L RON HUBBARD – BATTLEFIELD EARTH soundtrack LP – EXC+ SPACE JAZZ SCIENTOLOGY

L Ron Hubbard – Battlefield Earth
(New Era Records  1982/84  BE1)

Gatefold Sleeve in Very Good+ condition
– some wear to edges with small split in bottom
Inner Sleeve has small splits

Vinyl in Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles)
 

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard and often referred to by his initials, LRH, was an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. In 2014, Hubbard was cited by the Smithsonian magazine as one of the 100 most significant Americans of all time, as one of the eleven religious figures on that list. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and practices as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation. The Church’s dissemination of these materials led to Hubbard being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world. The Guinness World Record for the most audio books published for one author is also held by Hubbard.

Although many aspects of Hubbard’s life story are disputed, there is general agreement about its basic outline. Born in Tilden, Nebraska, he spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. He traveled in Asia and the South Pacific in the late 1920s after his father, an officer in the United States Navy, was posted to the U.S. naval base on Guam. He attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. at the start of the 1930s, before dropping out and beginning his career as a prolific writer of pulp fiction stories. He served briefly in the United States Marine Corps Reserve and was an officer in the United States Navy during World War II, briefly commanding two ships, the USS YP-422 and USS PC-815. He was removed both times when his superiors found him incapable of command. The last few months of his active service were spent in a hospital, being treated for a duodenal ulcer.

After the war, Hubbard developed a philosophy he called Dianetics, which he called “the modern science of mental health”. He founded Scientology in 1952 and oversaw the growth of the Church of Scientology into a worldwide organization. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he spent much of his time at sea on his personal fleet of ships as “Commodore” of the Sea Organization, an elite inner group of Scientologists. His expedition came to an end when Britain, Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Venezuela all closed their ports to his fleet. At one point, a court in Australia revoked the Church’s status as a religion, though it was later reinstated. Hubbard returned to the United States in 1975 and went into seclusion in the California desert. In 1978, a trial court in France convicted Hubbard of fraud in absentia. Others convictions from the same trial were reversed on appeal, but Hubbard died before the court considered his case.

In 1983 Hubbard was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in an international information infiltration and theft project called “Operation Snow White”. He spent the remaining years of his life on his ranch, the “Whispering Wind,” near Creston, California, where he died in 1986. A small group of Scientology officials and physician Dr. Eugene Denk attended to him before his death, for a number of ailments including chronic pancreatitis. In 1986, he died at age 74 in a 1982 Blue Bird motor home, which was situated on his property.

The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms, and he portrayed himself as a pioneering explorer, world traveler, and nuclear physicist with expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including photography, art, poetry, and philosophy. In Scientology publications, he is referred to as “Founder” and “Source” of Scientology and Dianetics. His critics, including his own son Ronald DeWolf, have characterized him as a liar, a charlatan, and mentally unstable, though DeWolf later repudiated those statements. Though many of Hubbard’s autobiographical statements have been found to be fictitious, the Church rejects any suggestion that its account of Hubbard’s life is not historical fact.

Space Jazz: The soundtrack of the book Battlefield Earth is a music album and soundtrack companion to the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard, released in 1982. Hubbard composed the music for the album.

Besides its own particular contents, the album is known for being the first soundtrack ever written for a book.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles in 1982 and released by Applause Records. A 1983 press release put out by the Church of Spiritual Technology subsidiary company Author Services Inc. marketed the concept album as “the only original sound track ever produced for a book before it becomes a movie”. The album includes performances by Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Nicky Hopkins and Gayle Moran. The album features music from the Fairlight CMI synthesizer. A demonstration of the “computer space jazz” soundtrack was one of the festival displays at the 1982 US Festival rock concert in California.

L. Ron Hubbard’s son Ronald DeWolf filed a probate case in November 1982, after his father had not made any public appearances since 1980, requesting to be appointed trustee of Hubbard’s estate on the grounds that his father was missing or dead. In 1983, attorneys representing Hubbard produced a letter in Hubbard’s handwriting and with his fingerprints, in which he wrote that he had not had a leadership role in the Church of Scientology for “nearly 17 years”, and mentioned his new novel Battlefield Earth, his recently released album Space Jazz, and 10-volume novel Mission Earth. “I am actively writing, having published Battlefield Earth, and my Space Jazz album; a projected ten-volume work, Mission Earth, is in the pre-publication stage at the moment”, said Hubbard’s statement. In conjunction with the release of Hubbard’s letter, Church of Scientology President Heber Jentzsch told the press that Hubbard had produced Space Jazz around December 1982, and wrote the majority of songs and lyrics for the computer-based music on the album.

In 1984, the LP was retitled to Battlefield Earth. According to a 1987 statement from Norman F. Starkey, the executor of Hubbard’s estate, the copyright to Hubbard’s works passed to the Church of Scientology after his death. In addition to copyright of Space Jazz, other copyrighted music titles by Hubbard included “Tarzan”, “The Black Cape” and “Snake Head”.

Track listing

All music composed by Rick Cruzen and Tamia Arbuckle, under the direction of L. Ron Hubbard.

Personnel

Artists

• L. Ron Hubbard
• Chick Corea
• Rick Cruzen
• Nicky Hopkins
• Stanley Clarke
• Tamia Arbuckle
• Fernando Gambos
• Tomo Allison
• Charlie Rush
• Gayle Moran
• Charlie George – Backing vocals on “Terl, The Security Director”

Production personnel

• All arrangements and orchestrations by – Rick Cruzen and Tamia Arbuckle
• Under the direction of – L. Ron Hubbard
• Recorded and mixed at – Mad Hatter Recording Studios in Los Angeles
• Produced by – Golden Era Musicians
• Engineered by – Bernie Kirsk
• Technician – Gary Lew
• Assistant Engineer – Eric Westfall
• Mixed by – Rick Cruzen