Message From the Country

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Message from the Country

Studio album by The Move
Released	8 October 1971 2005 Remastered
Genre	Rock
Length	38:28
Label	Harvest Capitol
Producer(s)	Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne
All Music Guide link
The Move chronology
Looking On (1970)	Message from The Country (1971)	See "The Electric Light Orchestra (album)" (1971)

Message from The Country is the fourth and last album by The Move, as well as its only album for EMI's Harvest Records.

1 Moving toward the light
2 Track listing
- 2.1 Bonus Tracks (2005 reissue)
3 Personnel

[edit] Moving toward the light

Recorded in 1970-71 at the same time the group was also laying down tracks for the first Electric Light Orchestra album (and even during some of the same sessions), there are inevitably some similarities in style between the two albums, especially the heavy use of "tracking up" (overdubbing) to capture all of the instruments being played by Wood and Jeff Lynne. Nevertheless, Wood and Lynne were determined to maintain some differentiation between the sound of their two groups, for example by confining Wood's saxes to ‘Message’ and Wood's cellos to the ELO debut. All the same, there are evident similarities between the songs on 'Message' and what was to follow from both men.

The title track has a certain amount in common with ELO’s '10538 Overture', while ‘Until Your Mama’s Gone’ is clearly the godfather of ‘Ball Park Incident’, Wood’s first single with Wizzard, the group he formed after leaving ELO in 1972. 'Don't Mess Me Up', Bev Bevan's sole contribution to the songwriting, is an affectionate tribute to the 1950s rock'n'roll and doo-wop sound, in particular that of Elvis Presley and the Jordanaires, and 'The Minister' has sometimes been likened, very favourably, to the Beatles' 'Paperback Writer'.

The Move was also responsible for the cover, as the painting was done by Roy Wood, based on an idea by Jeff Lynne.

During the lengthy sessions for this album, bassist Rick Price quit the band, reducing it to a trio. Instead of replacing him, Roy Wood added bass duties to his other roles, as well as erasing Price's tracks on the existing songs and then re-recording the bass lines.

All previous Move singles had been solo Roy Wood compositions, but this album presented a problem with only four such songs (with four songs by Lynne, one Lynne-Wood joint credit, and one Bevan song). Ultimately, Wood's 'Ella James’ was released as a single in 1971, but it was quickly withdrawn when Harvest Records and the group felt that Wood's ‘Tonight’ (not originally on ‘Message’) would be a more commercial choice for The Move's first single on the label. No other song from the album was ever issued as a single, although The Move released two more hit singles ('Chinatown' and 'California Man') before becoming ELO permanently.

‘Ella James’ was later covered by the Nashville Teens.

The initial 1971 album on the Harvest label in the UK and Capitol Records in the US contained tracks 1-10 below, as did a later reissue on CD on Beat Goes On Records in the UK and One Way Records in the US, both long since deleted. The bonus tracks on the current reissue are alternative takes and A-sides or B-sides of singles. (The US rights to these songs were transferred to United Artists Records shortly after the release of 'Message', and various compilation albums and CDs containing some combination of the songs on 'Message' and the five single tracks were released in the US for years prior to this comprehensive reissue. One such album is the United Artists release "Split Ends." The rights have since reverted to Capitol.)

[edit] Track listing

"Message From The Country" (Jeff Lynne) – 4:45
"Ella James" (Roy Wood) – 3:11
"No Time" (Lynne) – 3:38
"Don’t Mess Me Up" (Bev Bevan) – 3:07
"Until Your Mama’s Gone" (Wood) – 5:03
"It Wasn’t My Idea to Dance" (Wood) – 5:28
"The Minister" (Lynne) – 4:27
"Ben Crawley Steel Company" (Wood) – 3:02
"The Words of Aaron" (Lynne) – 5:25
"My Marge" (Lynne-Wood) – 1:59

[edit] Bonus Tracks (2005 reissue)

" Tonight" (Wood) – 3:15
"Chinatown" (Wood) – 3:06
"Down on the Bay" (Lynne) – 4:14
"Do Ya" (Lynne) – 4:03
"California Man" (Wood) – 3:35
"Don't Mess Me Up" (Alternate session version) (Wood) – 3:18
"The Words of Aaron" (Alternate session version) (Lynne) – 6:03
"Do Ya" (Alternate session version) (Lynne) – 7:00 (includes "hidden track" of "My Marge" (Alternate session version) (Lynne-Wood))

[edit] Personnel

Roy Wood – lead and backing vocals, guitars, steel guitar, recorders, bass, clarinet, bassoon, tenor and baritone saxes.
Jeff Lynne – lead and backing vocals, guitars, piano, percussion.
Bev Bevan – drums, backing vocals, lead vocal on 'Ben Crawley Steel Company'.
Rick Price - bass on some original tracks (erased and redubbed by Wood)

Discography
The Move
Members: Roy Wood \| Carl Wayne \| Bev Bevan \| Jeff Lynne \| Trevor Burton \| Ace Kefford \| Rick Price
Studio albums: Move \| Looking On \| Message From the Country
Live albums: Something Else From The Move \| Shazam
Singles: "Night of Fear" \| "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" \| "Flowers in the Rain" \| "Wild Tiger Woman" \| "Blackberry Way" \| "Curly" \| "Brontosaurus" \| "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm! \| "Tonight" \| "Chinatown" \| "California Man" \| "Do Ya"