:: theLogBook.com Music Reviews ::

“a ‘Lights Out’ television show, and ‘Amos and Andy’ on the radio”
- Gene Cotton, “Like a Sunday in Salem”

When people think of rock operas, they normally think of Tommy, Ziggy Stardust, I Robot, maybe even Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (the movie version of which nearly killed the careers of Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees.) Who would have thought that “War Of The Worlds” would have been ripe for rock opera? Jeff Wayne did.

Released in the United States in 1978, Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds features movie legend Richard Burton as The Journalist, with performances by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, Chris Thompson of Mannford Mann’s Earth Band, David Essex, and others.

The plot is a fairly standard retelling of the original H.G. Wells novel set at the turn of the century. The Martians invade. We don’t have a chance.

Richard Burton’s reporter is one of the first people on the scene when the cylinders begin landing on the Earth, and he wanders through the English countryside following the devastation caused by the Martians. For the most part, Burton provides a strong performance. At times though, he seems detached, as though he’s reading words on a page, not witnessing “the rout of civilization, the massacre of mankind.”

Julie Covington steals the show as Beth, the wife of Parson Nathaniel, who is played by Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. Her crisp, impassioned voice coupled with her lyrics in “The Spirit Of Man” provide the psychological and emotional underpinning of the entire double album, and provides a counterpoint to Lynott’s over-the-top performance.

Musically, JWMVWotW betrays its mid-1970s roots. It’s heavy with synthesizers and tends to fall into a disco-like beat from time to time. But there’s a little bit of something for everyone. More than 20 years later it still sounds fresh. Just as with any good opera, the music establishes moods and becomes an uncredited actor in the proceedings, filling in gaps that aren’t spoken, sung, or otherwise voiced.

The initial uncapping of one of the Martian cylinders and the attack of the heat ray are absolutely hair-raising, and the spread of the red weed is decidedly eerie. At first, the voice of the Martians is goofy and somewhat annoying. But soon, it becomes terrifying and ominous.

“Forever Autumn” (which was released as a single) and “Thunder Child” are the centerpieces that bring hope and ultimately hopelessness. Later, with “happy” arrangements of most of the musical themes, David Essex explains his vision of a “Brave New World”, which is both stirring and sad.

Overall, JWMVWotW is a nearly flawless synthesis of a strong narrative and an equally strong musical score.

Disc one: The Coming Of The Martians
1. The Eve Of The War (9:07)
2. Horsell Common and the Heat Ray (11:36)
3. Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine (10:37)
4. Forever Autumn (7:42)
5. Thunder Child (6:07)

Disc two: The Earth Under The Martians
1. Red Weed part 1 (5:53)
2. Spirit Of Man (11:38)
3. Red Weed part 2 (5:25)
4. The Artilleryman Returns (1:27)
5. Brave New World (12:15)
6. Dead London (8:35))
7. Epilogue part 1 (2:31)
8. Epilogue part 2 - NASA (1:50)

Released by: Columbia
Release date: 1978
Disc one total running time: 45:10
Disc two total running time: 49:36

Yikes. Well, this one’s obviously a bootleg, but it’s the real thing and it appears to have beaten the official BBC releases to the punch.

Nice packaging and artwork (some of it borrowed from the BBC’s video covers - sheesh, who made these, and just how many copyright lawyers are they trying to honk off?) gives this Doctor Who CD a look that’s a notch or three above the average bootleg (hell, it looks nicer than some of the official releases that have gone before it!), but it would’ve been nice had the sound quality been up to the same level. To put it mildly, this CD is an almost blatantly obvious tape transfer, and the source tape has some occasional (but infrequent) speed and “warble” problems.

Technical problems aside, however, this release presents - for the first time - some of Paddy Kingsland’s contributions to the early 80s adventures of the Doctor. Kingsland’s Doctor Who scoring debut was 1980’s Full Circle, and he quickly proved to be one of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s most adept composers with his positively hummable melodies and mysterious suspense themes. Kingsland had a habit of building a small handful of themes and developing that material over the course of four episodes. By the time the end credits rolled on part four of a given story, this thematic material was burned into our brains.

This CD picks up with the opening pre-credits sequence of Castrovalva, the first outing for Peter Davison as the fifth incarnation of the Time Lord. Castrovalva initially restates the closing musical cue of Logopolis, the cliffhanger that leads into it, and then jumps into the main title. (Big whoop - the main title turns out to be the extended single version of the early 80s theme arrangement we’ve all heard a gazillion times.)

Much of the Castrovalva score is plagued by repetition. There are some hummable themes and interesting variations on those themes, but not a huge amount of variety.

