Message from The Country is the fourth and last album by The Move, as well as its only album for EMI's Harvest Records. This album has long had the reputation as The Move's best album, although it was recorded while the band was transitioning itself into the Electric Light Orchestra.
Recorded in 1970-71 at the same time that The Move 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 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 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", another Lynne composition recorded during these sessions. Wood's "Until Your Mama’s Gone" is 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 Lynne's "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.
The lengthy sessions for this album mostly just involved Wood and Lynne, because of all the tracking up being done. As a result, during these sessions, bassist Rick Price quit The Move, 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. Although drummer Bevan did not quit, in the liner note for the 2005 reissue he states that this is his least-favorite Move album.
However, US rock critic Robert Christgau has called Message the Move's "only decent, only great album."
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 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") 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 (with an alternate album cover - seen at right - on the US release), 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 the Message 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 by United Artists for years prior to this comprehensive reissue. One such album is the 1972 LP release Split Ends; another is the 1995 CD Great Move: The Best of The Move.
US Track listing:
01 It Wasn't My Idea to Dance (Roy Wood)
02 The Minister (Jeff Lynne)
03 Message from the Country (Jeff Lynne)
04 The Words of Aaron (Jeff Lynne)
05 Ben Crawley Steel Company (Roy Wood)
06 Until Your Mama's Gone (Roy Wood)
07 No Time (Jeff Lynne)
08 Ella James (Roy Wood)
09 Don't Mess Me Up (Bev Bevan)
10 My Marge (Jeff Lynne-Roy Wood)
UK Track listing
01 Message From The Country (Jeff Lynne)
02 Ella James (Roy Wood)
03 No Time (Lynne)
04 Don’t Mess Me Up (Bev Bevan)
05 Until Your Mama’s Gone (Wood)
06 It Wasn’t My Idea to Dance (Wood)
07 The Minister (Lynne) – 4:27
08 Ben Crawley Steel Company (Wood)
09 The Words of Aaron (Lynne)
10 My Marge (Lynne-Wood)