Dave Amitri on Ram
I had to dig deep for the enthusiasm to listen to Ram and the first couple of listens left me preparing a review along the lines of. “I’ve tried, I can’t be bothered, you lot can discuss it amongst yourselves”. Now some of you may have preferred that but unfortunately for you all, I persevered. That perseverance led me to discover something I’ve grown to quite like. Who knows if that will grow into something I love? I think in parts it’s possible but not the whole thing I’m afraid. Parts reminded me of why I’ve always struggled with the idea of Paul McCartney. It’s a bit twee, a bit trying to be too clever, a bit smug, in parts almost embarrassing and then, then he pulls something out of the bag that’s simple, melodic and beautiful. Leaving me wondering why he doesn’t just calm down a bit and leave out some of the other stuff that detracts from his clear, even to an idiot like me, enormous talent for song writing. Whereas Bowie’s occasional over theatrics put my teeth on edge it’s McCartney’s metaphorical wink to camera that says “see how clever I am” that grinds my gears. I don’t have the historical context, apart from a quick Wikipedia search, to fully grasp where he was at professionally and personally at the time. To try and understand if there were external reasons why he was trying so hard. I do absolutely acknowledge though that no one in the history of popular music has had to be Paul McCartney in 1971. Not even Bruce Foxton in 1982, Gary Barlow in 1996 or Louis Tomlinson in 2016 but I suspect there are some parallels to be drawn. It appears Paul McCartney was not the cool one in 1971, probably not even still the pretty one. So how does all that manifest itself on Ram. Let’s see…
Too Many People is a decent start, it’s a bit Beetlebum which is interesting considering that my Wikipedia research tells me it was a dig at John and Yoko. It chugs along and is almost timeless in its overall sound. If Blur had released it in 1996 it would have sounded great. If Ed Sheeran released it today it would work just fine. Everyone would hate it and view it very differently but that’s a conversation for another day but undeniably the line from 1971 Paul McCartney to 2020 Ed Sheeran via 1996 Blur is a very straight and direct one. Linda’s harmonies are lovely and add to the overall sound which I like. It’s actually better than a decent start.
3 Legs is a bluesy, rock ‘n’ roll, Chuck Berry thing that is great if that’s your bag. It reminds you just how close we still were to the genesis of modern popular music in 1971. Johnny B Goode was just 13 years earlier. Plenty happened in the intervening years apparently but it seems Paul remembered what happened before all that. Nothing wrong with going back to your roots and first musical influence. All going well so far.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Ram On. It just sounds like a demo to me, like part of something not quite complete an idea never finished. It has a ukulele and It has some whistling. Ram on…..
Dear Boy is very nearly brilliant. A missive to Linda’s ex-husband pointing out what he missed and what he’s missing. Really, really good harmonies, some great piano but somewhere in there there’s that indefinable McCartney something that makes it all seem a bit, I don’t know, lightweight? It floats, it doesn’t hit. It speaks, it doesn’t spit. It pats, it doesn’t punch. Less a v sign more a thumbs up. So close…
Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey then, and breathe. This actually makes me angry and could well become the definitive McCartney moment for me. This from Wikipedia doesn’t help…
. Among the creative decisions made by Wangberg was the stitching together of two songs to make “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, and the introduction of thunder sound effects to that song; the thunder was taken from a monaural film clip, recorded by Wangberg onto two tracks with small differences to make artificial stereo. Paul and Linda were very happy upon hearing the final album mix.
They were very happy with it! Happy!! So many things here. Let’s start with a positive. I actually think the opening to Uncle Albert is great. McCartney had an opportunity for something really lovely and quite special here. Instead, he throws the kitchen sink at something that just requires a gentle touch. I don’t mind the thunder, it works. There’s some lovely 10CC I’m Not In Love stuff and you think wow this is gorgeous. What happens to Uncle Albert? But then. Blimey, I know it got to number one but The Goons thing? The clunking great segway into Admiral Halsey which could well have been another good song without the god awful oom pah pah’s and Noel Coward impersonations. What the fuck was he thinking? I’m so angry that he managed to mangle one half decent song and one possibly great one. I’m even more angry that so many people chose to buy it and encourage him. Tell me something please. Is this abomination just accepted because it’s Macca? Am I going to be told it’s his masterwork and I really, really don’t know what I’m talking about? It was at this point I almost threw it all in. Fuck me, what a mess. It could have finished him, couldn’t it? It’s everything in one song that has always put me off him but bizarrely with a hint to how he could be so far up my street that he could live next door.
