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Post by Stewymartian on Oct 10, 2004 20:33:08 GMT
I was sitting here wondering if anybody else out there had ever had the living excrement scared out of them by the soundtrack, or if I was alone in sharing this experience.
I was a mere five years out when the album came out and my uncle came round with it clutched under his arm. To start with I really liked the record and would often ask for my uncle Mike to bring it around again. This happened so often that my dad borrowed the record so that he could make a copy.
It was at this time that I started to feel uneasy about the whole thing. I remember slowly turning over the page of the booklet and being very unnerved by the fighting machine in the 'panic in the streets' picture.
Eventually it got to the stage where I would scream hysterically if I heard any part of the album played anywhere. This lasted for some years, even after I read the book. Once I was in my teens I started to be able to listen to the album again, and found that I did in fact really like it. But even now I cannot listen to it in the dark, or look at any of the album artwork when I'm alone in the house. When I'm playing the computer game I have to have the sound turned down to stop the continuous Jeff wayne samples from giving me the shakes.
Dispite this WOTW is my favourite book, one of my top five favourite albums, and I've no doubt the films will all eventually feature in my DVD collection (though I may only be able to watch the cgi J.Wayne version during the day with the misses and the kids around!)
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Post by Killraven on Oct 10, 2004 21:50:43 GMT
You're not alone Stewy When my dad first bought the album I must have been about six... He used to play it after I'd gone to bed and I'd hear it in the dark pumping through the walls at 10 o'clock at night... There were three main parts to the story I used to really dread hearing... first the unscrewing of the cylinder, with that noise like someone sharpening a scythe and the unnerving distorted bass (duh-duh-duh, duh-duh... ), followed by the wailing voicebox effect; second, the creepily unearthly shimmering synth of 'The Red Weed'...then Dead London and the dying martian cries. More than any of those I really found (and still to this day!!) JW's rendition of "Ulla" the ultimate brown-trousers time! It's just so far away from anything we could understand as a language.. Imagine running down a street, being chased by a 100 foot high monster emitting a deafening reverberating howl like that!! Ugh!!
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Post by Curate on Oct 10, 2004 22:13:38 GMT
Same story here My Dad bought the album in the late 70s when I was just a toddler. To say it scared the living snot out of me would be an understatement indeed. Even just hearing Richard Burton's opening words was enough to send me scurrying up the stairs and straight under the bed ( and out of sight of the fighting machine that was bound to look in the window ). The bit that bothered me most was The Red Weed though... the pan pipe style music coupled with the eerie image in the LP booket was enough to give me a serious dose of the shakes. I actually destroyed the booklet one day when my Dad was out. I ripped it up and then hid the remains... only admitting to it about 10 years later Of course, by the time I became brave enough to listen to the album and found myself quite enjoying it, I looked back on the day I disposed of the booklet as being the most stupid thing I'd ever done. I made up for it by buying two copies of the CD though One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is when I screamed at my dad to turn the album off. He switched off the music, then picked up the LP and held it out towards me. "It's only a piece of plastic!" he shouted.
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Post by Happy Chappy on Oct 11, 2004 10:54:11 GMT
My dad had a rather poor quality taped copy of the musical (perhaps the poor quality added to eerieness/sinisterness (is there such a word?) of the original). I don't really remember the first time I heard it, but I remember having nightmares about it. My next door neighbour then showed my the LP book when I was about 6 I think, and it was the Panic In The Streets that shook me up the most (I think he did it on purpose - he always was a bit dodgy, if you know what I mean!).
I still have wierd dreams about it every now and then, but not to the extent that I wake up in a cold sweat!!
(By the way, does anyone have a link to the picture that inspired the "Panic In The Streets" pic? I would love to see the inspiration behind the pic that scared me half to death!!)
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Oct 11, 2004 11:03:10 GMT
I can remember during music at school in 1984, some kid who always sat at the back of the room because he was a bit weird and a total religous nut, like the rest of his family I was told (religous cult would have been better) ran out of the class when the album was played because he said it contained evil messages from the devil.
Secretly he must have been a fan, he was taking the part of Nathaniel a little to seriously "its a sign, Ive been given a sign, they must be cast out and Ive been choosen to do it"
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Post by EvilNerfherder on Oct 11, 2004 16:30:54 GMT
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Post by David Faltskog on Oct 11, 2004 16:47:30 GMT
What photo?...All i can see is that "Fortune City" logo thingy. D.F. Basil Fawlty..."Don't mention the War"...Of The Worlds PC Game.
