Customer Reviews

Ram

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a real hard album for me to even write about. But I got my hands on a remastered copy this week... and... BAM. There it was again: those melodies... those creeping, effortlessly-written, sensual melodies, jamming every song until they are overflowing with sound... I mean, does it really get any better with Paul?

A quick glance of the reviews here makes me sick. "Not as good as John's 'Imagine'.." "they spent too much time on the farm"... "too whimsical"... bah! What a legacy he had to uphold! And even from supposed Professional Beatleologists! But here he does it with grace and style and a fantastic sense of what needs to go on in a perfect pop song. Truly, there aren't any better pop songs on one single Beatle-related album than "Ram".

The influence of this record is still being felt. You could uphold the entire post-90's indie-pop scene (from Elephant 6 and their cadre all the way up to the new crop of SubPop poppy singers a la Fruit Bats and Long Winters) and trace it to "Ram". That a whole new, younger generation of fans has discovered the fountain of melody within pleases the heck out of me.

"Long Haired Lady", "Back Seat of My Car", and "Uncle Albert" are pure Paul pop masterpieces each. The hidden ditties, "Ram On", "Smile Away", "Eat At Home", are all essential in the context of the whole thing. "Dear Boy" and "Heart of the Country" are so fantastic in their simplicity and confidence you could almost see him writing them in literally minutes. The whole thing is just excellent... tasty pop good-naturedness that it's almost unbelievable that he would put that photo on the back cover. He didn't need to. This album alone would have provoked a good enough response from John so as to make any photo irrelevant. (And for the record, I find "Imagine" to be a pretty decent album, but not a melodic one at that, sort of disturbing and hard to follow, and highly impersonal at that.)

This is definitely the best Sunday Morning album ever recorded and one of my top 5 Beatles-related records of all time. It never loses its sweetness. Highly recommended.

I've always liked this album. I bought it in 1971 when it came out and thought that it was a sophisticated well written album with a few clunkers. Time hasn't changed that assessment. Yes, there is whimsy and, yes, there is garbage but, all in all, it sounds terrific. The songs appear to be about nothing but....take a second look at some of the pointed lyrics written about his former band mates. McCartney also makes observations about politics, goes on a little road trip about sex and romance. He also examines the serenity of down home living. Is it a deep album? No, but that wasn't its intention. Here is a bit of trivia for those interested. "Ram on" appears to be a throwaway title when, in fact, it refers to the pseudonym Paul used during the Beatles' early days--Paul Ramon. So, the song is a very personal fragment written about his salvation--Linda. It is every bit as infectious as "Oh Yoko" and any of John's other love songs. My only complaint--"Back seat of my car" is a great song and the production is very good, but the orchestration is overkill. This is where the tasteful string arranging skills of George Martin would come in handy(I think Paul realized this himself when, in later years, he repeatedly returned to Sir George for arrangments). Macca has taken a lot of critical drubbing, but it's time for a critical reassessment of his work. Yes, he recorded a lot of crap(WINGS AT THE SPEED OF SOUND), but at his best he is virtually unmatched as a tunesmith. Oh, one other thing--he's still a great rock'n' roll shouter.

Released in May of 1971, this is Paul McCartney's second 'solo' LP, preceding his formation of the band 'Wings' for the 'Wild Life' album. It's a one-hundred percent improvement on his mediocre self-titled 'debut' album. Although 'Ram' did yield a number one hit for McCartney, the lush 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey', that song is far from the best song in the 'Ram' collection. That simple fact is instructive about the high quality of the album, which is solid from start to finish. And while wife Linda receives co-billing with McCartney on the album cover and in the song credits, and despite some endearing background vocals from her, Linda's contributions are surely overstated here, most likely as another swipe at Paul's ex-collaborator John Lennon.

'Ram' is, if nothing else, a fun collection of witty pop and rock songs. It most likely was intended as nothing more than that. While its style would certainly encourage John to continue ravaging Paul's productions for their pop sensibilities and 'meaninglessness' relative to his own crusades for peace and justice in the world, Paul's work probably produced a lot more peace and joy than John ever Imagined (pun intended). The songs on 'Ram' are not simply bouncy dance music, but bouyant numbers that bring pleasant and comforting images to heart and mind. Songs such as '3 Legs', 'Smile Away', 'Monkberry Moon Delight' and 'Eat At Home' are just a joy to experience, while the lighter fare, such as 'Heart of the Country', 'Long Haired Lady', and 'The Back Seat of My Car' are poignant and touching. There is an incredible mix of sounds, an aural cornucopia, on the production that keeps the listener attentive and interested. While 'Band On the Run' is often heralded as McCartney's best post-Beatles work, this album gives away little ground to that widely acclaimed classic. The only thing lifting 'Band On the Run' over the top of 'Ram' is its unifying theme. The individual songs run a dead heat between the two discs.