Smile Away has a great 1,2,3,4 intro (there’s a thread in there somewhere) and then is another example of Paul going back to where it all started with a rock n roll shoo wap number that is fairly forgettable in a way that Darts or Rocky Sharpe and The Replays might be.
Heart Of The Country is another ok song that looks back musically. Correct me if I’m wrong but it sounds like it should be an Adam Faith song. Light, breezy and some scatting. Clearly autobiographical and a reflection again of his headspace at the time.
I have no idea what’s going on in Monkberry Moon Delight. It’s a song Elton and Bernie would have dismissed as too ridiculous for Madman Across The Water. I’m guessing it’s an attempt at Americana that probably only succeeded him getting a nasty sore throat. Again if I’ve missed something I’m sure someone will tell me. Someone get that man a lozenge.
From the surreal Monkberry Moon Delight to a Buddy Holly style song depicting the McCartney’s domestic bliss on a wet Tuesday on the farm. Let’s Eat At Home. “Hold on Linda, you put the spuds on I’m going to write a song. This’ll show John.” Nod, wink, smile… Oh Paul.
Long Haired Lady is another literal interpretation of Paul’s immediate life. He clearly wasn’t getting out much. Write about what you know they say. I actually quite like the song. Especially the floaty love is long section that reminds me of The Monkees Porpoise Song and I really like the Hey Jude style extended outro. To be fair it’s a really lovely song. I’m sure as I alluded to when reviewing McCartney there must be loads of words written about Paul and Linda. I just recognise a man totally in love with someone who’s there for him at his time of greatest need. You or I might share that love of our saviour with our nearest and dearest McCartney shares it with the world. In his isolation and seemingly having the world turn on him he’s laying it out there what Linda means to him. For me that’s where the real story lies.
Ram On again? Paul, mate I’ve just shown you enormous empathy and you’ve shoved this in again. Why Paul? Why?
Back Seat Of My Car closes and its my favourite on the album. It’s where he gets the balance spot on. It all works beautifully. His vocal is perfect, no silliness. The music is an ideal accompaniment to the song, no nonsense. It sounds like they’ve found their space. This is where Paul and Linda should be musically and personally. It is absolutely lovely and goes some way to washing away some of the madness that went on earlier.
Just a quick word before I conclude. My Spotify version has Another Day next but it’s not on the original. Why I can’t imagine. Replace some of the rubbish with that and you suddenly have an album that starts to make sense. Seriously how good is Another Day and he didn’t put it on this album. Anyone?
So what a crazy mixed up mixture it is. So Mr McCartney how are you? Bleugh… and out it all comes in a stream of love, retrospect, anger, nonsense, real nonsense and out it goes to the world. As a psychiatrists view into the mind of 1971 Paul McCartney it’s gold, as a music album its so close but maddeningly miles away. Who am I to judge so I’ll just say I like enough of it, really like enough of it to keep going.
Finally in some random act of serendipity Justin Currie has been tweeting his thoughts on The Beatles albums and I noticed this from Help which I’ll just leave here. I can’t really comment on The Beatles but McCartney clearly frustrates even his biggest fans.
Yesterday is easy listening, the antithesis of rock & roll. That’s why it’s followed by the most mental thing the Boys ever did. But not only is Yesterday Paul at his most sentimental worst, it’s oddly the Beatles at their best. The tension is telling.
Great stuff as always. This grew on me over a period of about seven years, and now I think it’s a masterpiece. It should have been monstrously huge like Rumours but no, Joe and Josephine Public had fallen for that cool high-stepping fool David Cassidy.
