50th Anniversary Album Spotlight
Ram
Paul & Linda McCartney
Released May 17, 1971
Chart debut: June 5, 1971
Chart peak: #2 (August 21, 1971)
#450 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020)
Wiki said:
Ram is the only studio album credited to English musician Paul McCartney and his wife Linda McCartney, released in May 1971 by Apple Records. It was recorded in New York with guitarists David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken, and future Wings drummer Denny Seiwell. Three singles were issued from the album: "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (Paul McCartney's first number 1 hit in America without the Beatles), "The Back Seat of My Car" and "Eat at Home". The recording sessions also yielded the non-album single "Another Day".
The album's release coincided with a period of bitter acrimony between McCartney and his former Beatles bandmates, and followed his legal action in the United Kingdom's High Court to dissolve the Beatles partnership. John Lennon perceived slights in the lyrics to songs such as "Too Many People". Although McCartney felt that he had addressed the criticisms he received with his 1970 solo debut, McCartney, Ram elicited a similarly unfavourable reaction from music journalists. It nonetheless topped the national albums charts in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada. Today, Ram is held in high regard by many music critics and is often ranked as one of McCartney's best solo albums.
That last part is news to me, along with the album having made the radically revised 2020
Rolling Stone list. Paul's only post-Beatles album on the 2003 list was
Band on the Run.
According to Peter Brown, the Beatles' former business associate, John Lennon believed that several of the songs on Ram contained personal jibes directed at himself and Yoko Ono, among them "Dear Boy" and, particularly, "Too Many People". McCartney later conceded that some of the lyrics of "Too Many People" had been "a little dig at John and Yoko", with "preaching practices" and "you took your lucky break and broke it in two" being direct references to Lennon. Brown also described the picture of two beetles copulating on the back cover as symbolic of how McCartney felt the other Beatles were treating him. George Harrison and Ringo Starr were said to interpret the track "3 Legs" as an attack on them and Lennon. According to McCartney, "Dear Boy" was directed at Linda's ex-husband, and not Lennon.
The back cover:
The album opens on a sobering note with Paul's most direct dig at John, "Too Many People"...which could be seen as a return salvo for things that John said in his
Rolling Stone interview and sang on
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band:
Too many people going underground
Too many reaching for a piece of cake
Too many people pulled and pushed around
Too many waiting for that lucky break
That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you?
You broke it in two
Rolling Stone magazine rated "Too Many People" to be McCartney's 3rd greatest post-Beatles song.
(This list is also news to me. I may have to check it out.)
With that as a kick-off, and the aforementioned back cover photo, it's only natural that Paul's former bandmates read more into the rest of the album's contents. That they believed "3 Legs" to be directed at the lot of them sounds like a reasonable assumption to me.
Well, when I thought, well, I thought
When I thought you was my friend
(When I thought that I could call you my friend)
When I thought, well, I thought
When I thought you was my friend
(When I thought that I could call you my friend)
But you let me down
Put my heart around the bend
The promotional videos for this song and "Heart of the Country" were filmed in January 1971.
Things get a little more innocent with
"Ram On," a harmless little ukulele ditty that may have literally been inspired by the sheep on Paul's farm...though I recall reading somebody's speculation that it was more about himself, and the title phrase was a double entrendre for "Paul Ramon," an alias that originated during the Beatles' 1960 stint touring Scotland as Long John & the Silver Beatles. Fun fact: Paul's alias, which he continued to use to check into hotels and such, inspired the name of a certain pioneering punk group...!
As noted above, Paul's target for
"Dear Boy" was Linda's ex, for whom the lyrics make a lot more sense than they do for John.
Side one climaxes with the moneymaker, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," the first chart-topper of Paul's post-Beatles career (charted Aug. 14, 1971; #1 US the week of Sept. 4, 1971; #9 AC)...which, reminiscent of the
Abbey Road medley, consists of several song fragments artfully woven into a greater whole:
The New York Philharmonic was brought in by McCartney to play on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", "Long Haired Lady" and "The Back Seat of My Car", as well as the McCartneys' forthcoming, non-album single "Another Day".
The album version of the above song transitions into side one's closer,
"Smile Away"...an otherwise enjoyably funky little fuzz bass-laden rocker that's marred by lyrics about smelly feet and other bodily odors. Note the little nod to the Four Seasons toward the end.
Side two opens on a pleasantly bucolic note with "Heart of the Country":
Martha...
The song has...an unusually mellow sound to the acoustic guitar that was achieved by tuning all of the strings a full step lower than standard pitch....The song reflects Paul's heading for the Scottish countryside to escape the headaches associated with the Beatles' break-up at the time.
In 2013, Rolling Stone rated "Heart of the Country" at number 26 in its list of Paul McCartney's best post-Beatles songs.
The playful
"Monkberry Moon Delight" takes us on a slightly proto-punkish turn to my ear, and exhibits a penchant for nonsense lyrics that Paul will go full-throttle with on the first Wings album,
Wild Life.
