Hondo wrote:I am interested in people's recollections of Jeff Wayne's musical version of "The War of the Worlds". My mum loved it and had the LP. The album scared me so much I eventually refused to let her play it if I could hear it. As I got older I overcame the fear and became a fan still to this day. In fact I was looking for my CD version this morning but couldn't find it. It must have got lost or lent to someone.
I remember going out with my old man to some scrubby department store to get this album back in the '70s. When he saw the price he spat the dummy and we drove to a further department store where it was being sold for a dollar less.
Like yourself, after hearing it the first few times and having nightmares about martians sucking the lifeblood from my veins, I became terrified of it. I can recall at one point my mother persuading the old man NOT to play the LP after he had taken it ouf of the cabinet, because the sight of it reduced me and my sister to terror.
I got back in to the album once I'd matured to the point where I could distinguish fiction from reality, and purchased my own CD of it about 20 years ago. My edition has a single bonus track, the Ben Liebrand remix of "The Eve Of The War". It took me a while to come around, but I quite appreciate the remix now. I understand that later editions contain several more remixes.
Today I rate this album as one of the best things ever recorded by anyone, anywhere. To this day it remains the single best argument in favour of buying a decent Hi-Fi system.
I know other posters here also rate the album. Cue smithy.....
(PS - Music board?)