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Ram (album)
Encyclopedia
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.
, 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. 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.
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
". 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. 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.'"
Lennon's response was the song "How Do You Sleep?" on his Imagine
album. 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.
" 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.
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", 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.
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. On 3 December 2010, Juliens Auctions sold the only known remaining acetate of Ram for $1536.00.
The album is planned for reissue in 2012 with the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series.
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
, released in 1971, the only album credited to the pair. It was the second of the two albums McCartney released between leaving The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and forming Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
. 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
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is a song by Paul and Linda McCartney from the album Ram. Released in the United States as a single on 2 August 1971, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1971, making it the first of a string of post-Beatles, McCartney-penned singles to top the US...
", the minor British hit "The Back Seat of My Car" and "Eat at Home
Eat at Home
Eat at Home is a 1971 single by Paul and Linda McCartney that also appeared on their album Ram from the same year. The single was not released in the UK or the US...
", which was not released in either the United Kingdom or the United States.
Recording and structure
After the release of the successful debut McCartneyMcCartney (album)
McCartney is the debut solo album by Paul McCartney. Apart from Linda McCartney's vocal contributions, McCartney performed the entire album solo...
, Paul and Linda went on a lengthy holiday and spent much time on their farm on the Mull of Kintyre
Mull of Kintyre
The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast is visible and an historic lighthouse, the second commissioned in Scotland, guides shipping in the intervening North Channel...
, 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. Denny Seiwell was recruited for drums, David Spinozza
David Spinozza
David Spinozza is an American musician , who worked with former Beatles Paul McCartney and John Lennon during the 1970s, and had a long collaboration with singer-songwriter James Taylor, producing Taylor's album Walking Man....
and Hugh McCracken
Hugh McCracken
Hugh McCracken is a rhythm guitar player and session musician, arranger and producer based in New York.Especially in demand in the 60s, 70s and 80s, he appears on many recordings by Steely Dan, as well as albums by Donald Fagen, Jimmy Rushing, Billy Joel, Roland Kirk, Roberta Flack, B. B...
were tapped for guitar duties, and Marvin Stamm
Marvin Stamm
Marvin Stamm is an American bebop trumpeter.Stamm began on trumpet at age 12. He first attended college at, then known as, Memphis State University and then attended college at North Texas State University where he was a member of the world renowned One O'Clock Lab Band...
was featured on flugelhorn
Flugelhorn
The flugelhorn is a brass instrument resembling a trumpet but with a wider, conical bore. Some consider it to be a member of the saxhorn family developed by Adolphe Sax ; however, other historians assert that it derives from the valve bugle designed by Michael Saurle , Munich 1832 , thus...
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
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
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
Red Rose Speedway
-Additional tracks:-Original LP Recording:Originally planned as a double album, this is the tracklisting from the acetates of the early incarnation of the album dated 13 December 1972...
.
By early 1971, the project was completed with the non-album "Another Day
Another Day (Paul McCartney song)
"Another Day" is a song recorded by Paul McCartney in New York in 1970, during the sessions for his album Ram. Although it was the first single of McCartney's solo career, "Another Day" was actually written and previewed during The Beatles' Let It Be Sessions in 1969. It was officially released on...
"/"Oh Woman, Oh Why" single — McCartney's first after The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
— 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.
Apart from the released songs from Ram, McCartney also recorded the following songs during the Ram-sessions:
- A Love for You
- Rode All Night
- When the Wind Is Blowing
- Sunshine Sometime
- Hey Diddle
Feud
Peter Brown (music industry)
Peter Brown is an American-based English businessman. He currently resides in New York City.-The Beatles:Brown was a personal assistant to Brian Epstein and The Beatles during the 1960s. He was a confidant to the Epstein family, and bore some resemblance to Brian in his looks and manner...
, John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
believed that songs on Ram included jibes at him in the lyrics, including "Too Many People
Too Many People
"Too Many People" is a song by Paul McCartney from his 1971 album Ram as well as the B-side of the "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" single.The song is an instance of "musical sniping" among the four Beatles after the band broke up, the target in this case presumed to be McCartney's former bandmate and...
" and "Dear Boy
Dear Boy (song)
"Dear Boy" is a song from the Paul McCartney album Ram. The song was written during Paul and Linda McCartney's lengthy holiday on their farm in the Mull of Kintyre. The song was written by Paul and about how lucky he was to have Linda. He says in a 1971 interview, "Dear Boy was my attempt at an...
". 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. 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.'"
Lennon's response was the song "How Do You Sleep?" on his Imagine
Imagine (album)
Imagine is the second album by John Lennon. Recorded and released in 1971, the album tended toward songs that were gentler, more commercial and less avant-garde than those on his critically acclaimed previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album is considered the most popular of his works...
album. 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.
Release and reception
"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 HalseyUncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
"Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is a song by Paul and Linda McCartney from the album Ram. Released in the United States as a single on 2 August 1971, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1971, making it the first of a string of post-Beatles, McCartney-penned singles to top the US...
" would prove much more successful, giving McCartney his first #1 single after The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
.
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.
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
Jon Landau
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
labeled it "incredibly inconsequential" and "monumentally irrelevant", while Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
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
Richard Anthony Hewson
Richard Anthony Hewson is an English producer, arranger, conductor and multi-instrumentalist, who is best recognized for his studio group The RAH Band.-Career:...
) with the release of Thrillington
Thrillington
Thrillington is a 1977 album by Paul McCartney, under the pseudonym of Percy "Thrills" Thrillington. The album is an instrumental cover version of Paul and Linda McCartney's 1971 album, Ram...
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
The Paul McCartney Collection
The Paul McCartney Collection is a 16 volume set of reissues by Paul McCartney of his solo and Wings albums, with most adding bonus tracks. The discs in the collection were released separately in most of the world, with half appearing on June 7, 1993, and the remainder on August 9 of the same year...
" 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.
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
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting at 91.1 MHz FM, presenting a freeform radio format...
DJ Tom Scharpling
Tom Scharpling
Tom Scharpling is an American radio host, comedian, television writer, producer and music video director. He is best known for hosting the weekly freeform radio call-in comedy program The Best Show on WFMU and for acting as a writer/executive producer for the TV show Monk.Scharpling is also noted...
and included Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann is an American rock singer-songwriter, guitarist and bassist.-Early life:Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, graduated from Open High School in 1978 and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, but dropped out to sing with her first punk rock band, the Young Snakes...
and Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
, among others. On 3 December 2010, Juliens Auctions sold the only known remaining acetate of Ram for $1536.00.
The album is planned for reissue in 2012 with the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series.
Track listing
Chart positions
| Chart (1971) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report Chart Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
3 |
| Canadian RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
1 |
| Dutch Mega Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
1 |
| French SNEP Albums Chart | 8 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 2 |
| Japanese Oricon LP Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
8 |
| Norwegian Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... VG-lista VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... Albums Chart |
1 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
2 |
| West German Media Control Albums Chart | 22 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (1971) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 6 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 17 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
6 |
| U.S. Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End Billboard Year-End charts are a cumulative measure of a single or album's performance in the United States, based upon the Billboard magazine charts during any given chart year. Billboard's "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November... |
38 |