The McCartneys' daughter Heather, who had been adopted by Paul the previous year, sang backing vocals on "Monkberry Moon Delight".
Paul channels his idol and future song publishing acquisition Buddy Holly in
"Eat at Home," which did well as a single in many countries, but wasn't released as such in the US or UK.
Although John Lennon was highly critical of many of the songs on Ram...he publicly admitted that he enjoyed this particular song quite a bit.
"Long Haired Lady" is an ode to...well, anybody who's been paying attention can figure that out.
Although [the album] was a collaborative project, Linda's vocal duties were mostly limited to singing harmonies and backing Paul, who sang almost all of the lead parts. Linda sang co-lead on "Long Haired Lady".
Paul hearkens back to the heady days of Pepperland by penultimating with a short reprise of an earlier song on the album,
"Ram On (Reprise)," which ends with a song fragment that will be repurposed two albums hence as the intro of "Big Barn Bed," the opening track of
Red Rose Speedway.
The album closes with its most romantic number, "The Back Seat of My Car," which dates back to the
Get Back sessions and got to #39 as a single in the UK:
According to McCartney, this song and other car-based songs in his late-Beatles and early solo career, such as "Two of Us" and "Helen Wheels," were inspired by the long road trips he and Linda used to take as the Beatles were breaking up.
John Lennon felt that this song, among others on the album, was directed critically towards him; in particular, he perceived the protagonists who sing "We believe that we can't be wrong" to be himself and Yoko Ono.
Alright, John, now you're just being paranoid.
Upon its release, Ram was poorly received by music critics. McCartney was particularly hurt by the harsh reviews − especially as he had attempted to address the points raised in criticism of his earlier album, McCartney, by adopting a more professional approach this time around....His fellow ex-Beatles, all of whom were riding high in critical favour with their recent releases, were likewise vocal in their negativity.
Delving deeper into the Wiki article, though, it seems that there's been a movement among fans and critics to herald this as a stronger / more definitive album that it was reputed to be for the first few decades of its life...which includes going so far as to retroactively classify it as an example of "indie pop," a genre that didn't exist yet when it came out. Now I've been a Paul fan for decades...I've long been the guy who took guilty pleasure in his spottier solo work, right down to the generally reviled (last I checked, anyway)
Wild Life. While
Ram is generally a good, enjoyable listen...and I'd argue that the stronger of its tracks would have been perfectly at home on a latter-era Beatles album...I'm not sold that this one is "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" material. Like most of Paul's early solo work, it makes a case for how he needed John as his bullshit filter and rival for album space; and while
Ram is more polished and even than its predecessor,
McCartney, it lacks that album's funky, homemade charm.
_______
Sounds like the 1800s.
Doesn't sound as bad as I was afraid it would, but it's an odd combo...bubblegummy Tommy Roe doing a song about a murder.
I don't think I've heard this before, but it's very nice.
A barely-charter from another entry in the 1971 album pileup. I was just reading how it was about spending time in a hippie community in Crete with a boyfriend Joni had right after she broke up with Graham Nash.
It's more evident on my master shuffle with the album material, but CSN(Y) have a huge presence in this period. The stuff that's not theirs, you could play three degrees of separation from David Crosby.
Karen Carpenter. 'nuff said.
A major hit of theirs that I wasn't familiar with before I got it.
This one, OTOH, I remember being out and about when I was one those children. I'm not sure what the deal is with it showing up on the actual chart as a double A-side, but having its own chart info according to Wiki and Music VF. Anyway, this was the title song of a film, and was an Academy Award nominee for Best Song. POP QUIZ: What did it lose to?
Take that, pundits.
But I'm getting a bit ahead of things, as I haven't done my
Revolver (US edition) review yet.
I respect the right of other people to enjoy Frank Sinatra.
I don't know what your deal is with Frank, but you've expressed a liking for things that were much more granny-friendly.
Interesting. It never occurred to me, either, and I don't recall hearing anything about it.
FWIW, the song's Wiki article only passingly touches upon the "69" association, stating that ? (Rudy Martinez) denied having retitled the song from "69 Tears".
Do we know why? They did it plenty of times in the comics.
I could only speculate. It could just be the logistics/staging of it...in modern superhero films, there's always a hard edit when a hero takes their mask off. The Green Hornet and Kato's TV masks were literally worn like glasses (which doesn't seem like great secret ID security). But I also have the funny notion that maybe, just maybe, the show was trying to maintain some plausible deniability about Bruce and Dick being Batman and Robin, for viewers so young that they couldn't read the literal signposting.
I had the Decades Binge on in the wee hours this morning and spotted Farrah Fawcett in a 1969 episode of
Mayberry R.F.D., which turns out to be her first role listed on IMDb.
We lost Don Everly a few days ago as well.
Perhaps the Tops' most iconic number, and their only triple #1 on the Hot 100, R&B, and UK charts.
