ELO Secret Messages HALF SPEED MASTER CBS JEFF LYNNE Mastersound AUDIOPHILE

$

38

ELO Secret Messages (Half Speed Mastered)
NM/NM Audiophile Vinyl Record

Record Label: Columbia CBS Mastersound HZ 48490

This Original Master Recording was made using the half-speed production process. The pressing was sourced from the original stereo master tapes. Produced by Columbia in the 1980s in very few quantities and are very collectable today.

Record jacket is in great shape... Looks like new. Vinyl is glossy and shiny to the eye. Plays beautifully.

Side One
1. Secret Messages    
2. Loser Gone Wild     
3. Bluebird     
4. Take Me On And On

Side Two
5. Four Little Diamonds    
6. Stranger    
7. Danger Ahead    
8. Letter From Spain    
9. Train Of Gold    
10. Rock 'n' Roll Is King

Review: The record was originally planned to be a double album. This version of the album was digitally recorded and was to have been ELO's first compact disc. Six of the songs from the intended double album would appear as B-sides and reappear on the Afterglow box set in 1990, including a string-laden eight minute long tribute to the band's home town (Birmingham) entitled "Hello My Old Friend". Some of the tracks reappeared on the 2001 re-issue of the album. "Endless Lies", which had been altered for its inclusion on the subsequently-released Balance of Power album, appears in its original 1983 form on the 2001 remaster of this album.

Secret Messages, as its title would suggest, was littered with hidden messages in the form of backmasking, some obvious and others less so. This was Lynne's second tongue-in-cheek response to allegations of hidden Satanic messages in earlier Electric Light Orchestra LPs by Christian fundamentalists which led up to early 1980s American congressional hearings (a similar response had been made by Lynne on the Face the Music album, during the intro to the "Fire On High" track). In Britain the cover of Secret Messages has a mock warning to youth about the hidden messages. Word of the album's impending release in the United States caused enough of a furor to cause CBS Records to delete the cover blurb there.[5]

Louis Clark returned to conduct the strings once more and violinist Mik Kaminski appeared on an ELO recording for the first time since 1977's Out of the Blue, playing a violin solo on the track "Rock 'n' Roll Is King." On completion of this album Jeff Lynne dismissed bassist Kelly Groucutt. Groucutt later sued for alleged lost royalties and received a settlement out of court.

Three singles were released from the album in the UK: "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", the title track, and "Four Little Diamonds". In the US, "Rock 'n' Roll Is King", "Four Little Diamonds", and "Stranger" were issued. "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" would be the band's last UK Top 20 hit. The song "Letter from Spain" was used as backing music in commercials for the Games of the XXV Olympiad, held in 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

SHIPPING

Shipping to the USA is $4.00 to ship by USPS Media Mail with Delivery Confirmation unless marked as "Free Shipping," then there is no charge. Additional records paid for and shipped at the same time are $2.00 each.

International Shipping is based solely on weight and can be sent First Class International, Priority International or International Express. First Class International is NOT available for any package over four pounds in weight, over $100.00 value or any package to the country of Italy.