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Post by EvilNerfherder on Oct 11, 2004 16:51:53 GMT
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Post by Chumpy on Oct 11, 2004 17:02:30 GMT
Hi everyone! I only found this website last night! I'm soooo glad i managed to find some other people who hav had the pants scared off 'em by WoTW!! It all started when I was 5yrs old... I found the LP version of WotW down the side of one of our cabinets at home and the picture on the front scared the living daylights out of me.... as soon as I'd listened to a couple of tracks though, I became obsessed with the story and the martians Crying hysterically (which seems to be quite a common trait of WOTW child victims!), not going upstairs by myself and images of big green eyes at the window were just a few of the things that began happening to me...along with nightmares about the martian's claw dragging me out of my bed to a horrid death... As it all started to get our of hand, my dad hid the vinyl from me and I gradually forgot about the horrors of WOTW until one day when I decided to buy the double cassette for myself and it all began again... Since the first time I heard WoTW I have listened to the musical version at random intervals throughout my life, hoping that I could appreciate the geniusness without getting scared! now (at the age of 20 i hasten to add) I still get the pants scared off me and have nightmares about the martians! mind you, I dont think the Panic in the Streets artwork did me much good psychologically as a child!! Its absolute musical genius and the artwork rox! So it really annoys me that I cant listen to it without getting psychologically scarred by the whole event! I'm really excited about the new film prosect! A possible 3 releases is ace! Can't wait to see one or all of the films, although Im not sure if I'll make it out of the cinema; If u see someone on the back row having a spaz, it'll probably be me having a nervous breakdown ...
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Post by EvilNerfherder on Oct 11, 2004 17:04:49 GMT
Hello, Chumpy.. welcome to our happy little world!
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Post by jeffwaynefan on Oct 11, 2004 17:25:41 GMT
Hi Chumpy, welcome and enjoy the site ;D
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Post by Happy Chappy on Oct 11, 2004 21:04:00 GMT
Welcome Chumpy. Nerfy, still no idea what that link was meant to send me to...
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Post by Stewymartian on Oct 11, 2004 21:23:46 GMT
I'm glad to know that I'm not alone in suffering WOTW induced attacks of 'the fear'. I seem to be in good company here, and not the complete freak I once thought I was.
It is intriguing how often the 'panic in the streets' picture has been mentioned as a source of terror. It is still the picture I find the hardest to look at (Even just thinking about it at this late hour is giving me goosebumps).
What parts of the album and/or artwork do the rest of you find most disturbing?
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Post by Stuuullaaa on Oct 11, 2004 21:57:39 GMT
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Post by EvilNerfherder on Oct 11, 2004 22:17:31 GMT
I gather some people can't see the World War 2 photo I posted that inspired 'Panic in the Streets'. If anyone can't see it and wants to, PM me with an e-mail address and I'll mail it.
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Post by Curate on Oct 11, 2004 23:22:05 GMT
Re: Panic in the Streets. That fat bloke just a little way down the street - bet he regrets having 5 dinners a day now! Oddly enough, Panic in the Streets never bothered me half as much as the red weed picture did. I had nightmares about waking up and finding the street outside covered in the 'living scarlet feelers'....
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Post by Killraven on Oct 12, 2004 18:16:41 GMT
And I never liked the one with Nathaniel and the fighting machines.. very spookily drawn and full of luminous green eyes. Worst of all though for me was Dead London Very Scarfe-like in my eyes
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Post by the Donal on Oct 14, 2004 17:48:39 GMT
I also love it so much because of the sheer fright it gave me as a child. The front cover picture did it for me without any of the other artwork. It's the 'face' of the fighting machine - there's a real sense of horror and menace in it. I had countless nightmares as a child and it still gives me the sh1ts sometimes when I listen to it nowadays.
I think Eve Of The War and Horsell Common and the Heat Ray are certainly the scariest tracks.
My ex girlfriend wouldn't even let me play it when she was in - her dad played it well loud as a child one night despite pleas to turn it off - she and her sister couldn't sleep and had loads of nightmares.
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Post by Stewymartian on Oct 14, 2004 19:25:48 GMT
I understand completely about the face of the fighting machine. There is something horribly disturbing about those soulless unblinking alien eyes.
We can only hope that the CGI incarnation of the FM's still have that air of alien menace (What Am I saying!?! it's going to scare the crud out of me if they do!), the footage in the PC game didn't have nearly the same effect on me.
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Post by Bayne on Oct 15, 2004 3:40:17 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]It'll be interesting to see if the CGI film manages to be as frightening as the album. Will the film create a new generation of fear-stricken children ready to become massive WotW fans?... well if it's really scary they might up the rating so the kids will have to wait for DVD.
I thought the destruction of the train in the PC game held up pretty well, where the martian emerges from the cylinder isn't too bad (I love the glistening and breathing.. too bad it's just sitting in a mobile chair) and parts of the Martian intro are great, though it gets bogged down a little in the middle.
Hopefully the film will annihilate the game cinematics...[/glow]
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