I’ve never heard this album (or any of its songs), but this review made me chuckle and nod in agreement about the frustrating pick’n’mix that is Sir Paul…which is the reason why I’ve never listened to his solo stuff other than what I’ve heard on the radio and – mostly – disliked.
No, I lie – I’m the proud owner of the “Frog Chorus” single…which I realize will make anything I say about Paul dismissable in the eyes of his many fans, but that’s OK, I won’t charge any extra for it! 😀
I’ve never heard this album and don’t particularly want to but that’s a great piece of writing Jimmy Blue.
If ever there was an album for which the historical context hugely informs the understanding of the nature of the beast, this is it.
If you don’t want smug McCartney don’t ever watch the promo films for Paperback Writer or Hey Jude – he “knows” what he is about to impart to the world is sensational and… erm… it is!
I adore Paul for that.
Ram… hmm… one of the very few solo Fabs’ albums that is quite interesting.
Funnily enough, about 15 years after its release, I didn’t know anyone who didn’t own a copy. Despite its uncertain reputation, or maybe because of it. Must also have been something to do with the vaguely punk cover.
I think it’s too long.
I like “demo” McCartney, if I want professional McCartney I listen to the Beatles.
Favourite songs on the L.P. ?
Ram On / Ram On (Reprise) / Too Many People / Heart of the Country.
Picked up the 2-CD version for £3 in a chazza last year and the bonus CD is terrific – 30 minutes, 8 songs, Another Day, stray B-sides etc. If I ever go near the record again, it’ll be that disc I listen to.
I like all the goonish theatrical stuff in Uncle Albert. If that’s not to your taste, I can’t wait until you reach Venus and Mars / Rockshow, just a few albums down the line!
Context? You want context? Two parts and an interview with Denny Seiwell…
https://play.acast.com/s/nothing-is-real-a-beatles-podcast/nothingisreal-season4episode9-paul-lindamccartney-sram-partone
http://Www.Nothingisrealpod.Com
I will say that when I first got RAM, I did not like it at all and put it aside for many, many years. Eventually it clicked. I think to fully enjoy Paul’s solo career, you do have to let go of that frustration you might have related to its unevenness. You have to get rid of the expectation that it is going to be as much of a solid knockout as Revolver or the White Album. That’s not the point of his solo records. The Beatles were the News, they were what was happening, the solo stuff is different. The bumps in the road become just as interesting because it is all from the same mind of the All my Loving/Hey Jude guy, but the upshot is that it’s a whole lot more personal, that’s the win.
@drj thanks for the response. I remember you saying about this episode. I wanted to do this one without the background to shake it up a bit. Ignorance is my thing after all… I will definitely be listening to this over the next few days. While not all the music has quite hit the spot I am becoming fascinated by the man and his life. It s beyond most of our comprehension what it must have been like to be a Beatle. Never mind a shunned ex Beatle not quite sure what’s going to happen next….
If Paul McCartney had put ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘I want to tell you’ or ‘Love you to’ on a solo record, the record would be derided for its unevenness and sop.
Or imagine if he’d put ‘Why don’t we do it in the road’, ‘Revolution 9’, ‘Wild Honey Pie’, ‘Rocky Raccoon’, ‘Goodnight’ (John’s song, Ringo singing), ‘Don’t pass me by’ on it. I could go on.
McCartney’s ‘Ram’ is a far more consistent masterpiece than either of the two you mentioned. And I would rate ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ and ‘Another Day’ and ‘Back seat of my car’ and a bunch of others as equal to his greatest songs on the White Album.
Would have been nice of George, then at his commercial and critical peak, to have lent Macca a couple of songs to bolster his record to make it more palatable to the rock press of the early 70s.
I love Ram; the freewheeling and patchwork nature of it has aged very well and for Beatle people who weren’t there at the time, like me, it stands as a high point of the post breakup era.