Despite the quality of these performances, only 'Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey' has received consistant exposure over the years, which actually contributes to the album aging well and remaining fresh and accessible. After taking hits for the quality of the musicianship on his debut LP, Paul pulled together a slick, professional collection of studio performers for this outing, the most notable of which are future Wing drummer Denny Seiwell, and guitarist Hugh McCracken, who has backed up everyone from Steely Dan to Paul Simon. Also featured is guitarist David Spinozza, who ironically would later contribute to John Lennon's 'Mind Games' LP.

'Ram' rose to number two on the album charts in mid-1971, and remained in the Top 100 for 37 weeks, a testament to its quality despite the widespread panning it received in critical reviews. It's really a shame that McCartney has had to endure so much undeserved criticism over the years for what his music isn't, rather than having his work appreciated for what it is. Being a Beatle certainly had a down-side. But be advised that 'Ram' is as much an unheralded masterpiece as any production associated with a Beatle could be, a disc sure not to collect much dust on whatever shelf it may grace. Paul once remarked that he couldn't understand how anyone could listen to this disc and not enjoy it, and I wholeheartedly agree. It's a five star effort.

After disappointment in some critical and public quarters over the sparseness of McCartney, Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, went into the studio with musicians David Spinoza (guitars), Hugh McCracken (guitars), and future Wings founding member Denny Seiwell (drums). Their aim was to mix the rawness of McCartney with the epic scale of Abbey Road. The resulting album, Ram, divided opinion; either it was a stunning amalgamation of both albums or `Macca' had lost his touch. I happen to think it's the former. Sure there are some thruways tracks present, but Ram is never boring and there are plenty of classics on offerer like Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Too Many People, Home In The Country, and The Back Seat Of My Car. Thankfully, Ram has gotten a reappraisal during the last decade or so and deserves a high spot in the McCartney/Wings catalogue. This remaster also includes as extra tracks, the first ever Paul McCartney solo single Another Day/ Oh Woman, Oh Why.

Too Many People - One of the songs on this album that John Lennon thought were veiled attacks on him and Yoko Ono. Hearing lyrics like `too many people preaching practices" and "that was your first mistake;You took your lucky break and you broke it in two", it's easy to see Lennon's reasoning. Great guitar work and Linda's backup vocals fit the song snugly. B-Side of the chart topping Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey.

3 Legs - Another supposed anti - Lennon Statement with lyrics like: "When I thought you was my friend . . .but you laid me down, put my heart around the bend". An easy rolling blues tune about `a house on the hill' and `a dog with 3 legs'.

Ram On - A jaunty throwaway track with old time ukulele well present in the mix. McCartney loves to put a mix of past musical styles into his work. Just look at Beatle tracks like when I'm 64, Honey Pie or Your Mother Should Know.

Dear Boy - Supposed third `message to Lennon' Song with a dig at Yoko: "And when you fall in love, dear boy, it won't be half as good as this". Bouncy tune, with sparkling piano high in the mix. Good harmony arrangement.

Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey - Got the to top of the charts on September 4, 1971, and I for one am not surprised. This is a aural cornucopia of funny British military accents, tempo changes, Brian Wilson-like falsetto and that damn catchy "hands across the water" refrain. The horn arrangement blows me out of the water every time I listen to it!

Smile Away - A Chunky rocker with some more Macca humour for everyone: " I can smell your feet a mile away ". B-side to the first single lifted off Ram, Eat At Home.

Heart Of The Country - A bouncy, countrified number about (what else?) his property in the Scottish Wilds. B-side of the album's second single, Back Seat Of My Car. Cool acoustic guitar and bass work.

Monkberry Moon Delight - McCartney in `vocal chord shredder' mode for this nonsensical romp .One of my favourite's tracks off Ram. At times during this track, it sounds like he's gargling acid!

