1971. The year music finally started to shake off its 60s hangover and produce work of startling originality. T.Rex. Bowie. Marvin Gaye. Loads of other rock and pop luminaries too many to list here, produced ‘70s’ not ‘60s’ albums.
Paul McCartney released a song called ‘Another day’ that reached number two in the singles charts. Critics started to snipe. ‘Lightweight and inconsequential’… ‘soppy’…just some of the barbs aimed at the Most Hated Ex-Beatle – at least with music critics.
Paul then released an album credited to Paul and Linda McCartney. It was called ‘Ram’ and on the cover, Paul was holding an actual Ram and his ex-band member John Lennon was in hyper paranoid mode as he believed Paul was taking a dig at him. On the back cover was a photo of two Beetles mounting each other. The ex-Beatles had not only split contractually, they had also split emotionally. And it hurt like hell. Lennon wrote the caustic and downright nasty ‘How do you sleep?’ which was so obviously a character assassination of his former friend and creative partner. Lennon was great, true, but he could also be very petty and childishly vindictive at times. Paul just shrugged and carried on, secretly (probably) deeply wounded by John’s trashing of him.
McCartney was now Mr. Straight. Mr. Boring. Mr. Middle of the Road housewives choice. His rock credibility, at least with music critics, was at a low point. Not a single critic had anything good or nice to say about ‘Ram’. Some were more cautious and respectful, but most were savage and relentless in their critical onslaught and determination to cut Paul down to under the boot size.
Wings? What a weak sounding name cried the gonzo macho sectors of the music press. ‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish’ – Paul’s ‘anti-British occupation of northern Ireland song) was dismissed as ‘Paul trying to be John but embarrassing himself’.
Rock music itself, although flourishing into interesting directions, was largely dominated in the early 70s by the rise (no pun intended) of Cock Rock. This was rock music that was about swaggering male bravado and well, cocks, basically. And how big your balls are. Babe I wanna screw ya. Get it On. Lay chicks not eggs (actually a T-shirt slogan)
Paul was out of step with this new Hard (on) Rock. He sounded like a limp little willy compared to the manly Viking marauding of say, Led Zeppelin who took the village groupies and raped them. This was pretty much Rock in the 70s. Cocaine started to take hold and everyone jumped into the Jacuzzi for an orgy.
Bolan boogied, Bowie started to come on like a male hustler…you get the picture? Even the Queers wanted in on the hot sex action.
Paul McCartney meanwhile lived on a farm in Scotland with his family and various animals. His wife was vegetarian. Paul became one too. Those oh so soft and soppy McCartneys! Why doesn’t Paul leave his wife to do the washing up?
Into this faux-roman arena of spite and cynical 70s cool came ‘Ram’.
It started with a track called ‘Too many people’. It rocked in a late period Beatles way, had a cool and clever structure and some great guitar playing from Paul on it. Linda’s backing vocals were cool too, giving this rock a soft feminine touch, actually ‘glam’ in a McCartney way. But no. It did not rock, the critics declared.
And so it was declared that this was a great big cissy dud from Paul and Linda.
Not a single critic commented on the melodic genius of ‘Back seat of my car’ which had a Paul does Brian Wilson vibe about it.
Not a single critic saw the clever ‘Abbey Road-like’ mini medley of ‘Uncle Albert’.
Nor did a single critic hear the quirky and charming Paul of the title track ‘Ram’ played on a ukulele.
Paul was like a mad music professor on this album, throwing it all into the pot and making an eclectic and heady brew. Sure, it has its throw away tracks like ‘Smile Away’, but it’s fun, just like ‘Birthday’ or ‘Rocky Raccoon’ on the Beatles white album were fun.
The radical Paul gave us a showing on ‘Monkberry Moon Delight’, which has Paul singing in a voice that seems to anticipate Tom Waits. It’s Paul showing off one of his many voices, such a superb singer and easily as great as any Pop or Rock singer. Lennon included.
No. Critics were not having this ‘domesticated and castrated’ Paul. Where were his balls yelled the cock rock critics, their cocks exposed for all to see.
Nope. Paul was just a limp dick. He will never be John Lennon. Hell, the critics preferred George Harrison to Paul. Ringo too, was moved to the front of the plaudits queue.
Paul was now a married man and was too busy in the kitchen helping Linda with the nut roast to be a Rock God.
And so it came to pass that the Curse of Not Being John was to haunt and taunt Paul for most if not all for the rest of the decade. (and still today in some quarters)
The critics started to finally come around to Paul with ‘Red Rose Speedway’ in 1973, but only in a cautious and wary way. It took ‘Band on the Run’ to shut these macho men up. Hey Paul! You sound creatively reborn again! Let’s forget about ‘Ram’ shall we?
That is basically what happened to ‘Ram’. It was swept under the critical carpet, never to rise again for another 40 years or so.
Forward-wind to 2013. I am living and working in Malaysia as a teacher. In a shopping mall there is a pretty good and cool music shop that sells CDs imported from the UK. I see a copy of ‘Ram’ in the Paul McCartney and Wings section. I pick it up. I see it has extra tracks and out takes on it. I see it has ‘Oh woman oh why’- a great b-side only rocker from Paul. I think I will buy this CD. It’s about time I heard it.
I took it home. I put it on. As each track played, I got more and more excited. This was a great Paul and Linda album. Why was it buried by critics? (not by the public though, it sold really well, top ten in Britain, Europe and the US)
What was that terrible conspiracy against Paul and Linda about?
I thought for a while. Paul blamed for break up of Beatles (not true they had already unofficially split) Paul blamed for not making an album as radical as Lennon’s Plastic Ono band or as deep as George Harrison’s ‘All things must pass’ triple album of 1970. Again, not true. ‘Ram’ has several ‘radical tracks’. It’s just that Paul wants you, the listener, to have a bit of variety. This is dismissed as trivial and banal. It is actually the polar opposite of that.
Paul blamed for the whole world’s problems. It seemed so!
Here is my final statement: ‘Ram’ is only a hair split between ‘Band on the run’ in terms of melodic and musical invention. ‘Venus and Mars’ is really good too but that’s for another article maybe.
So, if you care to, listen to ‘Ram’ and lose all that weight of bias against Paul from the past. Even genius can be written off as ‘lightweight banality’ – which ‘Ram’ was actually called by one critic.
It is anything but lightweight. It is world champion heavy weight Paul McCartney (with Linda’s lush and richly textured backing vocals)
Ram on, Paul.
And rest in peace the lovely Linda.
Alan Savage © May 21st, 2023
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