Paul McCartney is a genius of course, but I wish he’d had someone around him to stand up to him and say “you know, maybe leave that one to the Deluxe Edition” at regular intervals. Ram is quite simply mostly brilliant, but that applies to nearly all his records.
In fact, this is something I wish for every brilliant artist in pop history, but there you are.
Spot on.
The Ram Ons and Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey have always annoyed the f**k out of me and Dear Boy is a missed opportunity.
Too Many People and Backseat Of My Car are brilliant and I appreciate the thinking behind the others, including Monkberry Moon Delight, but there is not enough for me to ever have been wowed by this masterpiece.
I wouldn’t say Ram is patchy. It’s very consistent. I like the apparently informal, casual feel. Like his first album that style helps it. Later on he gets more finished and it’s less interesting. That mucking about aspect was in The Beatles too, the Goon Show influence. It was quite the thing in the early 70s too. Having a bit of a laugh. By not being too slick you keep a playful outlook that allows a lot of good possibilities which wouldn’t happen if it was all too professional shall we say.
This, for me, is Macca’s finest post-Beatles moment. In fact it’s probably the finest post-Beatle album by any of the other less pretty ones. (Band on the Run ‘runs’ it close).
I have at least six versions of this record. I love this album so much that I would probably get involved in fisticuffs should anyone ever suggest that my judgement was slightly off in this instance. Because it isn’t.
ALRIGHT?
It’s funny how opposite an opinion someone hears in a record
My favourite 2 tracks on this are Ram on and UA/AH.
The former is a moving little love song but it’s the sound of it- musically it sounds great.
The latter wouldn’t sound out of place on Abbey Road. I get how the second half could annoy but it’s McCartney so it seems to work
Not heard Ram much – I do own it, but like yourself found it tough going and never found the inclination or time to persevere.
Some of it sounded a bit sketchy, not fully realised – a bit like “here’s a bunch of songs I wrote recently”
(granted, its been a few years since I lat heard it all through)
But – am I alone in this? – Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey is the best thing on there
Not entirely.
In 1983 I wasn’t buying much that wasn’t from the 60s obvs but – hey! Corbiere won the Grand National (heard in real time at a QPR-Leicester game with a few hundred others leaning in), game on! – so on the Monday morning it was off to the record shop and I got Wings Greatest.
The two songs that most appealed, and still do from those 12 songs, were Another Day and, yes, Uncle Albert and it wasn’t lost on me that these were the two closest to the 60s – Paul also looked the coolest in those sleeves on the back.
By the end of the week I’d got Ram… well I had the funds.
My memory of the original I got a couple of years later in Barking (£1) is that it had the greenest of all the Apple labels I’ve seen. The Another Day 45 too. I’ll have to check.
I’ve got a vintage Ram and it does indeed have a greener label than average. Also quite a stiff sleeve.
I’ve just noticed on the back that there’s a photograph of two beetles having a shag. Very droll….
If nothing else, Get Back has reminded us that there is no one Paul McCartney in terms of style/genre or anything else…. And therein lies his musical genius. Back in the day, Ram would be heard as a complete album, as Sgt Pepper etc had been before, and so my experience and my enjoyment comes from the whole suite of songs as one. You get everything here, as he tries to move on by himself and different stuff pours out of him. And I love him. For it.
Masterpiece. Love Ram On, it comes from his pseudonym Paul Ramon when he was touring in the “Silver Beetles”, in Scotland ca 1960 I think arguably his greatest post Beatles work, so much going on all over the place. Wonderful melodies, songs of many parts, bizarre lyrics etc Of course it was slammed by critics at the time.
If you are lukewarm on this one you have a difficult few months ahead. Check out B side to Another Day too (Oh Woman Oh Why)
What Dai said. A great album by anyone’s standards. And it’s Beatle Paul for gawdsake. So standards could hardly be higher. Joyous and masterful.
I have loved Ram from the day it was released. I love every moment of every song. It remains the only perfect album by an ex-Beatle. It oozes charm and melody. So there!
Great review and encapsulates what irritates me about Paul. But it has also prompted me to give it another listen after all these years.
