiceover at some points, while taking part in dialogue at other times. It len
ds itself well to the style of the novel, and Doreen Wayne (the late wife of Jeff Wayne) has done an excellent job in adapting Wells' original work to fit the scenario in the musical version.

I'll go through each CD track by track to try and give you an idea of what's happening:

- CD1 – The Coming Of The Martians
- The Eve Of War
The first track is probably the most memorable. It starts with a short prologue based on the opening paragraphs of the book. It forms a brilliant introduction to the main story, and, as read by Richard Burton who plays the journalist, has quite an epic feel to it:

"No-one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinised, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us."

This is the point where the music breaks in, with a certain amount of grandeur applied to the synthesised orchestral sounds, before it is transformed into an altogether more electronic affair, but still managing to maintain an epic feel about it. I suppose it's this strange combination of orchestral and electronica that creates a rather alien feel which remains throughout. The Eve Of War is reprised several times throughout the album, and you'll find yourself recognising strains of it coming into other tracks.

This track covers the first few chapters of the book – the gaseous emission from Mars, the crashing of this 'cylinder' onto Horsell Common near the journalists house. The track ends with a rather eerie electronic sound with a heartbeat backing it, reflecting t
he alien nature of the landing cylinder, and the peculiarity of the way people continued with their everyday lives despite this bizarre event.

- Horsell Common And The Heat Ray
The next chapter starts with a strangely distorted plucking sound backed by the unscrewing of the cylinder. Then we have a kind of wah-wah effect giving the aliens life. It's hard to describe the sound of the rest of the track, save it has a very alien sound, with well played guitars and and strange synthesised sounds and strings. The narrative continues throughout this, as the aliens emerge and men are set aflame by the aliens 'Heat Ray'. The Martians building machines in their pit.

- The Artilleryman And The Fighting Machine
The plucking sound returns to accompany the dialogue which fills this track. The journalist is met by an artilleryman (played by David Essex) who has returned from the common after the other soldiers have been wiped out by the Martians fighting machines. As the two men decide they must head for London, we get a reprise of The Eve Of War with some great guitar solos. It's now that we meet the Martian's 'fighting machines' – mighty tripods armed with the heat rays we were introduced to on the common. And now we get our first taster of the Martian's 'war cry', written in Wells' novel as 'Aloo', but translating much better into Wayne's version as 'Ulla!', quite a chilling sound after you've hear it a few times! As the action picks up the pace a little, the music turns into a wonderful sounding combination of guitars and synthesisers along with the Martian's cry every so often, and it sounds great.

- Forever Autumn
In an aside from the book, the journalist reaches London to find what he came for – Carrie. We are never told who Carrie actually is, but the style of writing suggests that she is either the journalist's girlfriend or his wife. But when he
reaches London, Carrie and her father are gone, and the music starts for the Justin Hayward classic 'Forever Autumn'. Perhaps the highlight of the album, this is quite haunting beautiful, as many Moody Blues songs were, and this went on to become a hit in it's own right. It's perfect for reflecting the journalist's sense of loss with out his love, and it's the kind of song you can listen to on it's own – which is probably why it was a success. The song is interjected by the narrator, but not intrusively. The journalist decides to head for the coast, and a boat out of England.

When the song reaches it's conclusion, we reach yet another reprise of the Eve Of War. It's not a problem – the reprises sound both brilliant and fit in with the rest of the music perfectly. They also help keep the pace of the story, and enhance the atmosphere. Then we have more narration with the journalist being carried along with the stampede towards the coast – just in time to see his Carrie leaving on a steamer. However, as the steamer leaves, a fighting machine appears across the horizon, followed by many more, blocking the exit of the steamer…

- Thunder Child
Between the steamer and the alien fighting machines lies the warship Thunder Child, ready to take on the Martians. It destroys one of them, before being melted by the Heat Rays of the others, but it buys the little steamer enough time to escape. This section has some more vocals singing of the glory and fall of the Thunder Child, with sections of narrative from the journalist. The guitar sections in this chapter are excellent too, and there are reminders of solos from other parts of the first CD to keep the atmosphere alive. Thunder Child sinks, and takes with it the hopes of man. The Earth belongs to the Martians.

