Message From the Country

The Move | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 30, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: One Way Records Inc
• ASIN: B000002RA3
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,424 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. It Wasn't My Idea to Dance

2. The Minister

3. Message from the Country

4. The Words of Aaron

5. Ben Crawley Steel Company

6. Until Your Mama's Gone

7. No Time

8. Ella James

9. Don't Mess Me Up

10. My Marge

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Although they had three more fine singles in them--the Supergrass- inspiring "Tonight" and "Chinatown" together with "California Man"--album-wise, Message from the Country, released in July 1971, was the Move's curtain call. It was also the first ELO album in all but name. The Birmingham band responsible for an enviable run of eclectic '60s hits ("Flowers in the Rain," "I Can Hear the Grass Grow," "Fire Brigade," "Brontosaurus") had now trimmed down to a nucleus of three members--principal songwriter, autodidactic multi- instrumentalist and latter-day heavy-rocking hairball Roy Wood, dependable drummer and fellow cofounder Bev Bevan and former Idle Race rival and Beatles disciple Jeff Lynne.

Oddly--given the quality of their work--the Move only existed at this time as a financial vehicle to fund Wood and Lynne's vision for fusing rock music with classical instruments in the manner of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus." Thus, the Electric Light Orchestra, whose live debut was only months away, would go one better than John and Paul by playing their own cellos (Roy Wood, who else?) and the gothic, chamber orchestra rock blueprint can be heard on Message from the Country. It remains a fascinating chapter in the bafflingly complicated Move/ELO/Wizzard/Roy Wood chronicles. --Kevin Maidment

Product Description

The general consensus, hardly challenged since its release on October 8, 1971, is that Message From The Country was unquestionably the best album The Move (Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan) ever made. This edition features 17 total tracks including the 9 bonus tracks 'Tonight', 'Chinatown', 'Down On The Bay', 'Do Ya', 'California Man', 'Don't Mess Me Up' (alternative unreleased version), 'The Words Of Aaron' (alternative unreleased version), 'Do Ya' (alternative unreleased version) & the previously unreleased hidden track 'My Marge' (session version). EMI. 2005. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tremendous archievement,if you understand the context of the sessions., September 25, 2005

By 

Philip A.Cohen (Bay Harbor Islands, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Message From the Country (Audio CD)

First of all,I'd like to say,that with the discovery of the actual first generation mixdown masters(which were not at EMI),that the album now has unprecidented clarity.As with previous reissues(such as "Great Move") you get the bonus singles "California Man","Chinatown","Tonght","Do Ya" & "Down on The Bay".With this remaster,you also get four further unreleased selections,though the first two could be described as "Out-Fakes":an accapella mix of "Don't Mess me Up",and a remix of "The Words of Aaron" which strips the song back to just piano & vocals.The next two selections are genuine outtakes;an alternate take of "Do Ya" recorded for use by the BBC,and an alternate of "My Marge"(the original album's 1930's-style throwaway).However,most people don't realize that the album "A Message From The Country"(and its' related non-L.P. singles) & the first "Electric Light Orchestra" album were recorded simultaneously,on the same reels of tape and at the same sessions.Selections without the horns & cellos were earmarked for release under the name "The Move"(because,for commercial reasons,EMI wanted more recordings under the group's already established name),while the songs with the orchestral players were set aside for release under the name "Electric Light Orchestra".Had all the recordings been released as a double album,people would have hailed these recordings for the major achievement that they were.Both groups featured the same basic personel(Roy Wood,Bev Bevan & Jeff Lynne).Bassist Rick Price was involved at an early stage of the sessions,only to exit the group,and have his parts wiped,and re-played by Roy Wood.But,alas Wood & Lynne were each prolific writers,and each could fill an entire album without another writer,so they each started bands that were basically backing bands;Lynne's revised "Electric Light Orchestra" & Wood formed "Wizzard"

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most special and unique album by the BRILLIANT Move, September 6, 2005

By 

Sorcha (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Message From the Country (Audio CD)

I must start this review by saying how excited and happy I am that this truly wonderful album is FINALLY being reissued- about time, too!!!! I am a huge Move fan: I love their totally unique, bizarre, zany, colorful, rumbunctious psych pop ("Disturbance"), their murky, muddy, funky, grinding, swampy hard rock ("Brontosaurus"), their sinister, epic, gorgeous, mysterious, strange progressive rock ("What?"), and their crisp, shining, melodic beatelesque pop rock ("Tonight").

Message From The Country finds the Move's music very much in the region of the last three styles that I have mentioned- this album is a very strong collection of hard, bluesy rockabilly ("Till your Mama's gone", "Ella James" and the jaw droppingly bizarre "Don't mess me up"), moody, mysterious, achingly gorgeous prog rock ("Words of Aaron", "Message From The Country"), silly, throwaway vaudeville romps ("My Marge")

and crisp, clean, beatlesque pop rock ("Tonight"). And there's also the sinister, paranoid, manaic rock of "The Minister" and the etheral, sad, atmospheric balladry of "No Time".

In my opinion, I find that this album gets unfairly underrated and ignored, simply because it is the Move's last album- All Music guide call it "pleasant enough in it's sub-White album way"- This is a grave disservice to the Move, suggesting that they are mere Beatles clones- the Move had their own strong. unique, bizarre brand of music, totally unlike the Beatles!

It seems that if a band are melodic with good vocal harmonies they are dismissed as being "Beatles-like" , like the brilliant Bee Gees were in their fantastic 60's heyday.

"Message" is even Roy Wood's fave Move album, and he'd know!

I find that the Move's music got much more atmospheric and sinister as they moved into their prog/hard rock territory, and the cantankerous, heavy, predominant bass lines, compressed, treated vocals, morbid, creepy lyrics and enigmatic, eerie arrangments (especially in the stunning "Words of Aaron")all add up to create the moving, memorable, truly unique brand of rockabilly/hard rock/blues/progressive/pop/rock that the Move perfected on this, their best album.

Don't worry, they still retained their trademark sense of fun and humour- listening to the lyrics of "My Marge" will make you cringe as they sing "She picks her nose!Throws the brown lumps over the left side, green over the left side..."- Urgh!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Import blues, February 1, 2000

By 

Henry R. Kujawa ("The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Message From the Country (Audio CD)

Roy Wood & Jeff Lynne's 2nd of 3 collaborations-- the others being LOOKING ON and ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA / NO ANSWER-- was an amazing, innovative, unique, staggering, and in places, simply FUN album. Somehow when it got imported to America, the 10 tracks were rearranged like a deck of cards, for no apparent good reason. You wouldn't THINK an album could be almost completely ruined by having this happened-- but it was. On top of that, they removed Roy Wood's bright, airy cover painting and replaced it with a dark, bizarre piece of art that reminds me of a bad impersonation of something from M.C. Escher. The one "good" thing to come out of this--albeit years later-- may have been the juke box pictured on both sides-- the inspiration for the later ELO "spaceship" logo? I highly recommend anyone buy the Import ("Message From the Country" opens that disc) as it's by far the superior version. (Or, even better-- GREAT MOVE! THE BEST OF THE MOVE, which contains the entire album intact, plus all 5 extra "A" & "B" sides from the period, including "Chinatown", "Down On The Bay", "California Man" & "Do Ya")