Poll: Best Song on Paul McCartney's "Ram"

Eat At Home

yeah, there is something endearingly, uniquely mccartney-ish about this album. no one else could have written any of these songs, and every one of them has a great hook -- i haven't heard it in years and i still remember every one. that said, the execution spoils a lot of it for me. every song sounds like it's been given the "maxwell's silver hammer" treatment -- cutesy background vocals, pointlessly kitschy and cluttered arrangements, etc. i vote for "3 legs" with "too many people" just behind it.

i prefer the 1970 self-titled, which has an eerie, melancholy, half-finished feel.

It's probably indefensible (I'm not gonna try), but I went with "Monkberry Moon Delight." But only because I can't vote for the whole 4 song stretch from "Uncle Albert" to "Monkberry."

"Monkberry Moon Delight," plz.

In spite of an album with a huge number of highlights, this has to be "Back Seat Of My Car"

First "Ram On".

"Breadth"? "We"?

Two separate ILM polls concluded that Ram was his best album, and in the 2nd poll an overwhelming 6 people voted for it. I don't know how you're going to argue with that.

Yeah I just realised the "Ramon" thing a few weeks ago playing the song in my head. It's so cute! "Ramon, give your heart to somebody..."

back seat of my car. had this gone on abbey road or something it would be rightly recognized as the masterpiece it is. the opening notes are haunting. the only bad thing about this is the generally poor recording quality he gave it.

Oh yeah I voted for that too

"Eat At Home". Is that Linda singing backing vocals, or a weird effect on Paul's voice? In any case, awesome.

Admiral Halsey ftw

the only bad thing about this is the generally poor recording quality he gave it.

This is a general problem about all of McCartney's pre-"Tug Of War" solo output. Although he did a somewhat better job on "Band On The Run" and "Venus And Mars" than on the rest.

Dear Boy
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
The Back Seat Of My Car

^^^ Back Seat Of My Car will always win but I have to rep for all three of these, certainly among the most joyful music McCartney ever recorded, not in a forced "Huzzah, let's all feel the LOVE now!" mode, but more like, these songs are really fucking fun to sing along with, even "Dear Boy" which is kind of a mean-spirited recording. "Even when you fall in love, dear boy, it won't be half as good as this..." - fabulous!

Oh, and Monkberry Moon Delight for sheer insanity and some of his best weird lyrics, again in the way of being actually weird and inventive rather than just trying to pile on weirdness to sound trippy (a la "Flaming Pie" - charming though it is). I only just now discovered that the climactic line is "Of two youngsters concealed in a barrel..." - always thought it was "Under your stairs, concealed in a barrel" - but oh well...

Ah, fuck, I'm voting for Admiral Halsey. The wailing "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANDS" is the best fusion Linda and he ever achieved between the standard Wings backing vocals and Macca's rocker scream.

i love admiral halsey but the lyrics for the second half are just tooooo mccartney-pot-head for me.

long haired lady deserves some love, mainly for the ending ('love is long')

It's a great album - I voted HAlsey, but I like most of the tracks here.

Monkberry Moon Delight

Other little bits I love about this album:

The slapdash way "Ram On" starts, like it couldn't possibly be a real song, much less one that's going to get a reprise.

The little snippet of "Big Barn Bed" that appears and disappears like a ghost.

The way the bass suddenly jumps an octave and kicks "Smile Away" in the ass right when you think it's going to fade out.

How casual a lot of the backing vocals sound. Like, "The guy who wrote this song is a pop genius, but we're going to sing it like we're sitting around the fire at summer camp smoking pot." Granted that's probably not far from the truth.

I'm sure there are more...

The "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, yi yi yi yi yi" part on Smile Away.

The entire sequence of intro bits pulling into "Too Many People" - as the brash sneer of "Piss off, yeah!" disintegrates into warbles and hoots, drawing you into this album's pastoral domain, but just then the bass comes in, reintroducing the drama... they play around for a few moments and then drums and guitar announce with an emphatic set of stomps that we have made our way around to the actual beginning of the song. The song itself isn't one of my favorites on the album but it's a really nice way to get you into this album's head space, 1/3 jolly Arcadia, 1/3 weird post-60s hangover, 1/3 angelic choir ("nights when we sang like a...").

I would like a Paul McCartney technoish songs poll.. like on II

I'm trying to think of what else besides II would need to be in there for it to feel exhaustive. But in any case it would become a showdown between Coming Up and Temporary Secretary...right?

I dunno, since I mentioned that just so I could get people to fill me in on technoish paul songs. But coming up has it's video, and I remember that shit.

Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey

"Back seat of my car" was the first single by a beatle not to get into the top thirty.

which is doubly odd as it was only his second 'solo' single.

Also, that it's great.

