Message from the Country

Message from the Country is the fourth and final album by the Move, as well as its only album for EMI's Harvest label. It was recorded while the band was morphing into the Electric Light Orchestra.

Message from the Country
Studio album by The Move
Released	June 1971 (1971-06)
Recorded	1970–1971
Studio	Olympic Studios and Philips Studios, London
Genre	Art rock, hard rock, glam rock, power pop
Length	38:28
Label	Harvest (UK), Capitol (US)
Producer	Roy Wood Jeff Lynne
The Move chronology
Looking On (1970) Message from the Country (1971) Split Ends (1972)
US album cover

Recording

Recorded in 1970–71 at the same time that the Move was also laying down tracks for the first Electric Light Orchestra album (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 Roy 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 saxophones to Message and the cellos to ELO debut respectively).

The lengthy sessions for this album mostly involved only Wood and Lynne, because of all the overdubbing. As a result, during these sessions, bassist Rick Price quit The Move after he realised he was no longer needed, 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 parts, but exactly why Wood re-tracked Price's parts is unclear. (Price claims he also played on the original take of 10538 Overture, ELO's debut single which had originally been intended as a Move track.) Although drummer Bev Bevan did not quit, in the liner notes for the 2005 reissue of Message from the Country he is quoted as saying that it is his least favorite Move album.

Singing

All previous Move singles had been solo Wood compositions, and recent singles had also featured Wood singing lead. For this album, Wood composed only four songs, with four songs from Lynne, one Lynne–Wood joint credit, and one Bevan song. Lead vocals on the album were largely split between Wood and Lynne depending upon author, with Wood singing lead on Bevan's composition "Don't Mess Me Up", Bevan singing lead on Wood's "Ben Crawley Steel Company" and Lynne singing lead on the joint composition "My Marge".

Release

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Billboard	(positive)[2]
Christgau's Record Guide	A–[3]

The initial 1971 album on the Harvest label in the UK and Capitol in the US contained tracks 1–10 below (with an alternate album cover on the US release, as well as the same songs in different playing order), as did a later reissue on CD on Beat Goes On Records in the UK and One Way 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 the Message songs were transferred to United Artists 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 by United Artists for years prior to the comprehensive reissue. One such album is the 1972 album Split Ends; another is the album Great Move: The Best of The Move, released in 1995, by which time Capitol/EMI owned the rights to United Artists material in the US. The latter album, released only on CD contained a US radio ad for "Split Ends" as an unlisted track.

Ultimately, Wood's "Ella James" was released as a single in 1971, but it was quickly withdrawn when Harvest 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 Harvest 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", both written by Wood) before folding into ELO permanently. All three songs featured lead vocals from both Wood and Lynne. The Move was also responsible for the album cover art, as the painting was done by Wood, based on an idea by Lynne.

"Ella James" was later covered by The Nashville Teens. "No Time" was covered by Marshall Crenshaw in 2012.

In 2010, Rhapsody called it one of the best "longhaired" power-pop albums of the 1970s.[4]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Message from the Country"	Jeff Lynne	Jeff Lynne	4:45
2.	"Ella James"	Roy Wood	Roy Wood	3:11
3.	"No Time"	Lynne	Jeff Lynne	3:38
4.	"Don't Mess Me Up"	Bev Bevan	Roy Wood	3:07
5.	"Until Your Mama's Gone"	Wood	Roy Wood	5:03

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
6.	"It Wasn't My Idea to Dance"	Wood	Roy Wood	5:28
7.	"The Minister"	Lynne	Jeff Lynne	4:27
8.	"Ben Crawley Steel Company"	Wood	Bev Bevan	3:02
9.	"The Words of Aaron"	Lynne	Jeff Lynne	5:25
10.	"My Marge"	Lynne, Wood	Jeff Lynne	1:59

Bonus tracks (2005 reissue)

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
11.	"Tonight"	Wood	Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne	3:15
12.	"Chinatown"	Wood	Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne	3:06
13.	"Down on the Bay"	Lynne	Jeff Lynne	4:14
14.	"Do Ya"	Lynne	Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne	4:03
15.	"California Man"	Wood	Jeff Lynne, Roy Wood	3:35
16.	"Don't Mess Me Up" (Alternate session version)	Bevan	Roy Wood	3:18
17.	"The Words of Aaron" (Alternate session version)	Lynne	Jeff Lynne	6:03
18.	"Do Ya" (Alternate session version)	Lynne	Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne	4:42
19.	"My Marge" (Alternate session version; "hidden track")	Lynne, Wood	Jeff Lynne	2:18

Personnel

• Roy Wood – lead and backing vocals, guitars, steel guitar, recorders, bass, clarinet, bassoon, tenor and baritone saxes, percussion
• Jeff Lynne – lead and backing vocals, guitars, piano, percussion, Wurlitzer electric piano, tack piano, Moog, percussion, drums on "My Marge"
• Bev Bevan – drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Ben Crawley Steel Company"

Other Personnel

• Rick Price – bass on some original tracks (erased and redubbed by Wood)

References

1. https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-message-from-the-country-mw0001885671
2. "Special Merit Picks". Billboard. 28 August 1971. p. 50. ISSN 0006-2510.
3. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 8, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
4. The Best Power-Pop Albums of the 1970s Archived 2011-01-26 at the Wayback Machine Referenced 27 July 2010