Eat At Home - Paul, you naughty boy, you! The McCartney's indulge in a little `down home cooking'. Notice the Buddy Holly touch in the backup vocals. First single lifted off Ram.

Long Haired Lady - Lengthy, upbeat ballad dedicated to Linda. Hate her vocals on this track, though. Diverse guitar prevalent all through this song.

Ram On (Reprise) - A short reprise of track 3, that collapses near the climax.

The Backseat of My Car - Second single lifted from Ram (released 13 August, 1971). Great ballad about sex in the backseat of the car, and driving for the fun of it. Speeds up near the end and then returns to the original pace at the climax. Great song; it should have gotten higher on the charts than it did.

Another Day - First Paul McCartney single ever released. Lennon derided it as `rehash', but I happen to think it's a unique and insightful portrait of humdrum suburbia. Great tempo change for the two codas.An extra track for this reissue. Got to the top ten of both the U.S.A. and the U.K.

Oh Woman, Oh Why - Another voice shredder from Paul and B-side of Another Day. This slight track reminds me strongly of The White Album's Why Don't We Do It in The Road?

I own every single album Paul ever recorded, and this one is certainly the most ignored. Considering this is only his 3rd solo effort, the progression of Paul here as a singer, songwriter and producer is astonishing. Most notable is the mixing of this album, with strange echo effects attached to the vocals as well as Paul's placing of microphones in weird places for other instruments. This album features a strange stew of music styles, but Paul carries it off and delivers his most "throat-y" vocal delivery EVER on "Monkberry Moon Delight." An experimental triumph for Paul (he recorded an instrumental, big-band version of this album in 1978, re-titled as "Thrillington".) A must have for die-hard Mecca fans.

To me, "Band on the Run" is Paul's technically best and most even album. But "Ram" is my favorite. Listen to it!

"Ram" is listenable, catchy, and fun almost throughout -- with one glaring exception, which I will mention later. Nowhere else can you find Paul's underrated sense of humor so much in evidence. The end of the Beatles period found Paul's growing artistry and independence chafing at the restrictions of Beatlehood, and "Ram" (after the growing pains of his first solo work, "McCartney") displays his creativity at full throttle.

There's "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", a huge single in 1971. It's actually three songs woven together, a curious precursor to the song "Band on the Run" recorded two years later. The creativity, humor, and catchiness of "Uncle Albert" are characteristic of the atmosphere which pervades the rest of the album.

Two tracks stand out as hysterically funny: the rocker "Smile Away" (always one of my favorites) and the pulsing barroom sound of "Monkberry Moon Delight". You can't help but grin when you give them a good listen. Paul's bass propels "Smile Away" as his piano propels "Monkberry Moon Delight", and you can almost hear his tongue planted firmly in his cheek with both distinctive vocal styles. It took me years to finally *get* "Monkberry Moon Delight" -- but once I did, I was hooked, and now I love listening to that song.

Equally striking in "Ram" is the breadth of styles and, yes, production techniques you'll find. The sardonic anger of "Too Many People", with killer guitar solos. The light, bluesy simplicity of the acoustic "Heart of the Country". The dense, layered "Dear Boy" which contains more music in 2:14 than songs three times its length. These are three obscure and underrated classics which deserve your attention.

You will hear all kinds of experimentation: with guitar, with early electronic sounds, with vocal arrangements, with percussive sounds, with keyboards. If you're looking for one place to hear them all: try the oddly inviting, six-minute "Long-Haired Lady" -- a pastiche of sounds whose creativity barely rescues it from being too soppy.

To me, the sore thumb on this album is the closer, "The Back Seat of My Car" -- maudlin, overproduced, gooey, and yet adolescent, and never seeming to hit its mark. It seems Paul wanted a big, orchestral ending to the album ... but I think he chose the wrong tune for the task. These four-and-a-half minutes would have been better served by a different song.

In the end, though, "Ram" is best defined by its musical hooks. And no one -- NO ONE -- wrote better hooks than Paul McCartney at his best. You will hum and you will whistle and you will wag your head and you will tap your feet. It's not "classic rock", thankfully. But it is very, very good. And lots of fun. Worth twice the price.

Not only McCartney's best album but probably the best solo album by any ex-Beatle. To echo a previous poster's comment, this is a far superior piece of work to the 'Band On The Run'.