Things look up with Mawdryn Undead, the score from a gimmicky 1983 four-parter which introduced the fifth Doctor to Brigadier Lethbridge- Stewart (as played by perennial fan favorite Nicholas Courtney). This story’s music was memorable, well-produced, and well-spotted. And the problem of musical variety is solved by a wide range of styles in the space of a single four-parter: from a synth-and-drum-machine pastiche of early 20th century jazz (”Turlough And Ibbotson Take A Ride”), to the tense, heavy-distorted-guitar strains of “Collision Course”, to the mysterious themes for Turlough (also introduced in this adventure) and the Black Guardian. One of the all-time best moments of Doctor Who incidental music is included: the track “Lethbridge-Stewart’s Flashback”, which accompanied a goosebump-inducing series of clips from the Brigadier’s past appearances in the show all the way back to 1967.

My recommendation, even if you should happen to run across one of these at a con or online, is to wait for the BBC’s upcoming compilations of Radiophonic Workshop music from the 1980s. At least that title will be remastered (very likely from the original tapes and not somebody’s cassette copy).

1. The Death Of The Fourth Doctor (1:07)
2. Main Title (2:41)
3. Escape (1:04)
4. The Master’s TARDIS (1:23)
5. Cricket, Anyone? (0:12)
6. The Zero Room (1:57)
7. Deleting Rooms (0:50)
8. Russian Roulette With The TARDIS (0:58)
9. Journey To Castrovalva (2:58)
10. Are You Sure This Is The Right Way? (0:53)
11. We’ll Have To Think Of Something (0:44)
12. He’s Gone! (0:38)
13. The Tapestry (1:05)
14. That’s Democracy For You (1:06)
15. Recursive Occlusion (0:45)
16. Tegan Takes Charge (1:27)
17. The Master Revealed (1:08)
18. Broken Glass (0:09)
19. You Made Us, Man Of Evil (0:25)
20. Shardovan’s Sacrifice (0:19)
21. It Still Makes Sense To Mergrave (0:50)
22. The Creator Of Castrovalva (0:29)
23. Mergrave Attacks The Master (0:49)
24. Trim Timeship And A Ship-Shape Team (1:29)
25. The Brigadier’s Car (0:20)
26. Turlough And Ibbotson Take A Ride (1:14)
27. The Most Accomodating Of Partners (0:25)
28. Collision Course (0:59)
29. Queen Mary Or Marie Celeste? (2:37)
30. The Wrath Of The Black Guardian (1:00)
31. Turlough Stows Away (0:42)
32. In The Name Of All That Is Evil (1:01)
33. Reunion (0:28)
34. Lethbridge-Stewart’s Flashback (1:53)
35. Tegan’s Run (0:15)
36. A Bit Of Bother (1:45)
37. Perpetual Torment (1:31)
38. The Brigadier Explores (0:44)
39. Such Luxury (1:09)
40. Find The TARDIS (0:17)
41. The Regeneration Room (0:15)
42. Reach Out Your Hand (1:52)
43. Eternal Agony (1:05)
44. Mawdryn’s Revenge (0:46)
45. Turlough’s Reward (1:18)
46. Return To Mawdryn’s Ship (1:26)
47. End Title (0:52)
48. Theme from K-9 and Company (1:00)
49. Main Title (Extended) from The Five Doctors (0:59)
50. End Credits from The Five Doctors (0:59)

Released by: ?
Release date: 2000?
Total running time: 52:50

So, whatever happened to the band that did “Africa”? Well, if you listen to the “new” tracks recorded by Toto for their best-of CD, you’ll probably answer, “Not nearly enough.”

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I used to like Toto’s stuff quite a bit. One can hardly go through a catalog of memorable songs from the 1980s without bringing up “Africa” and “Rosanna”, and “Hold The Line” is still a pleasantly non-guilty memory of late 70s rock for many. (”Georgy Porgy”, on the other hand, is still pretty much a guilty pleasure for those who actually like it. It’s not one of my favorites.) Toto’s right up there with Foreigner in my mind in the “good while it lasted” category.

And right up there with Chicago, too, for Toto has really slipped from its former glory. New vocalist - well, new as of ten years ago, and I haven’t heard a thing out of the band since - Jean-Michel Byron strips Toto of its edge, giving the group’s sound that glossed-over veneer of a one-great rock band that has descended into pre-fabricated, synth-heavy soft-rock schlock. The four new tracks on Past To Present hardly sound like Toto. Even when the old Toto lineup did ballads, such as the palatable “I’ll Be Over You” from their Fahrenheit album, the songs were sung by someone who still clearly had the pipes to do some larynx-ripping rock vocals. Not so here - Toto becomes as rockin’ as Chicago during the Peter Cetera epoch…which is to say, not rockin’ at all.

But those are only four songs. The rest of this album’s material is the classic stuff that put Toto on the map to begin with. The understated percussive textures and vocal harmonies of “Africa” stand up to anything on the charts today, the bluesy rock of “Rosanna” and “Hold The Line” have stood the test of time quite well, and my own guilty pleasure - 1988’s “Pamela” (which is admittedly a ripoff of the group’s own “Rosanna”) - still sounds good to my ears. I liked Toto’s rock numbers better than their ballads, but even “I’ll Be Over You”, “99″ and “I Won’t Hold You Back” are easier on the ears than the four tracks of neo-Toto.

