And while I know this is a WL/RRS thread, I don't want to start a whole new thread to say this, so I'll just say it here: I don't doubt that, in the era of singer-songwriters, many critics genuinely felt disappointed by Ram. To give him credit, though, Paul basically replicated The Beatles' sound on his own (songwriting wise, obviously he had Linda, Denny Seiwell, and Hugh McCracken on the album itself). The critics were still reeling from the break up to really take notice of it. But it must've scared the s**t out of John, George, and Ringo.
John's reaction to RAM was decidedly extreme. On one hand he and his friends are heard singing parts of "Uncle Albert" during his birthday celebration in Oct 1971. On the other hand, he took extreme offense to a few of the lyrics in "Too Many People" and "3 Legs" and responded with "Crippled Inside" (which I love and think was a great way to channel angst) and "How Do You Sleep?" (which I find lyrically asinine and immature on John's part), plus there was the silly posing with a pig photo to mock RAM's album cover. Obviously RAM got under John's skin in a way that the McCartney LP had not done previsouly. Conversely, I don't think his reaction to Wildlife or RRS was nearly as strong, perhaps indicating that he recognized they weren't as strong as Ram and therefore not worth responding much to? Although I have to wonder what influence the track "Wildlife" and "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" had on John's decision to do an all political/topical album in STINYC not long after those singles were released (in Dec. 71 and Feb. 72 respectively). Similar question, did STINYC being a double album with a couple live tracks inspire Paul to want to make RRS at first a double album with a few live tracks?
If you think about it, you will come to the sobering conclusion that McCartney's most enduring legacy will be the one and only "Wonderful Christmastime".
I’m truly glad to see these albums re-evaluated in 2018, but some of us knew all along that they were far, far better than the received opinion of the early 70s made them out to be.
If McCartney II had gone all the way and included Secret Friend and Check My Machine on the album proper, it would be a masterpiece. I don’t know if Driving Rain is a masterpiece, but it has become one of my favorites, and I spin it as much as I spin Paul’s 70s classics.
From memory, there was a 1971 review of Ram in Penthouse (I know, it was a porn magazine, but it and Playboy both had some pretty decent rock coverage as well back in the day) which noted exactly what you just said: that Ram represented Paul pulling off the Beatles’ sound all by himself. Again, from memory, this piece praised Paul as the ex-Beatle who was doing the best work. Not every contemporary critic trashed Ram and the early Wings albums.
I received no such shipping notice. Maybe it’s payback for them shipping me the Imagine Super Deluxe 9 days early!
My McCartney II playlist has "Check My Machine" opening the album and "Secret Friend" closing it. Amazing tracks.
I do love these tracks-just like anything else from McCartney 11 Secret friend really defined ambient music and Check my maschine gut an hypnotic groove
English tea, English tea everywhere Especially on their clothes, Paul's shirt looks like that blanket we use for picnics
Now all the fellas! Bip bop, bib bop bam. Bip bop bip bob bam. Now all the ladies! Bip bop, bib bop bam. Bip bop bip bob bam. All together now! Bip bop, bib bop bam. Bip bop bip bob bam. You were great, and you were great and yooooooou were great!
I was just about to post this! It is fantastic to see what many of us say here being repeated in the mainstream music press. The descriptions of each album and the dismissal of the ridiculously harsh press at the time was great to read. Between this and the Uncut review, it seems both albums are being re-evaluated in a positive manner; I hope it leads to more people discovering Paul's early solo and early Wings career.
Well said! And many members of the public agreed (even the relative commercial failure of 'WL' saw it make the top 10, at a time when that meant something sales wise).
You know I don't expect everyone to love Paul's early solo albums. I don't expect everyone to love any of Paul's solo work -- or John's, or George's. I certainly don't. I don't enjoy much of George's work after ATMP. And there are plenty of other great artists/bands whose voices/albums do nothing for me. Doesn't mean I can't hear that they produced good work, or that I go out of my way to trash their records. So it still shocks me to read some of those old reviews of Ram, Wild Life, RRS. My god, the sheer level of vitriol aimed at McCartney. It's all out of proportion. That little circle of powerful male music critics in the early 70s were some major drama queens and vicious to boot. Goes to show that too much power to influence culture in too few hands is a bad thing. I hope that streaming means more people will give these early albums a chance. I'm still not sure how much I like RRS. But Ram and Wild Life? Both are unique and really wonderful to listen to.
I think they were probably to into what they were doing themselves to be '**** scared' as you say. I think the responses Lennon made in interview come across as relatively dismissive of Ram at the time, and it possibly reflects his genuine position. J &G had just released masterpieces of their own, which also contained as much magic of their Beatles identities as Ram most certainly did Paul's.
I think it was the perceived sideways 'digs' at J&Y that got under the skin, not so much the quality of the songs and music itself as seems to be suggested here. I think to say that the music on Ram was anything that made Lennon or Harrison jealous at the time is pure speculation. Do you think Macca would have been jealous of Cloud Nine in 87? I don't think so.
No, from a similar era we have real masterpieces like Remain in Light, Closer, Metal Box, Computer World, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, Get Happy, Scary Monsters etc etc
