Customer Reviews

Moves of Vegetable Centuries

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35 minutes in length approximately. The sound is clean yet retains the warmth of the original release. The folded info sheet lists track info and personnel. There's a synopsis of the group and the era when this album was recorded. The title of the album has mystified listeners since it's original release-but the person responsible (producer Guy Stevens) has passed on-so we'll probably never know.

This is the second (and last) album by TRAMLINE.The personnel has changed slightly since the first album. The band on this set is John McCoy-vocals and harmonica (uncredited),Terry Popple-drums,Mick Moody-guitar,and a new bass player,Colin Hodgkinson. On tracks 3,4,5,and 6 there are two sax players,who help fill in the sound. Someone named "Norman" plays piano occasionally,but his last name remains a mystery.

This album contains the song "Pearly Queen",about as close to a hit as the group had. It rightfully received airplay,due in large part to Moody's guitar playing. The track has a lot of energy,and its easy to see why it was popular during that time. If guitar playing is important to you,the track titled "Grunt" (actually "You Need Love"),is another fine number,with the piano and saxes lending good support to Moody's guitar. Like the first album,there are some well known blues songs-"I Wish You Would" by Billy Boy Arnold,which is played and sung as a straight shuffle-style blues,and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" by Sonny Boy Williamson,which has McCoy's imitation of Williamson's vocal style. The track "Sweet Mary" (recorded by CYRIL DAVIES & THE ALL STARS) is a low down dirty blues,played with great feeling by one of the sax players,and also has some lovely piano fills,with Moody's guitar playing some straight blues licks,along with a bit of slide guitar. An interesting song is "You Better Run", by two members of THE (YOUNG) RASCALS. The final tune,"Harriet's Underground Railway",an original refers to an underground railway for slaves during the Civil War. As is often the case,the music was laid down first,with the vocals put on later-after McCoy thought up some lyrics,which have nothing to do with the title.

Like the first album,this set is for people who like (relatively unknown) English blues bands from the late 60's/early 70's. This album is a bit more "together" than the first,but both sets have something to offer the listener (like me) who likes this era and style of music. Like the first album,this too has the feeling of it's time and place. As I said about the first album,if you can remember record stores,this album gives the feeling of having been bought at your favorite store of the time,and then brought home and slipped onto the turntable. That's not a bad thing because it shows this under-appreciated group made some good music,and was very much of it's time and place-and if you like that era-you might like this band.

Ah! Yes! Blues, rock and a little bit of jazz. I own both Tramline cds, because I own the original vinyls. Moves of Vegetable Centuries, in my opinion, is far better than Somewhere Down the Line. Although "Somewhere" is a great blues lp(CD), "Moves" is an extension of not only blues,but rock as well. Their version of Traffic's Pearly Queen is really,really great and the entire cd will keep you awake. To me, it is truly amazing. I wish there was more than just these two cd's. Guitarist Mick Moody moved on to Juicy Lucy after this and it was really a shame. Although I didn't really care for Juicy Lucy, his work on one of their lp's, "Get A Whiff A This", is really great. It just didn't seem the same as when he was with Tramline. They should have hung around and gone on a little further. Great stuff for both rock and blues.