Jeff Wayne ‎– Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds

The original spoken word rock opera with top shelf session musicians, and actors. Where else are you going to get Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues), Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy), David Essex ( Rock On), Julie Covington (Godspell, The Rocky Horror Picture Show) Jo Partridge (Elton John band, Kiki Dee Band), Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band/Blinded By The Light) and Richard Burton ( 7 time Oscar Nominee The Robe, Camelot, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Taming Of The Shrew, Anne Of 1000 Days) on a then ) modern rock opera about Martians invading Earth and the end of the world? Jeff Wayne's vision come-to-real-life. War of the Worlds is a family affair, with Jeff's' dad Jerry Wayne, mom Doreen Wayne, and wife Geraldine Wayne all contributing to the project along with a top notch session band and cutting edge (in 1978) keyboards/Synthesizers. Every note and chord of music was written on charts, some requiring as much as 10 or more stands the selections were so long. Jeff Composed all of the music from scratch for the project save one song, the perennial track Forever Autumn. Having Justin Hayward sing Forever Autumn was pure genius. Justin makes the song his own, and often performs it in his solo shows or with on Moody Blues tours, as it's often mistaken as a Moody Blues song.

If you were old enough to catch The War Of The Worlds first time round in 1978 and purchased a first pressing you know how good it sounds. Compared to the reissues on CD and LP, only the SACD sounds better but more different since many of the selections Jeff edited or changed in the digital domain.He was limited to 24 tracks in '78, and was the first to try out the newest technology of the time, the Mag Link. This allowed 2 analog 24 track machines to run in "Sync" effectively giving the engineers 48 tracks altogether. War Of The Worlds was the first release to feature 48 tracks, and even then, Jeff didn't have enough tracks to do what he really wanted to do. Therefore in 2002-2005 he went back to the drawing board with all the tapes, transferred everything to digital and remixed the whole project in CD, SACD Stereo and Multi Track 5.1 SACD. I have the SACD versions in the big box set and they really rock. As many of you know vinyl has the ability to sound better than the best digital. This is one of those cases where the analog stereo version on vinyl gives high resolution SACD a run for the money and bests it soundly.

I have variants of this first pressing, Side 1: 2A, Side 2: 2D,Side 3: 2A Side 4: 2A. I purchased 2 copies and my dad 1 from the same store in 1978 the week it was released. My other copy has a 2K on Side 4, but everything else is the same. My dad's copy is also the same with a 2K on side 4 as well. Whoever did the mastering and cut the Lacquer for these first presses really did a fantastic job. The clarity is off the charts, even when the tracks get close to the runout, (really close, 3 out of 4 album sides run long), there is no inner groove distortion. If you have a good vinyl front end with the arm and cart choices complimenting each other, I can honestly say this version is every bit as good and better than any of the high resolution and CD issues. Now that may be due to the amount of compression used, giving it that punch with clarity and warm mids. This pressing it definitely cut hot, if your arm and cart isn't set up to optimal or anything is lacking in ability you will notice skips and some sibilance. I usually don't set tone controls to dead center nothing added. On this pressing you don't need any bass, mids or treble. Flat is perfect.

As I said it's a hot cut, especially the bass notes or bass drum strikes. The last 5 minutes af Side 2 are a torture track for a turntable not up for it. The meat is there in the grooves, you can see the pitch of the grooves where the dynamics are off the chart. This presing has dynamics in spades. Some pressings Side 2 starts of sounding like whoever mastered or cut the Lacquer backed off the EQ at least 3db. I know on this pressing, Side 2 will skip in the first 3 minutes several times IF your rig doesn't have the right stuff. There are a few other places it can skip as well. But you want a hot cut , you want the dynamics, the spaciousness, you don't want everything compressed to within an inch of its life. Later pressings and repressings are like that, you can tell they backed off the EQ, Richard Burtons spoken word passages don't have that gravatas they have on this version. The drums are heavy, you can really here the heavy gating used as well as experience where the mics were placed. It's like having the percussion, Hell all the instruments and vocalists in the room. In a moderately large room (`18' by 24' ) with 12 foot ceilings, amps averaging between 5 and 50 watts per, things really groove. Then again, at a minimal level, say 1/2 wpc at night, very little loudness is necessary. When my wife is out, I crank all 4 sides up to where the meters on each amp are midway between 50 and 500 wpc. Clear as a bell, the vinyl is flat, so you don't have to worry about woofer pumping if your table is isolated well. This pressing is very flat and both LP's are fairly thick. If you get the opportunity get a first pressing. After 40 years I've just opened this copy I kept sealed since 9 September '78. My other copy is getting long in the tooth after 40 years and at least 100 plays.

There is a 180 gram remaster/reissue released in 2018 I'm going to pick up, then I'll do a head to head, maybe some needle drops. As it is, I've already copied all 4 side of this pressing to 2 track tape at 15ips, so no Dolby was necessary during quiet portions. i'm excited to see how the 40th anniversary 180 gram pressing stacks up against this first pressing. I have the acetates for all 4 side, pass and rejected versions from the 2005 reissue/remaster. This pressing blows them away as well. Other than an early test pressing or promotional copy (still sealed of course) it just doesn't get any better. If you want a good album to evaluate a new turntable, or see how good your buddies vinyl front end stacks up against yours, this pressing is the one to bring. Remember, there are 48 analog tracks of sounds, effects, instruments and vocals mixed together. on a truly good system, you can hear layer upon layer, not staked, but each within it's own place, perfectly positioned within the mix. The separation on this pressing is phenomenal, not so much echo or reverb, it doesn't come off sounding artificial at all. overall, it's a more organic experience. I imagine Jeff and whoever the mastering/cutting engineer was took a long time setting up for the master tape and then the Acetate. The sound quality alone is enough reason to purchase a first pressing of this title.

Can somebody confirm the Price Code (Circled) is 60, and not 62? This release is the only one matching my version according to the markings in all the run-outs. The picture of the back cover is also showing 60 instead of 62.

Anybody got any comments on this? My copy has awful distortion and sibilance.. Pretty disappointing.