Message From the Country Remaster

New details on the upcoming Message From the Country remaster have been released by EMI Germany.

Scheduled for release in the UK on September 5, 2005, the remastered, expanded edition celebrates the 35th anniversary of The Move (Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan) signing to EMI Records. It features the complete Message From The Country album, remastered for the first time ever from the original master tapes at Abbey Road Studios.

The expanded edition will also include a treasure trove of material, most of which has not been released in years:

The Move’s EMI single hits (written by Roy Wood)

Tonight (no.11)

Chinatown (no.21)

California Man (no.9 – The Move’s final single)

B-sides (written by Jeff Lynne):

Down On The Bay

Do Ya (The Move’s only hit in America and later a hit for ELO)

Newly discovered and previously unheard session outtakes and a previously unreleased full-length session version of Do Ya

Compiled and researched ELO & Move archivist Rob Caiger, along with members of the Move, the package will be accompanied by an illustrated 24-page booklet containing in-depth sleeve notes by John Van Der Kiste, band interviews, previously unpublished photographs, rare artwork & more.

The tracklisting is as follows:
1. Message From The Country
2. Ella James
3. No Time
4. Don’t Mess Me Up
5. Until Your Moma’s Gone
6. It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance
7. The Minister
8. Ben Crawley Steel Company
9. The Words Of Aaron
10. My Marge

Bonus tracks:
11. Tonight (3.17)
12. Chinatown (3.06)
13. Down On The Bay (4.14)
14. Do Ya (4.38)
15. California Man (3.35)
16. Don’t Mess Me Up (Alternate version) (previously unreleased) (3.20)
17. The Words Of Aaron (Alternate version) (previously unreleased) (6.03)
18. Do Ya (Alternate version) (previously unreleased) (4.29)

Hidden track:
My Marge (Session version) (previously unreleased) (2.12)

Sally - Freelance Writer

Bob Dylan Bootleg Series - Volume 7

"No Direction Home: The Soundtrack," the seventh installment in the Dylan "Bootleg" series, will be released Aug. 30, 2005 and be available to all retailers, including Starbucks. The two-disc Columbia/Legacy set serves as the soundtrack to "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," a full-length biography on Dylan produced by Martin Scorsese. The film will debut on PBS's "American Masters" series in late September. Volume 7 includes key songs in the Scorsese project as well as previously unreleased material from 1961-1964.


Sally - Freelance Writer

New Bob Dylan Album To be Sold Exclusively at Starbucks

According to Billboard magazine: "Starbucks has nabbed the exclusive first rights to sell "Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962," an album of newly restored live recordings culled from Dylan's performances at the New York cafe. The 10-song CD hits more than 4,400 Starbucks' locations in North America on Aug. 30, and will also be available through its Web site. The exclusivity window lasts 18 months. Bootleg versions of the shows have circulated among fans for years, but the Aug. 30 release marks the first time a sanctioned release has occurred. Among the tracks are the earliest surviving live recording of "Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice It's Alright."

Starbucks Entertainment president Ken Lombard says he hopes there are more such projects to come. "Our plans with Bob Dylan go beyond this," he says, although he adds there is no other project already in the works. "We've always been huge Dylan fans. We see him as a legend and one of the most socially conscious artists out there. This will hopefully be the first of many things we can do with Dylan."

Sally