This album has never been off my playlist since I bought it on the day of release in 1971. It has withstood the test of time and the vagaries of musical fashions and changing tastes.

As much musical variety as any Beatles album with a breadth of melodic invention and more top class musical hooks than most artists manage in their entire career. Heck, the track 'Back seat of My Car' on its own contains more superb hooks than most performers manage in a career!

Forty-odd minutes of musical genius that completely blows apart the myth that McCartney "lost it" after the break up of The Beatles.

Paul has had a spectacular solo career, with the occasional inevitable flops. But RAM is a fantastic album from start to finish. The album is just bursting with creativity, as each song is wildly different from the one before it. "Too Many People" is a rocking good song; "Dear Boy" is simply gorgeous, and "Backseat of my Car" is absolutely magnificent. I could go through every song, but instead I'll just say that this album is one of Paul's best albums, and I hope you give it a listen.

Without a doubt, this is the most comprehensive and enjoyable album that Paul McCartney ever made on his own. Linda adds some nice background vocals without being overbearing, and Paul is his usual witty self while also throwing in some slow and reflective tunes (Heart of the Country, one of my favorites). There are a lot of songs that remind me of the stuff he did on the White Album, so I think thats about all I need to say. Its great. If you like the Beatles (which of course you do), this album will not dissapoint.

Paul went all out on "Ram," showcasing his immense songwriting, vocal, and instrumentalist gifts. He exhibits his skill at singing raspy screamers in "Monkberry Moon Delight" but can turn on a dime and sing so sweetly in "Heart of the Country." He has so many colorations that his singing can bring a song to the next level. Think of the amazing fade-out in "Hey Jude," and you'll know what I mean. He truly was one of our greatest pop singers. (His voice seemed to show some of the ravages of time by the mid-'80s, but he still is a fantastic singer.) Paul also shows his mastery of harmony in many of the songs in "Ram," with the layered vocals of "Dear Boy" being just one example.

Listen also to Paul's melodic and energetic bass-playing in "Too Many People," a reminder of the great bass lines he laid down in fast Beatle's songs such as "I Saw Her Standing There."

One thing I like about "Ram" is that it has a warm, inviting sound. In that sense, it is like "McCartney." But "Ram" also has a rich, textured sound, that manages to avoid sounding too busy. In this sense, "Ram" is very much like some of the Beatles' recordings from "Sgt. Peppers" onward. What's more, Paul wrote very strong songs for "Ram," from quirky gems such as "Ram On" to great rockers such as "Too Many People" to the Beatle-esqu "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." In song after song, Paul finds great grooves and hooks.

"Ram" is not a flawless album. "3 Legs" is rather tepid, cliched blues until it hits its stride in a brief section where the tempo changes and it really grooves. Also, Paul drags the fade-outs too long in "Smile Away," "Monkberry Moon Delight" and "Long Haired Lady." And "The Back Seat of My Car" is a delightful song, but its lyrics sound as sentimental and contrived as a bad made-for-TV movie. Finally, there is something slightly claustrophobic about much of the album's lyrical content. So many songs are about how great Linda is and how great it is being at home with her in the countryside. Every relationship has its ups and downs, and Paul's one-sided presentation of their relationship almost seems calculating, like a politician trying to court favor by trotting out the wife for campaign stops. We expect honesty from an artist, and it would have been nice if at least one song had been about a fight between them or something of that sort. You can't help but to miss John's emotional honesty and biting humor. And one other thing: John was a better singer than Linda.

Here are two interesting historical factoids. First, "Ramon" was Paul's pseudonym when he wanted to play uncredited on other people's albums, so he is addressing himself when he sings, "Ram on, give your heart to somebody...." Finally, Linda gets cowriting credit on several songs. John got angry and sued Paul, claiming that this was an attempt to slip around a contractual clause that required Paul to pay a portion of his songwriting proceeds to John. After all, if Paul was only the co-songwriter, then John's financial compensation was split in half. In fact, "Ram" got John angry in many ways. "Too Many People" was, in its own convoluted way, a dig against John, and John also thought that "Dear Boy" and maybe "3 Legs" were aimed against him too, but the lyrics of the last song are so strange it is hard to know. John got his revenge against Paul on the album "Imagine" with "How Do You Sleep at Night?", a direct verbal assault against Paul.