This Is The Thread Where We Praise And Canonize Paul McCartney's "Ram"

The best songs on FITD have unexpected chord changes, discreet guest appearances (e.g. David Gilmour on "We Got Married") and quite better than average lyrics.

TOW will most likely get the remastering treatment as it was for a while an album so overrated that now it's underrated.

The best thing to do is to find a Macca-obsessed friend and ask him to burn a free-ranging CD-R: b-sides, album tracks, single mixes. That's what I got in 2001.

btw "No More Lonely Nights" is a real corker, his best of the eighties ("Press" is second, duh).

i wonder which others could possibly now come out in like six CD box sets with replica t shirts for 200 quid. Band On The Run is really the only other one guess.

xp at one point tug of war was his only 5 star album on allmusic. i always thought it was his most highly-rated one.

i disagree with a lot of yr s/ds turrican (the RRS medley is A+) but thank you for searching warm and beautiful. rarely is such a terrible set of lyrics redeemed by beautiful music. also, back to the egg. there's the last pre-90s paul album that would ever receive a reissue/critical reevaluation.

"Arrow Through Me" is a splendid take on EL Lay-Toto rock.

the songs on wild life recommended above were, I think, recorded at the same time as Ram, so it's not a surprise that they were good.

― akm, Monday, June 4, 2012 1:37 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, I know 'Dear Friend' was recorded during the Ram sessions, but I'm not sure about the others!

also, back to the egg. there's the last pre-90s paul album that would ever receive a reissue/critical reevaluation.

― of family bonds and individual triumph. Narrated by Tim Allen, (zachlyon), Monday, June 4, 2012 2:07 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Back To The Egg and Venus And Mars are definitely the two Wings albums I find myself returning to the most. I enjoy listening to both from start to finish for different reasons. Love 'Getting Closer', 'Again And Again And Again', 'Old Siam Sir', the aforementioned 'Arrow Through Me'...

btw "No More Lonely Nights" is a real corker, his best of the eighties ("Press" is second, duh).

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 4, 2012 1:54 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely agree with you, Re: 'No More Lonely Nights'!

TOW will most likely get the remastering treatment as it was for a while an album so overrated that now it's underrated.

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 4, 2012 1:53 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In my mind, the three that are most likely to get the remastering treatment are Venus And Mars, Tug Of War and Flowers In The Dirt. I think it's still a bit too soon for everything from Flaming Pie onwards!

i have no recollection of band on the run being reissued in 2010 but apparently that happened

would love to think red rose speedway is a dark horse, but maybe that's just me

Yeah, Band on the Run kicked off this whole series, iirc. But I don't believe it any bonus material like the more recent three did.

fyi, there is an advertisement in the Ram one that says Venus and Mars, Over America, and Speed of Sound are the next three to be released in the series.

anybody own Wings Over America? It gets good reviews here and there.

whoa, one of the b-sides to Temporary Secretary is pretty fucking rad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w40MUrFq3xM

^^^chillwave

we discussed "Secret Friend" in the Macca II thread and yes it's good.

xp wings over america is good. smh @ speed of sound, wtf

Speed of Sound has the much-awaited debuts of Geoff English and Linda as singers.

linda's solo comp makes for some interesting listening. it's not bad, maybe an acquired taste.

secret friend is a beardo favourite.

anybody own Wings Over America? It gets good reviews here and there.

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 June 2012 23:25 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have a vinyl copy of this! It's not bad, although I admittedly don't dig it out that often. I'll have to give this another listen sometime this week.

I'd definitely welcome a Venus And Mars remaster. Wings At The Speed Of Sound is down there as one of my least favourite McCartney albums, though, and I personally think there are a couple of other McCartney albums that deserve it more.

I need to hear "Letting Go" and remastered.

Venus and Mars remaster is already available on iTunes.

Just the album - no extended package.

Speed of Sound is sort of a perfect distillation of Wings but completely unremarkable for it.

I guess that's why it's their best seller.

I imagine they're eventually going to do 'em all, so the duds were going to have to trickle as well. The only Wings I've ever owned prior to this batch were vinyl copies of Band on the Run and Over America.

Re: Wings Over America, I actually pulled that out about a week ago for Sunday afternoon background listening. It's...okayish but I think I might unload it soon - a 3XLP live album is a LOT of Wings in a row, and very few of the renditions are particularly interesting. They sound like the studio versions, played live with a little more audience-working by McCartney. They were a pretty decent sort of arena bar band, and it's probably fair to say that the Speed of Sound stuff sounds a little more rocking, but they can't really improve on the Band on the Run and Venus and Mars material, and the Beatles covers are all forgettable as hell. They do "Go Now" okay I guess, plus Denny Laine doing "Richard Cory" is, well, about what you'd expect, and "Soily" is cool enough, always liked that one.

Definitely not essential though.

I think I've hated on Speed of Sound on ILX before - - - I love the singles and a few other things (Warm and Beautiful, She's My Baby, Wino Junko!!!) but the overall sound feels mushy and muffled to me. (Well, "Beware My Love" ain't bad.) You long for a George Martin to step up the crispness of things. Maybe the remaster might actually make a difference for that one!

Also, uh, "Cook of the House," god bless 'er.

I might change my grade if "Sally G" were part of the original track list.

<3 Sally G!

A legit, comprehensive McCartney b-sides comp really would be great. I guess these remasters will basically end up putting those back on the radar. As a teenage McCartney fan in the mid-90s, I of course prized those extremely marked-up British imports that had the B-sides (and also the terrible cover art, with the original image shrunk down and stuck in a sea of white for no reason). Think I had a couple of 'em, definitely Flowers in the Dirt.

I suppose we'll get "Girls School" soon enough.

Vocal arrangement on "Dear Boy" is so hot.

speed of sound is pretty bad except for letting go. surprised they aren't doing london town before that (which is better...not great, just better). I would totally be one of three people to buy a back to the egg deluxe set.

"Letting Go" is on V&M, no?

Deluxe BTTE would be great - some awesome non-album singles, studio junk and b-sides at that point if I remember right. "Boil Crisis," "Robber's Ball" maybe?

I would totally buy a BTTE box.

I would invest in a Back To The Egg boxset as well!

Rhapsody seemed to pull all of the McCartney/Wings albums as well...I did see them there at one point but wasn't in the mood to check it out at the time. Paul doesn't need my money anyway.

As I mentioned, the Venus and Mars remaster is already available as a download-only release (Wild Life too, from 2010), so I don't know if Speed of Sound or Wings Over America are getting deluxe treatments.

mccartney pulled his music from streaming sites a few months ago.

Well, the new Ram is on Spotify now. Maybe they're trying it out. I don't know what was on there before - I don't remember anything in the time Spotify has been available in the U.S.

Speed of Sound has the much-awaited debuts of Geoff English and Linda as singers.

― go down on you in a thyatrr (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 June 2012 23:53 (Yesterday) Permalink

Linda sang on a couple of tracks on Wild Life - quite nicely too.

And she sings on Ram. And, according to Paul in the accompanying book in the box set, she sang a high harmony on "Let It Be." (!!)

linda and paul harmonies are great, wonderful sharp/warm contrast, very bitter and lovely.

still no Macca here on Spotify in the UK.

I love her harmonies generally. But "Cook of the House" really is the equivalent of a greeting card not meant to be shared with neighbors.

you can say that about a ton of paul's solo stuff though

most of Paul's good solo work is akin to pot brownies he shares with neighbors.