quite a delve (or dive) into the realm of unknown vibes for me recently, then, with a request that i discover, and come to be well versed in the complete works of, a band called Tramline. allowing for some of you finding this off of a google, no, me neither, i had not ever heard of them, look you see. which is a surprise and a shame, for they are (sorry, were) pretty good, and of local to me provenance.
let me put a disclaimer here, mostly because i genuinely and sincerely would not wish to upset or offend anyone. i am claiming to have no immense knowledge of the band Tramline, and this post here is most certainly not intended to be a definitive or conclusive source of information. just, really, my tale of learning of the band, and what i thought of them. with bits of information gathered along the way.
how is it, before i get on to the band, that i discovered then? Dad. from time to time he shall send me a challenge to find a particular tape (disc), be it of music or film. not so long ago he said he doubted it would be possible, but could i have a go at trying to find the only two records recorded by the band Tramline. i said yes, i would give it a go. whereas they were not exactly the cheapest two tapes i had ever bought, they were not all that expensive. in particular not when they were so wished for.
any good? yes, actually. having discovered that they were indeed relatively rare tapes (discs) to find, not to mention of high value (if you find either for under £20 buy them), there was no way i was entrusting them to the postal services without making "back up" tapes. whilst doing that i had a listen, then. not bad at all, but also (to be honest) also easy to pick out why they are not a band as celebrated as certain others from that remarkable decade.
what's the best way to describe the sound? rather tricky, alas. my instinct is to say rhythm and blues rock, but that in the context of how the term used to be used, 60s to say early 90s. at some point in the mid 90s someone appropriated the term, reduced it to "r and b" and made it a reference to crappy, sampled sh!t that had all the rhythm of a sampled beat and for some reason assumed each and every black artist in the world was a blues one. go figure. but still, a solid, tight, talented group of musicians is what one finds in the form of the band Tramline.
perhaps the major issue with the band - and what i suspect is what held them back - is a discernible lack of much in the way of original compositions. looking at the history of the decade, it was early to mid 60s where up and coming bands could, for the most part, get away with covers. for this, consider the early releases of undoubtedly the two biggest of the decade, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. by the time Tramline came along, the expectation was that mostly you did your own songs, with one or two covers if need be. the reverse of that formula is in place across the two records.
oddly (weirdly, perhaps), there is one cover in their set which could well have made the band a much better known name than they are. that would be their take on Traffic's Pearly Queen, which is on the second one, Moves of Vegetable Centuries. it's brilliant, it is. this was recognised at the time, but from what i can gather (from Dad), both the band Traffic and their record label, Island, refused permission for Tramline to release it as a single. a great shame, that.
having mentioned it earlier and also recently (just now) that curious second album name, Moves of Vegetable Centuries. what, exactly, does it mean? some frustration for you here. going on the liner notes, no one actually knows anymore. apparently it was suggested by someone in the studio, i believe the sound engineer, and they actually had a good explanation for it. sadly no one remembered it, and further no one write it down. as the engineer is no longer with us, it's a mystery likely never to be answered.
since liner notes have come up now, two oddities in them across these tapes (discs). on the first album the notes constantly refer to Middlesbrough as "Middlesborough", which is annoying. moving over to notes on the second and they keep referring to someone who hung around with the band, a certain David Coverdale (yes, that one) as being from Redcar. perhaps he was, but every time i have seen an interview with him he states that he is "the most famous person ever from Saltburn". as locals of that place shall freely tell you, Saltburn is absolutely not Redcar.
usually history is written in a way which suits the victors. when asked if The Beatles were the best band in the world (totes) ever, John Lennon would consistently reply that they were "the luckiest". it's normal for books, essays, lists and charts about or pertaining to the 60s to focus on "the big ones", so much so that one could be forgiven for thinking there were only 20 or 30 music acts on the go then. how refreshing, then, to discover some vibes off of a perfectly good band from that era who, for whatever cause or reason, didn't quite make all that big an impact.
it's likely pointless to speculate, what, somewhere around or near 60 (!!) years later, but i cannot help think that, given some time in the studio, Tramline would have created (or rather composed) a few more of their own songs to include. ones that would have been of a standard as high as the covers they seemed to have, by circumstance, been forced to focus on for the sake of getting a record out. maybe that would have brought a bit more success, but there isn't any guarantee that would have been the case. all i can say for sure is that these two albums are very decent, and well worth a listen. if you can find them, but they are probably on that "online" stuff, streaming or what have you.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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