The indulgence and patchiness is to be totally expected. Solo records after the compromise of a band, self produced so no one to tell him “this is rubbish” or “this is half finished” or “cut that bit of crap out- it may seem funny after you have had ten joints but not everyone listening to this will be spliffed up”. Remember in Get Back how Paul would just throw off those riffs spontaneously, catchy lines of lyric? A lot of this sounds like those bits but without the following many hours of collaboration to make them excellent songs.
But credit where credit is due, it shows how ahead of his time was Macca that he had a Segway in 1971 .-)
Nobody mentions how Uncle Albert is just a reprise of all that is annoying about Octopus’s Garden. Uncle Albert; Albert bloody Kennedy more like.
Ringo wrote Uncle Albert?
Didn’t say that. But Paul copied the vile echolalia.
Don’t get it. He puts on a strange voice for Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and the whole thing is in about 5 different movements. Octopus’s Garden is a very simple children’s song. George helped out with the writing and Paul is in the band that played it
The echo on the lyrics in one verse, 0k?
OK. Doesn’t make it a reprise of the other song but whatever
Do you mean Yellow Sub by any chance – that I can hear…
Bit of a strange decision to put Back Seat of My Car/Heart of the Country on a 45 so long after the album had come out, and seeing that Uncle Albert had been a U.S. No. 1, I wonder why that wasn’t chosen to be the single in the U.K.?
I agree it was an odd choice for a single. Probably my least favourite song on the LP.
Both great, probably prefer Back Seat myself
Make up your own mind:
“Segue”, Dave.
“Segway” was that electric scooter thing. Didn’t the inventor of that die by driving his over a cliff or something?
I do own this album several times over, but don’t often listen to it.
I was happier with Dave’s version – quite an image.
“I do own this album several times over, but don’t often listen to it.” – AW t-shirt.
See also the BTL comments on SuperDeluxe – “I never liked this artist, but this hugely expensive and absurd reissue has been on this site so I suppose I’d better buy it”
I love this album. Absolutely brilliant.
Highlights would have to be Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Monkberry Moon Delight and Ram On, but it’s all great.
Wondering if the reviewer had the wrong cd in the case?
I always hope that these reviews done from a position of some ignorance and an acceptance that I don’t always hear what others hear are conversation starters. Job done here. Thanks as always for all the comments.
My occasional cock ups, like segway, serve to add to the mundane thoughts. Who can forget Sewing The Seeds Of Love….
Genuinely I say it how I hear it and those that hear Uncle Albert and derive pleasure good luck to you. I enjoy We Are Detective after all. The fact the it remains an earworm capable of depriving me of sleep is probably some jinx I’ve put on myself for not yet worshipping fully at the McCartney altar. What I will say is the stuff I like, I really like which is great for me. On to the next one in August.
I get great pleasure out of the process and it is always added to by the responses, all the responses 🙏
I enjoy reading your impressions. The next one will be something of a challenge, but stay with it (and listen to the 1972 singles before going on to 1973), 2 albums in 71, none in 72, 2 albums in 73
The post-Beatles albums are sometimes an ‘interesting’ listen, as opposed to ‘always entertaining’. It’s worth bearing in mind that by the time Band on the Run came out in 1973, it was McCartney’s fifth album in about three years; Lennon’s output wasn’t dissimilar. By modern standards, this is insane: quality control must’ve been almost impossible to implement.
Adele – and not to say there’s anything particularly wrong about this – has managed four albums by the age of thirty four.
»Quality control«? Depends on your definition of »quality« concerning a work of art.
As can be seen in the comments above, there are wildly differing views on these songs. In the end everyone decides what he LIKES. As Duke Ellington said, »If you like it, it’s good music.«
If McCartney had recorded his first six or seven albums for me, I’d say his »quality control« was pretty good. Same with Ringo’s albums. (Lennon and Harrison? They had no idea what my taste in music would be….)
