The Move – Great Move!: The Best of the Move

Though released nearly 25 years after the fact, this CD compilation contains the entirety of the Move’s final LP, Message From The Country, along with some B-sides and singles from the same era. Even before ELO was formed and subsequently split up, one can hear that Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood were moving in different musical directions on this album. Lynne’s dreamy “No Time” foreshadows some of the style he would bring to ELO after Wood’s departure, and Wood’s “It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance” focuses again on Wood’s obsession with 50’s rock ‘n’ roll which would become a trademark of his future solo and post-ELO output. This disc also has the Move version of “Do Ya”, which ELO later covered in 1976. There is one song I have to single out for special praise, in a strange way. There’s a reason why Move/ELO drummer Bev Bevan doesn’t sing a whole lot – though if ever there was a call for a deep basso voice in an ELO tune, I’m sure he made his contribution there. But on this album, Bev sang “Ben Crawley Steel Company”, a hysterically funny and decidedly non-politically- correct lament of a hard-up workman who’s losing it all. Take my work for it, it’s terribly amusing, if only for his singing!

1. Message from the Country (4:46)
2. Ella James (3:12)
3. No Time (3:39)
4. Don’t Mess Me Up (3:11)
5. Until Your Moma’s Gone (5:03)
6. It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance (5:28)
7. The Minister (4:27)
8. Ben Crawley Steel Company (3:02)
9. The Words of Aaron (5:25)
10. My Marge (1:59)
11. Tonight (3:17)
12. Chinatown (3:06)
13. Down On The Bay (4:13)
14. California Man (3:35)
15. Do Ya (4:02)

Released by: EMI
Release date: 1994
Total running time: 61:44