Paul McCartney had always been one for a homespun album, whether it be his 1970 debut “McCartney”, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard from 2005, or McCartney III, which he recorded in lockdown (or rockdown, as he called it). Last year, McCartney was the first of his albums to receive a half-speed remaster at Abbey Road, which was pressed up for Record Store Day. The Paul McCartney Half-Speed Remaster series continues with the indie favourite “RAM”, due May 14th to commemorate its 50th anniversary.
RAM saw Paul and Linda taking to the heart of the country and recording most of the album at his Scotland farm following some traditional tracking sessions in New York. This lo-fi approach practically created the “cottagecore” aesthetic routinely explored by today’s most prominent artists. And it’s said that any indie-pop musician who’s recorded an album out of their bedroom owes something to RAM. Indeed, with just one listen to “Dear Boy,” “Ram On,” “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,” or “Back Seat of My Car,” it’s easy to draw the line through four-plus decades of indie-pop sounds.
But it wasn’t just Paul and Linda creating the music. The McCartneys also brought on Denny Seiwell, who’d go on to be part of the first incarnation of Wings, along with many other session musicians. As such, the album not only stands as a great piece of music, but also an important transitional piece in McCartney’s recorded history.
We’ll admit that other than the near-perfect track “Maybe I’m Amazed,” Paul McCartney’s 1970 debut solo album was pretty weak. However, his second attempt, 1971’s “Ram,” was unfairly grouped together with its predecessor. Jon Landau of Rolling Stone called it “so incredibly inconsequential and so monumentally irrelevant” and “unbearably inept” while trashing nearly every track. Elsewhere, Q described it as “frustratingly uneven,” Robert Christgau simply said it’s “a bad record” and NME settled on the term “mediocre.” Even Playboy wouldn’t recommend playing it. Fans had a different opinion. They helped the tune “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” become McCartney’s first No. 1 single as a solo artist, heavily supported the singles “The Back Seat of My Car” and “Eat at Home” and caused critics to re-evaluate their stances on the album. More recently, publications have not only cited “Ram” as a predecessor of indie pop but also as one of the former Beatle’s best solo works.
RAM has gone on to become one of the most beloved of McCartney’s albums. Upon its release it was panned by critics, though it reached No. 1on the U.K. Albums Chart and yielded his first post-Beatles No. 1 in the States with the whimsical mini-suite “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” Now the album has been deemed “quintessentially McCartney,” a career highlight worthy of reappraisal.
For it’s 50th anniversary edition, “RAM” has been pressed from a new master cut at half-speed sourced from the original master tapes at Abbey Road. The LP is available to pre-order now, and will also be available on indie record stores’ shelves on the May 14th release date.
Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM
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