- CD2 – The Earth Under The Martians
- The Red Weed (Part 1)
The Earth is now covered by 'the vegetation which
gives Mars it's red appearance had taken root on Earth'. This is a rather eerie track, with gentle woodwind instruments accompanied by pitch bent and flanged synthesised instruments to add the Martian effect. It's quite slow and creeping, kind of unstoppable and inevitable in it's feel, which is exactly how the Red Weed is portrayed. The Martians have certainly taken hold of the planet now, with even their plants suffocating Earth's great landscape.

- The Spirit Of Man
On his travels, the journalist noticed the body of a parson is the wreckage of a churchyard. He decides he deserves a decent burial, rather than the unstoppable onslaught of the Red Weed, but as he goes over to the parson, a young woman runs over shouting his name. Parson Nathaniel (played by Philip Lynott of Thin Lizzy) awakens to the journalists surprise, but as his wife Beth (played by Julie Covington) goes to his aid, he shouts to her to keep clear, fearing she is the devil – he thinks that all the Martians and their work is related to the devil, and gets quite delirious with fear and anger. I should point out that this section is quite different to the book, but it works all the same.

The start of this track is accompanied by tense choral effects, until we break into the main part which is a argument within a song between the Parson and Beth, where the Parson is despairing and Beth is still hopeful. It's quite a nice play off between the two, and the song is played with guitars and synthesisers in a kind of desperate ballad type style. It's one of the better parts of the production, and the idea to bring in Philip Lynott was an excellent idea, he makes the part come alive.

A cylinder lands upon the house they are sheltering in, killing Beth and driving the Parson deeper into despair. The Parson and the journalist are trapped in the Martian's pit under the cylinder and watch them as they create a new machine for collecting up the
humans, and tossing them into a basket on it's back.

- The Red Weed (Part 2)
Another slow track with gentle drums and synthesisers, with a reprise of the first part of The Red Weed. The journalist and the Parson observe the Martians draining the blood of the people they captured and injecting it into themselves. The Parson becomes convinced that it is his job to 'cast out the demons' with the power of the Cross, and it isn't until the journalist drags him down into the cellar that he shuts up, having alerted the Martians to their presence. The Parson is captured by the Martians, and it isn't until many days later that the journalist escapes. The background music keeps a similar pace as the journalist continues his journey to London.

- Brave New World
The journalist meets up with the Artilleryman again, quite by accident, and he tells him of his grand plans to build a new world underground, only to discover that the Artilleryman's 'tunnel' is but a few yards long and it took him a week to build. David Essex sings a grand song about his plans with some nice guitar riffs to back it up. Not a bad song, but there's better on the first CD.

- Dead London
The journalist moves on, wandering through the empty streets of London, listening to the haunting cries of the Martians. His narrative is backed by gentle guitar and a disjointed and empty-feeling piano melody jumping from one note to the other in a despairing rhythm. The journalist decides in mad resolve that he doesn't deserve to live – he runs to the fighting machines to give himself to them. The madness prompts a final reprise of the initial track we heard right at the start, but as the journalist reaches the machine, he notices that there's something wrong. He runs to the Martians camp and finds them all dead. Their killer? The minute bacteria that we live side by side with on Earth – the Martians had no defence against it.
The invasion is over.

- Epilogue (Part 1)
With a marching beat and happy victorious synthesiser tunes, the journalist talks of life returning to normal, and speculates on the possibility of a second attack. The synthesisers are once again joined by guitars with rather joyous riffs and it all sounds as light-hearted and happy as it is meant.

- Epilogue (Part 2)
The second epilogue is a strange one. It takes the form of a NASA control communications, a mission to Mars. Suddenly Pasadena Control looses contact, and green flares start emitting from Mars! It's rather strange, but a nice aside to finish the CD on.

So, that's the whole album (phew!). If I haven't convinced you that it's absolutely superb, then I'm sorry – borrow it off someone and you'll see what I mean! The music, artwork and story all intermingle to create a superb story that I can listen to again and again. It's not overly long (unlike this review!), so there's no problem in listening to it all the way through in one sitting, and I recommend you listen to it at least once. It's certainly worth the money, and it's a prized part of my collection. Thank you Jeff Wayne, but most of all – thank you H.G. Wells!

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