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

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.

ha perhaps

full disclosure linda mccartney is the reason i was vegetarian for the first 20 years of my life. 'cook of the house' has always felt very canonical to me. i think my mom has some of the lyrics stenciled in her kitchen somewhere.

George Harrison is why I'm suspicious of Krishna.

Listening to that Wingspan documentary - it's pretty good so far! Or at least by the standards of me being a huge Beatles nerd, where I'm just pleased to have new nuggets of information I've never heard.

thanks for reminding me to check that out again! i watched the first two parts yesterday and had the same positive reaction.

It trails off badly, sad to say - - - gets really vague right around the time Wings actually becomes a band. Nice to get some loose impressions of that period, and some sense of how Linda felt about the whole thing, but of course as people were saying upthread, I'm just hungry to hear Paul talk about these songs, these albums, song by song.

wow, i can't believe how down i was on this album in 2004 -- it seems like such a warm, likable album now. even the backing harmonies that used to drive me crazy seem endearingly batty -- like paul couldn't keep himself from indulging in every ridiculous thing he wanted to throw into every song.

Paul dislikes talking at length about Wings, doesn't he?

Kinda seems like a huge pain in the arse that somehow made him a ton of money.

Wings would have been awesome if he would have just treated it as another one-off project, for an album or so

somewhere in the doc where he was explaining why Wings was such a creative band name I turned it off. :-/

I WANT TO LIKE WINGS. I WANT TO LIKE THIS STUFF

Wings would have been awesome if he would have just treated it as another one-off project, for an album or so

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Wednesday, June 6, 2012 8:57 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed - or changed the name every time the lineup changed! That would have made for a really fun catalogue.

Wild Life - The Tallboys
Red Rose Speedway - The Rolling Bears
Band on the Run - Wings
Venus and Mars - Alt!
Speed of Sound - Blank White Paper
London Town - Your Friend Gigantus
Back to the Egg - Lando

Lol

Ah, I was thinking more:

Wild Life - Wings
Red Rose Speedway - McCartney and Wings
Band on the Run - Wings Over Easy
Venus and Mars - Wingz Energi
Speed of Sound - Athletico Wings 1980
London Town - Dr Wings the Night Nurse Tripper
Back to the Egg - Omlet

lol Mark.

Did you see the time Spizz posted on ILM, btw?

Lol at both Wings renames post. Tim, where is Spizz post?

No one answered his question, unfortunately.

Lawrence Of Arabia 7" early version - Does anyone know more?

He shoulda stuck to DIY records out in the country.

Thanks for the overview upthread, Turrican - I love this album but am unfamiliar with most of his others. I need to revisit McCartney for sure.

.. then to balance the mega-hype of Ram I decided to create an alter ego. We took personal ads in Private Eye and the Evening Standard saying, "Percy Thrillington seeks the love of his life." People eventually began to ask, "Who is this Percy Thrillington who keeps taking out small ads?" And then on holiday in Ireland with Linda we decided to find an actual Percy. We found a lad working in a farmer's field. We went up to him and asked, "Would you mind doing a photo shoot?" And so for a modelling fee we persuaded him to put on a dinner jacket and Linda took some pictures. And this Irish farmhand became Percy Thrillington.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/nov/29/paul-mccartney-the-fireman-interview

anyone ever see these photos, press ads etc?

McCartney in the early 70s seems like such a much more interesting guy - alternately down in the dumps on slacker benders, enjoying the relief of 4-track DIY recording, throwing together goofball inside-joke stunts. So much less of that unflagging public persona clarity and showmanship which defines him for basically the entire rest of his career. I sort of love that stuff too, but man, does this guy play it close to the vest.

I don't really see a significant change post-'70s. People just got burnt out on McCartney interviews and the pop/rock albums were not always top-tier. Still, there have been three Fireman albums, Liverpool Sound Collage, four classical albums, etc.

Pitchfork interview reveals Paul McCartney invented hipsters:

Pitchfork: When you went to the nearby town in Scotland, were people unfazed by the fact that Paul McCartney was in their grocery store?

PM: Yeah, a little bit. People get used to it when you live locally, because you go to into the pub with them, or you go to dinner with your local solicitor, or you hang with a couple of guys working on the farm. You gradually get to know other people, and they become very protective of you. The only people who would bother us would be the tourists, but it was never a real problem.

Also, you gotta remember, I had a big black beard, and not everyone recognized me as a Beatle. When we went to New York, I'd go to Harlem or wherever and I had this beard and an old thrift-shop jacket on, like a Vietnam vet-- I used to joke with people, like, "I look the guy who might mug you." People didn't want to look me in the eye. It was quite a good cover at the time.

One of things about beards is that, when men reach a certain age, they'd like to see if they can grow one. It's a phenomenon I understand very well. So I thought, "I'm gonna be in Scotland, there's nobody to see me if I fail." After you get over the itchy face, you go, "Oh, I don't have to shave, that's cool." And then you move into the philosophical thing-- people say, "Oh, you look weird, you have a beard." And you say, "No, actually, it's weird to shave." Having a beard is natural. When you think about it, shaving it off is quite weird. [laughs]

That Pitchfork interview ain't bad - short, but they ask some reasonable questions and it gets Paul talking at least a little bit in specifics about what was going into the record, although it's not much you wouldn't have guessed. Cute stuff anyway. Here's hoping they can pin him down on Red Rose Speedway and London Town, about whose creation I know next to nothing.

Listening to this today, always great for a rainy day. Occurs to me for the first time: how much might the vibe/approach of this been inspired by Nilsson? Granted their sensibilities were always pretty similar - pre-war pop, dooty-doot-doot-doo stuff, etc., but I feel the like "wacky stoned guy making an album by himself and not touring, string together medleys, follow your sense of humor" kind of approach is similar.

"Uncle Albert's" radio voice is such an ape of "Yellow Submarine"

if i don't really like the Beatles-era-Paul-songs, will i like Ram?

Its already too late for you I'm afraid.

♫ doo dee doo yee oo doo doo ♫

I adored this at 14 years old. Then was eclipsed and soon erased from memory by the predictable underground's incipient mainstream

While on a school outing to Whitby, my best mate stole from a quaint little family-run bookshop, at my behest, a copy of Christgau's Rock albums of the 70s (in exchange for a half-melted Topic extracted from my trouser pocket).

Over subsequent years I came to realize how closely my own tastes matched those of Xgau, but as he'd rated Ram a C+, I mentally filed it away with those other credulous enthusiasms of burgeoning youth: Racey, David Soul, and god knows what else.

This thread, 30 years later, finally inspired me to give it another go, and to my great surprise was moved by its casual home-made delicately-produced ambiance, that was at the same time professional produced with elegance and style. It's charming, sweet, home-spun, and sincere yet never mawkish or sentimental. The harmonizing of Paul and Linda are such a contributory factor to the overall unpretentious down-to-earth family-oriented minor pleasures herein that she fully deserves co-credit (also, the minor pleasures to be found within this record together amount to a major one. I loved this as a child; then stupidly abandoned it for decades on say so of Mr Xgau (whose low ratings of McCartney's other output I generally agree with). Only gave Ram another chance because of this thread. My young self was right all along - this is A+ all the way.

"erased from memory by the predictable underground's incipient mainstream"

It's nearly 6am, been drinking all night - fuck knows what that was supposed to mean

was moved by its casual home-made delicately-produced ambiance

honestly sad Paul started Wings in the 70s rather than just continued making DIY records w Linda

JBR saying it's really bad in the second post!