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

and thanks karl for the "another day" mention, would have certainly forgotten to check it out otherwise

my piano was boldly outspoken in attempts to repeat its refrain

didn't mean to be so aggro about this but if you're like "i, a person who likes the beatles and has thoughts about paul mccartney, only like two of the songs on his excellent album ram without qualification," afaic you are trying not to like it. free yourself

i listen to RAM more than any other Beatles/solo release. it's very hard for me to not feel charmed and inspired by a happy family man living out on a farm making loopy macca music.

Some folks go so far as to say that Paul invented indie-pop with RAM. I dunno about that.

How about Paul invented Elephant 6?

Bees are buzzing about my sweet delectable baby
Birds are humming about their big surprise
Who’s your favorite person, dear phenomenal lady?
I belong to the girl with the flashing eyes

I wanna horse
I wanna sheep

Another Day and Oh Woman, Oh Why are so rad

didn't mean to be so aggro about this but if you're like "i, a person who likes the beatles and has thoughts about paul mccartney, only like two of the songs on his excellent album ram without qualification," afaic you are trying not to like it. free yourself

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Saturday, December 11, 2021 12:35 AM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Quoting without further comments

First time I heard this album I couldn't sleep the night because bits from it kept circling round my head

I know it's tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness, I don't like disliking music. It brings me no pleasure in having less music to enjoy, especially from someone who's already had a hand in creating so much of my favorite music. I give everything many chances because I don't believe in dismissing any work on the first try, or even the second or third time around. If people see a lot in something, I want to see what they're seeing too.

I've played Ram and really all of Paul's music many times - I still hold on to a lot of it "just in case" and that includes a copy of Ram. Even the worst stuff has something brilliant - a hook, the singing, a great bass line, etc. - and sometimes that feels like a saving grace but a lot of times it's frustrating coming from someone who's capable of delivering the whole package. I'm glad you guys love Ram, it amazes me that it's got a devoted following that swears by it, but honestly, I've never been able to sit through the whole thing without getting massively irritated half the time. I mean, Adam Sandler has his fans too, I can accept that without liking his shit. Meanwhile, I get a lot more out of Band on the Run, Run Devil Run and Memory Almost Full (which tbh I rejiggered with four cuts from Chaos & Creation but that's another story). I like Ram more than a lot of other Wings/McCartney albums, but I just don't see it being this landmark achievement of any kind. Calling it ground zero for indie pop always seemed like an enormous stretch, one that ignores a lot of music from the previous decade.

I guess that should be "I dislike Ram less than a lot of the Wings/McCartney albums"

It got dropped during some recent phone upgrade but for about 12 years my iPhone ringtone was the ukulele intro to “Ram On.”

One of the things I found listening to all the 70s McCartney releases was that the musical quality didn't correspond with any other aspect. You couldn't say, "He's only good when he:
- rocks (or does ballads)
- is serious (or is whimsical)
- is autobiographical (or writes characters)
- sounds familiar (or experiments)
- does rock and pop (or does other genres)"
...because he's done both good and bad material of all sorts. The one thing that unites the bad songs for me is a certain self-conscious attention to effects, like we can see Paul looking over the song with an arched eyebrow, thinking, "This is really gonna get 'em!"

Sure but there’s something about McCartney’s sheer skill as a performer and songwriter that almost always elevates the song above whatever conceit he’s concocted (this is super obvious in Get Back where his farting around on the soundstage is almost always interesting).

I think in part that’s why his work is so easy to go back to and re-examine. The conceit is transparent—“I’m going to do Tin Pan Alley/Buddy Holly//Little Richard/Elvis Costello here!”—but the execution is almost always more interesting in some way, even if not always mind-blowingly so.

Back on topic, I find “Hey Diddle” to be an absolute ear-worm. The sweet blend of Linda’s vocals with Paul’s, the third grade concert recorder interlude, the lilt in Linda’s voice on the line “Ah but don’t you fear/The next time around/She’ll be there.” Even if it wasn’t on the record proper, this thing just feels like the apotheosis of the Ram aesthetic.

'hey diddle; is indeed great, love this record but hadn't listened to unreleased cuts. 'rode all night' is downright weird