I would like a Paul McCartney technoish songs poll.. like on II

"Wonderful Christmastime" >>>>>>>>> All of the technoish songs on II.

Bogey Music ~= Wonderful Christmastime

Don't make me choose a song off Ram. Please. Oh all right, the second Ram On. But it's SUCH a close call. The whole album is so incredibly joyful, and not forcibly so.

The Ramones!

And of course Linda's voice is used correctly here (c.f. the vomitous mess that is Cook of the House).

done voted, me :)

well it was basically 'twixt "dear boy" and "heart of the country" for me. and so i chose one of 'em. yep!

first Ram On

ok, then what?

Second, run devil run.

re: technoish songs, I guess "Goodnight Tonight" counts, also "Secret Friend"! Obscure techno collaborations (Fireman, Twin Freaks) are probably out, sadly.

ie, the first Ram On is my fave song on this record

tho, I actually always kinda thought this record was overrated. I remember loving Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey on classic rock radio, but disappointed when only scattered moments on this record were that good (and I hated Linda singing anything, even background vox). I can appreciate the looseness of some of the songwriting more now, and thanks to this thread for causing me to listen to it for the first time in years -- but still sounds way too tossed off for me, and I get tired of P-Mac's 70s-style grit voice really fast.

70s style? He'd been doing that shit since 63

I mean the main reason John wanted him for the Beatles was cuz Paul could do the Little Richard shout

well it's not really a little richard shout, more like his version of gravelly, like "too many people going uuuuunderground". or "haaaaaands across the water", or pretty much all of "monkberry moon delight".

tom waits should cover monkberry moon delight, it would be a delight

I think Monkberry Moon Delight invented Tom Waits. I do agree that McGruffney always sounds a little more affected than the Little Richard thing (which some people have a huge problem with, I always thought he sounded awesome)...but MMD is certainly the most extreme case of it. I'm certain there's songs where it sort of works but I can't recall any right now...

ah shit I meant to vote for the first Ram On.

Like most of McCartney's solo output there's something uncomfortably twee/mawkish about Uncle Albert, which prevents Admiral Halsey getting my vote.

I detest "Uncle Albert" -- wherein his whimsy becomes as oppressive.

Voted for "Too Many People," cuz it's so weird. Has any other kiss-off song every sounded like a celebration of the auteur's own quirks and weaknesses as this?

Listening to the whole album now. Incredible how proto-Andy Partridge the middle part of Long Haired Lady is.

"We believe that we can't be wrong!"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The weird muddy mix, oddball pothead words, and whimsical arrangements used to annoy me, but now I think they're great. Ram On has the best use of ukulele in a pop song ever. And if you listen to Eat at Home in the right frame of mind, the lyrics as dirty as any by 2 Live Crew.

The first two McCartney albums invented low-fi and inspired a lot of the old Elephant Six crowd.

I voted Ram On as well. It's kind of his two-minute Smiley Smile.

tho, I actually always kinda thought this record was overrated. I remember loving Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey on classic rock radio, but disappointed when only scattered moments on this record were that good (and I hated Linda singing anything, even background vox). I can appreciate the looseness of some of the songwriting more now, and thanks to this thread for causing me to listen to it for the first time in years -- but still sounds way too tossed off for me, and I get tired of P-Mac's 70s-style grit voice really fast.

The scattered moments are pretty wonderful: all of "Too Many People," the breakdown coda of "3 Legs," "Dear Boy" is one of his best post-Beatles songs (tho written whilst a Beatle), "Long Haired Lady"'s "Whoooooo's the lady that makes that brief occasional laughter..." is delightful and whimsical, and "Back Seat of My Car" for the aforementioned reasons.

Come to think of it, Dom, they're not that scattered...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

respeck

I don't think you'd manage such a spread of votes from many of his solo albums really.

Ram On came second then, really.

More solo polls please.

McCartney's first would be interesting

All Things Must Pass too

Lack of votes for "Dear Boy" is surprising. "Monkberry" and "Ram On" are probably tied in first for me. I'd like to see a movie that has "Ram On" as its main theme, with different versions popping up throughout -- these two, the Thrillington one, and, uh, the TMBG instrumental cover.

Dear Boy came on random (out of 1,600 ipod tracks) at the gym this morning, and I just stopped for three minutes. Beautiful song.

On another thread, Dr. Casino said, "Thrillington is really lovely and really points up just how richly detailed Ram is."

I would say that the striking thing, for me, about Thrillington is that it points up just how solid the album is compositionally from end to end.

woulda given 'dear boy' a vote

Thrillington also makes it clear how rooted the compositions are in certain styles. None of the arrangements really take a given song and transform it into a totally different style in order to make it work.

The end of "3 Legs" is a trip.