L. Ron Hubbard left detailed instructions and audio tapes for the musicians and producers to follow when making this album, which was released after Hubbard's death.[3] Edgar described Mission Earth as "both a return to rock's primal roots and yet highly experimental". Winter had glowing words for Hubbard when he wrote, "Ron's technical insight of the recording process was outstanding." Winter also described Hubbard's delineation of counter-rhythm in rock as something "which was nothing short of phenomenal, particularly inasmuch as it had then been entirely unexplored and only later heard in the African-based rhythms of Paul Simon's work, some five years after Ron's analysis."[4]
Songs
The Mission Earth soundtrack is an oddity. Most of the songs are about minor characters and locations from the book, rather than focusing on the main storyline like most rock operas. "Treacherous Love" is about Mary Schmeck, a character who became a drug-addicted prostitute due to psychology (a common theme in the original novels) who later dies after a few chapters. "Bang-Bang" is about the eponymous character, an ex-Marine demolitions expert and a member of the Corleones. "Teach Me" is a cover, modified to a third-person point-of-view, of a song from the first volume, performed by Hightee Heller, the sister of the main character, Jettero. Similarly, the song, "The Spacer's Lot", also comes from the books. "Cry Out (Marching Song of the Protestors)" is about environmentalism, another theme of the books. "Just a Kid" is about the main character, Jettero Heller, strangely the only song following the main plot, not counting the title track. "Joy City" is about one of the locations from the novels. Appearing in the 9th volume, Joy City is described as "Atlantic City but larger".
Album cover
The science fiction cover artwork for the album and cassette tape feature a blond man, resembling Winter, floating in the clouds behind an iron fist that appears to be holding a representation of the Earth, taken from the cover of Mission Earth, the novel. The background includes a night sky. The words on the album include "Edgar Winter" written in a futuristic-looking font and the words "Mission Earth", written in a cursive script. Some versions of the album were sold with a gold foil sticker that said, "Words and Music by L. Ron Hubbard".
The cover's copyright notice says "1985", whether or not this is a mistake isn't clear.[citation needed]
Release and reception
This album was issued by Rhino Records. It's disputed as to when the album released. Some sources say 1986, but the few news coverage of the album is from 1989, and the cover's copyright notice says 1985. Rhino predicted sales of 800,000 copies,[5] but the album would only sell 15,000 upon its release.[6] The only known professional review of the album is from Michael B. Smith of AllMusic.com, who gave it 2.5 stars out of 5. Smith wrote that while the album is "An admirable attempt at a sci-fi space-rock opera", the album "fails to blend the music with the theme, making for an almost unlistenable release". Outside of a single article from the Los Angeles Times, the album received little attention from the press of its time. "Cry Out (Marching Song of the Protestors)" was the only song from the album to be released as a single and the only one with a music video. Another music video was planned however, and it was planned to be the first music video ever shot in 3D, inspired off of an Elvira's Movie Macabre episode. However, the footage ended up being unusable, so the video was scrapped.
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