People around here often ask me, “Boos, what is your favorite synthesizer lead in all of recorded music?”

Actually, this is a lie. Nobody around here ever asks me that, no matter how hard I attempt to steer the conversation in that direction.

HOWEVER: this is my first Open Thread, and it is my understanding that, in exchange for volunteering to help ensure smooth, uninterrupted shitposting, I am permitted to post self-indulgent content of moderate size in the header. It is for this reason that I am featuring “The Artilleryman and the Fighting Machine” from the 1978 album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

If you are unfamiliar with this record, it’s a prog-rock opera adaptation of the H.G. Wells Martian-invasion novel, with orchestration but also a lot of disco beats and guitars, and Richard Burton narrates it and is sort of the main character, and the guy from Thin Lizzy plays a delusional clergyman, and David “Rock On” Essex plays a delusional soldier, and the guy who sings “Blinded By the Light” has a song where he’s credited as “The Voice of Humanity.” I hope this description is as bizarre and enticing to you as it is to me. One of the Moody Blues is also there and he sings a heartfelt love song with a melody repurposed from a 10-year-old LEGO commercial!

But on to the track itself. There’s a lot of lead-in, but if you want to queue it right to the synthesizer part that’s captivated me since childhood, skip ahead to 5:20.

(Note: There are other versions of this track: alternate mixes and live versions and “official” video and a complete re-recording done with a new cast. Listen to the version above pulled from the original double-LP and accept no substitutes.)

Listen to this awesome track and enjoy your Day Thread!