Recommended for casual Toto fans - just remember to skip the new stuff.

1. Love Has The Power (6:32)
2. Africa (4:59)
3. Hold The Line (3:57)
4. Out Of Love (5:55)
5. Georgy Porgy (4:08)
6. I’ll Be Over You (3:50)
7. Can You Hear What I’m Saying (4:47)
8. Rosanna (5:35)
9. I Won’t Hold You Back (4:59)
10. Stop Loving You (4:29)
11. 99 (5:12)
12. Pamela (5:12)
13. Animal (5:02)

Released by: Columbia
Release date: 1990
Total running time: 64:32

Like a lot of groups - Man Or Astroman?, the Moody Blues and others - the Eurythmics suddenly reunited in 1999, as if the year 2000 signaled the end of everything (or at least the end of the line for any veteran groups who planned on reuniting).

And for at least the first two tracks on Peace, I thought that the Eurythmics of old had gone the way of the Moody Blues of old. There was a time when the Eurythmics were the cutting edge, riding the crest of the new wave sound in the early 80s. Very little of that history is acknowledged here, in an album which sounds very much like an Annie Lennox solo project with Dave Stewart playing backup.

“Peace Is Just A Word”, “I Want It All” and “Power To The Meek” are the only tracks which hearken back to the days when the Eurythmics were synonymous with musical innovation. I mean, not to imply that I don’t enjoy a good Annie Lennox vocal as much as the next listener, but there was something about the Eurythmics from 1981 to 1985 - between In The Garden and the hard-rocking Be Yourself Tonight - that was more than the sum of its parts. Dave Stewart went on to do solo projects and collaborations with such artists as Candy Dulfer, while Annie launched a solo career that never quite went stratospheric. Whether they were charting untouched new wave territory, or rolling in the soul with their later albums, Lennox and Stewart were always better as a team than as two solo acts.

Yet Peace comes across as one of Annie Lennox’s solo releases - lots of string backing, woodwinds in a few places, and generally soft rock all around. Dave Stewart’s a capable rock musician, and that is hardly heard on Peace.

Some of the ballads are nice though: “17 Again” addresses the follies of teenage relationships and convictions (while also referencing “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”, the original Eurythmics hit), and Lifted hints at the gospel choir backing that the Eurythmics briefly experimented with in the late 1980s. “I Saved The World Today” is also relaxing, if a little bit Pollyanna in its subject matter.

Overall, this quick-reunion-for-a-millennial-album reaps some decent tunes, but just not the sound that fans of the Eurythmics have come to expect - and some may find that disappointing.

1. 17 Again (4:55)
2. I Saved The World Today (4:53)
3. Power To The Meek (3:18)
4. Beautiful Child (3:27)
5. Anything But Strong (5:04)
6. Peace Is Just A Word (5:51)
7. I’ve Tried Everything (4:17)
8. I Want It All (3:32)
9. My True Love (4:45)
10. Forever (4:08)
11. Lifted (4:49)

Released by: Arista
Release date: 1999
Total running time: 48:58

Peter Gabriel’s first solo effort is an eye-opener for this kid who’d heard little of the former Genesis frontman until 1986’s So. I’ve always been impressed and inspired by the vast expanses of Gabriel’s musical style, and his 1977 album is no exception. So much has been made of Gabriel as world music spokesman and human rights activist, I sometimes think we’ve forgotten the splendor of Peter Gabriel, rock musician. The straight-ahead pop of “Solsbury Hill”, the harmonies of “Excuse Me”, and the orchestral-rock anthem “Down The Dolce Vita” speak to that oft-overlooked ability that Gabriel has to synthesize different styles, and come up with tunes that cross genre lines without sounding like cheesy attempts at crossovers. The music is also boosted by Bob Ezrin’s crisp production - I really wish Ezrin had produced the second album as well (which was instead handled by Robert Fripp). While Fripp clearly had a seminal influence on Gabriel, there’s something clean and uncluttered about Ezrin’s presentation on the first album that I really liked. Rather than cloaking the vocals with layers of instrumentation - and, for the record, contrary to some reports, Peter Gabriel can sing - the vocals were crystal clear here. Come to think of it, so was everything else, and that’s something that I miss occasionally in Peter Gabriel’s thickly layered latter-day output.

1. Moribund the Burgermeister (4:19)
2. Solsbury Hill (4:20)
3. Modern Love (3:37)
4. Excuse Me (3:20)
5. Humdrum (3:23)
6. Slowburn (4:34)
7. Waiting For The Big One (7:26)
8. Down The Dolce Vita (4:43)
9. Here Comes The Flood (5:54)

Released by: Atco
Release date: 1977
Total running time: 42:25