| Ram | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney | ||||
| Released | 17 May 1971 | |||
| Recorded | Columbia Recording Studio, New York, November - December 1970; A&R Recording Studios, New York, January 1971; Sound Recording Studios, Los Angeles, February - March 1971 |
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| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 43:15 | |||
| Label | Apple, EMI | |||
| Producer | Paul and Linda McCartney | |||
| Paul McCartney chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ram | ||||
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Ram is an album by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, released in 1971, the only album credited to the pair. It was the second of the two albums McCartney released between leaving The Beatles and forming Wings. Future Wings drummer Denny Seiwell plays on the record, alongside the McCartneys and session musicians.
Three singles were released from the album - the American #1 hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", the minor British hit "The Back Seat of My Car" and "Eat at Home", which was not released in either the United Kingdom or the United States.
Contents |
After the release of the successful debut McCartney, Paul and Linda went on a lengthy holiday and spent much time on their farm on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland. It was during this period that Paul, often with Linda's input, composed the songs that would feature on Ram. The couple flew to New York City in the fall of 1970 to record their new songs. Lacking a working band, they held auditions for musicians, bringing some in under the guise of a session to record a commercial jingle.[1] Denny Seiwell was recruited for drums, David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken were tapped for guitar duties, and Marvin Stamm was featured on flugelhorn on "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". Although it was a collaborative project, Linda's vocal duties were mostly limited to backing Paul, who sang most lead vocals. Linda sang co-lead vocals on "Long Haired Lady", however. The sessions also birthed future songs like "Dear Friend," released on the debut Wings album Wild Life later in 1971, as well as "Get on the Right Thing", "Big Barn Bed" (opening lines of which can be heard on "Ram On (Reprise)"), and "Little Lamb Dragonfly", all of which would be finished for 1973's Red Rose Speedway.
By early 1971, the project was completed with the non-album "Another Day"/"Oh Woman, Oh Why" single — McCartney's first after The Beatles — which was released that February and became a worldwide Top 5 hit. In May, Ram was unveiled.
Despite the phase-out of monaural albums by the late 1960s, Ram was pressed in mono (MAS 3375) with unique mixes which differ from the common stereo album (SMAS 3375). These were only made available to radio stations and are among the most valuable and sought-after of Paul McCartney's solo records.[1][2]
Apart from the released songs from Ram, McCartney also recorded the following songs during the Ram-sessions:
According to Peter Brown, John Lennon believed that songs on Ram included jibes at him in the lyrics, including "Too Many People" and "Dear Boy".[3] Brown also described the picture of two beetles copulating on the back cover as a description of how McCartney felt the other Beatles were treating him.[3] McCartney later said that only two lines in "Too Many People" were directed at Lennon. "In one song, I wrote, 'Too many people preaching practices,' I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn't anything else on [Ram] that was about them. Oh, there was 'You took your lucky break and broke it in two.'"[4]
Lennon's response was the song "How Do You Sleep?" on his Imagine album.[3] Early editions of Imagine included a postcard of Lennon pulling the ears of a pig in a parody of Ram's cover photograph of McCartney holding a ram by the horns.[5]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [6] |
| Blender (magazine) | link |
| Robert Christgau | C+ [7] |
| Rolling Stone | (negative) [8] |
| This table needs to be expanded using prose. See the guideline for more information. | |
"The Back Seat of My Car" was excerpted as a UK single from Ram that August, only reaching #39, but the US release of the ambitious "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" would prove much more successful, giving McCartney his first #1 single after The Beatles.
The album reached #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, where it spent over five months in the Top 10 and went platinum. The album has sold over two million copies.[9]
At the time of its release, the album was given a mixed critical reception, and Paul was particularly stung by some of the harsher reviews. Jon Landau in Rolling Stone labeled it "incredibly inconsequential" and "monumentally irrelevant"[8], while Playboy opined, "you keep wondering why he bothers." However, after the passage of several years, critics began favorably revising their earlier opinions. By the 1980s, for instance, Rolling Stone began hailing the album as one of McCartney's best, and retroactively awarded it four (of five) stars.
In 1977, McCartney supervised the release of an instrumental interpretation of Ram (recorded in June 1971 and arranged by Richard Hewson) with the release of Thrillington under the pseudonym of Percy "Thrills" Thrillington.
Ram was first issued on compact disc in 1987. In 1993, the album was remastered and reissued on CD as part of "The Paul McCartney Collection" series with "Another Day" and "Oh Woman, Oh Why" as bonus tracks. That same year Digital Compact Classics released an audiophile edition prepared by Steve Hoffman. The mono mix has never been issued on compact disc, except by bootleggers.[1]
In 2009, two tribute albums featuring all of the songs from Ram were made available for digital download. Ram On L.A. was compiled by the website Aquarium Drunkard and featured Los Angeles-based acts; Tom was put together by New Jersey radio station WFMU DJ Tom Scharpling and included Aimee Mann and Death Cab for Cutie, among others.[10] On 3 December 2010, Juliens Auctions sold the only known remaining acetate of Ram for $1536.00.[11]
The album is planned for reissue in 2012 with the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series.
| Side one | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 1. | "Too Many People" | Paul McCartney | 4:10 | ||||||
| 2. | "3 Legs" | P. McCartney | 2:44 | ||||||
| 3. | "Ram On" | P. McCartney | 2:26 | ||||||
| 4. | "Dear Boy" | P. McCartney, Linda McCartney | 2:12 | ||||||
| 5. | "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 4:49 | ||||||
| 6. | "Smile Away" | P. McCartney | 3:51 | ||||||
| Side two | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 7. | "Heart of the Country" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 2:21 | ||||||
| 8. | "Monkberry Moon Delight" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 5:21 | ||||||
| 9. | "Eat at Home" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 3:18 | ||||||
| 10. | "Long Haired Lady" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 5:54 | ||||||
| 11. | "Ram On" | P. McCartney | 0:52 | ||||||
| 12. | "The Back Seat of My Car" | P. McCartney | 4:26 | ||||||
| Bonus tracks on 1993 reissue | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 13. | "Another Day" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 3:41 | ||||||
| 14. | "Oh Woman, Oh Why" | P. McCartney, L. McCartney | 4:36 | ||||||
Chart positions
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Year-end charts
Certifications
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| Preceded by Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones |
Norwegian VG-lista number-one album 25-27/1971 29-35/1971 |
Succeeded by Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones Pearl by Janis Joplin |
| Preceded by Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones |
UK number-one album 5 June –18 June 1971 |
Succeeded by Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones |
| Preceded by Greatest Hits Volume II by The Byrds |
Dutch Mega Chart number-one album 19 June - 26 June, 1971 |
Succeeded by Sticky Fingers by The Rolling Stones |
| Preceded by Tapestry by Carole King |
Canadian RPM Chart number-one album 11 - 18 September, 1971 |
Succeeded by Every Picture Tells a Story by Rod Stewart |