You might well be saying to yourself, “Wait, I know that song. Didn’t the Moody Blues do that?” Well, yes they recorded it (for a live album) and it sure sounds like something they’d write. But they didn’t and for that matter, neither did Justin Hayward. It’s from a musical called Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of War of the Worlds. And so, of course there’s a musical about aliens who come to earth to wipe us out. A little background:
Jeff Wayne is an American composer whose father was in theater in London when Jeff was a boy. Jeff eventually wound up playing keyboards in bands and composed scores for his father’s London plays. He also created thousands of TV jingles.
In 1978, he wrote and produced the War of the Worlds album. It’s listed as prog-rock and symphonic rock. Musically, it’s pretty melodic but I doubt I’d listen to it all that often. It veers wildly between entertaining and cheesy, sometimes in the same measure.
It’s definitely got some Floydiness if you know what I mean. Maybe it’s also got a little bit of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, some Rick Wakeman. All by way of Andrew Lloyd Webber. It’s kinda fun to listen to at least once. All things considered, I’d rather listen to this for an hour than two minutes of Phantom of the Fucking Opera.
Wayne realized he wanted a love song on the soundtrack. (‘Coz you gotta have a love song.) According to Wikipedia, he’d written a jingle for a Lego commercial (!) in 1969. A couple of guys named Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass were fellow sessionΒ men and had performed on that jingle.
Vigrass and Osborne later joined together as a performing duo and wrote lyrics to the tune. Calling it “Forever Autumn,” they released it in 1972 on a long-forgotten album called Queues.Β Guitarists Chris Spedding and Caleb Quaye – Elton John’s guitarist – played on it. Osborne later went on to write lyrics with Elton for a period of non-Bernie Taupin time.
Wayne wanted “that voice from “Nights in White Satin”” and so hired Justin Hayward for the album. (Ireland is well represented with Phil Lynott on the record as well as a very pre-fame Liam Neeson in a speaking part.) Richard Burton is the narrator and in fact, provides a spoken intro to the song. But this is the popular version of the song with that intro stripped out.
“Forever Autumn” is a beautiful, melancholy song for a lonely fall day. Hayward is the absolutely right guy to make it work:
Curious to hear the War of the WorldsΒ musical itself? Here’s a version. (Part of this and Spotify version may be blocked.) Additionally, there is a remake out there, a disco-y version, etc. You’d think theyΒ would take this thing on tour and do a live version, right? Of course they did. There was a touring version and the “New Generation” version played in London just last year.
When they toured, apparently they used a large bust of Burton’s head with an image of him superimposed to speak his parts. One can only imagine he was too fucking embarrassedΒ to even make the gig. Later they replaced him with a 3D holograph of – wait for it – Liam Neeson. As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up!
Oh, and that original Lego commercial? Sure, why not. Here’s the audio.
Music Enthusiast - At the junction of rock, blues, R&B, jazz, pop,and soul 
I’ll admit to being a bit of a fan of this one.
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Fortunately you’re past the time when the words are meaningful.
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I’d like to think so. I was a teen when I first heard this.
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Actually i was thinking of you and JG when you were ‘Down Under.’ Maybe I’m projecting a bit here.
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this song never came to mind at that time (for me it’s more of a first love kind of thing). There were much more relevant tracks that fit our situation and from which we both drew our comfort.
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I confess to being familiar with none of those. Sound worth hearing whatever the context. I’ll give them a deeper spin when i have a better sound ststem at hand than the phone. Never heard the ‘first love’ bit in ‘Autumn’ though.
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I guess I meant that it had more of a hold over me at that time.
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Gotcha. Where would we be without love songs, ‘lost love’ songs, unrequited love songs, etc.
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A far more desolate world, I’m thinking.
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Listened to those three songs you posted. All very evocative. I found Hannigan’s most, what? evocative? Poetic? I liked her use of language especially.
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That song in particular came to symbolize our situation for me. It gave me the faith to believe what we were trying to do could actually succeed.
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Sometimes a little faith is all we need to get by.
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Life’s a lot harder without it.
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I remember seeing this record but didn’t know anything about it. Now I do. The Chris Spedding thing is kinda funny. I was just listening to him. He shows up on all sorts of the music I like. Seen him a few times. Great show with Robert Gordon. Little off topic but that’s all I got. Phil Lynott?
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When the song was popular, they said it was from some ‘War of the Worlds’ musical. I didn’t give it much thought. I guess i wasn’t as inquisitive in those days. Always liked the Moody Blues. Have an idea in mind for a favorite album down the road. And Lynott? Thin Lizzy was pretty popular back then.
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The Lynott question was he seemed like an odd choice, kinda the other end of the spectrum musically. I guess he was stretching out or it was a $$$ gig. When I seen Spedding you would have loved it. He did this Rich Little thing where he played a few licks from all his peers, Clapton, Beck, Page, it was hilarious.
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That’s funny. BTW, Robert Gordon. Thats a name i haven’t heard in a while.
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It was funny Doc but it was unbelievably dead on. I have a little Robert Gordon coming up down the road. Springsteen turned me onto him way back in the day. He always had top notch guitar players with him. Link Wray, Danny Gatton, Spedding. A little off the ‘War of the Worlds’. It was the Spedding connection that did it. Sorry bud!
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No worries. It doesn’t bother me at all if conversation veers as it does in real life. As long as there’s conversation.
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I know, I was just kiddin’. It was an interesting read with Docs spin. You and I could have a conversation about the history of paper clips. Music just sends us off on all sorts of directions. You just might go and listen to some of those great guitar solos on the Robert Gordon albums.
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Such a great tune! I actually have the “War of the Worlds” album on vinyl – haven’t listened to it in decades and had all forgotten about this song!
Based on how I remember it, I agree it’s not exactly the greatest piece of rock & roll, though the main theme is kind of catchy!π
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Ah, so you were the guy that bought the album. They were wondering. π I’d forgotten about the song too. I suspect that if I go through my record collection I will find a lot of “I forgot about that one” discs.
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I’ve loved ‘Forever Autumn’ since the first time I heard it, back in 1978 when I was living in a share-house. It’s a classic melancholy track – just what I like!
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You and me both, bro. I was watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and marveling at what a good singer (and guitar player) Justin Hayward is. Thanks for commenting. Welcome to my corner of the blogosphere.
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And BTW, does the song not SOUND autumnal? No way they could call it ‘Spring is here.’
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You’re right, Jim; the song encapsulates autumn completely and the choice of Justin Hayward to sing it was inspired. I personally reckon the whole War of the Worlds album is musical genius.
Speaking of spring, there is a spring themed song that I love that is also quite melancholy, even dark! It’s by Shawn Phillips and is called ‘Springwind’.
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