Absolutely right Fatima. In a poll of most divisive songs it would appear that Uncle Albert would feature quite high on the list. As always its not about whether it’s good or bad it’s about whether you like it or not. It is bloody annoying though 😊
And in the Beatles they were used to coming up with 5 or 6 songs each per record so there was bound to be some weak stuff when they had to fill 2 sides on their own. Exception being George with All Things Must Pass where he filled 4 sides with great material, however he had a huge backlog from not getting more than 2 or 3 on an album in the band. Plastic Ono Band also an exception but John could manage a whole album of stuff when truly inspired.
The Beatles were mostly patchy apart from A Hard Day’s Night. Ram is strong though. The further away they got from their old band the more inspiration was lacking.
I would disagree with that, but A Hard Day’s Night is closest they came to a Lennon solo album. with him being primary writer (and singer) on 9/13 tracks.
Sorry…late to the party Dave! It struck me that, with a couple of exceptions, you gave each track a positive comment and then concluded you didn’t much care for it..? I also disagree that 3 Legs is anything like Chuck Berry, and I always loved Monkberry and Uncle Albert, so I can’t go along with some of your commentary, however I do think this is an album that rewards repeated listening and…spoiler alert…it’s one of his best!
Welcome @NigelT glad you made it. You made me read it back and I get what you mean but I think I was quite clear how much I love it in parts but others just irritate me. Uncle Albert encapsulates that in one song. Not sure if you’ve seen my look at Wild Life yet but I found it a much more complete, coherent and enjoyable album. More McCartney less Macca…
Like others, I appreciate the insight that ‘Ram’ is an album that grows on you. It is. It really is. It has a lot in common with McCartney’s other masterpiece ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard’ in this regard.
I didn’t rate the album at all the first time I heard it. Now, it is the album I think I have listened to more than any other. And I know only two other albums I like more: ‘Sgt Peppers’ and ‘Abbey Road’. It’s hard to choose next between McCartney’s ‘Ram’, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and ‘The White Album’.
I would encourage you to spend some time also listening to the Denny Seiwell/Fernando Perdomo 50th anniversary remake ‘Ram on’. In a few places their remake brings out parts of the songwriting better than in the original. https://open.spotify.com/album/37kVPKyYwj7hgPtp9jRTXk
My favourites from the album are ‘Too many people’, ‘3 legs’, ‘Ram on’, ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’, ‘Heart of the Country’, and ‘Long-haired lady’. There was a time when I didn’t like ‘Smile Away’ and ‘Eat at home’ but I do now.
I largely agree with your comments on ‘Too many people’, ‘3 Legs’ and ‘Back seat of my car’. (The idea that Ed Sheeran might have written ‘Too many people’ strikes me as needlessly provocative though.) I largely agree on ‘Long-haired lady’ other than the jibe about the lyrics. I like the lyrics. They are truthful, and I have no issue with him singing about his love for his lovely wife.
The idea of the beautiful soundscape ‘Ram on’ sounding like a demo makes no sense however. Its production is uber-polished with lush vocal harmonies and swirling piano and Wurlitzer electric piano. No one can miss that. Even John Lennon said he liked this song. I agree that it’s short, but so are a number of songs in the Medley on Abbey Road.
As far as the comments on ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’ I have no idea. This song is a masterpiece, one of best McCartney ever did. So many would agree. To me, it’s equal to his Medley from Abbey Road.
I hope you give the album a second (or maybe third) chance and come to recognise what the rest of us do!
To this I wish to add, I was inspired to research ‘Ram on’ further. The story that Paul took the secret name of ‘Paul Ramon’ in 1960 suggests an explanation of the song’s meaning, most probably a secret message that only John was supposed to understand.
Ram on, give your heart to somebody
Soon, right away, right away
Ram on, give your heart to somebody
Soon, right away, right away
This sets the theme of the entire album, a deeply personal and thematically unified album of Paul’s break with Beatles in favour of his new life with Linda including artistically.
So it’s far from a song fragment, or unfinished demo, and serves the whole much the same way as ‘Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Hand’ did on that great Beatles album.
Yes as songs about deformities go it’s up there with the best.