PAUL AND LINDA MCCARTNEY – “RAM (50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) //UMC/Virgin// (Released 14th May)

Description

£30.99 – 1xLP, Super Limited Half-Speed Master plus Obi-Strip

o mark the 50th anniversary of the release of RAM, the album will be pressed from a master cut at half speed using the original master tapes at Abbey Road.

The only album credited to both Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM reached Number 1 in the UK and stayed in the US Top 10 for five months. Recording after he’d left The Beatles and before the formation of Wings, Paul initially flew with Linda to New York to record the songs they’d written but arrived without a band.

As Paul recalls, “We were thinking of forming a group at that time, Wings. We went to New York, found a really grotty little basement somewhere and auditioned a bunch of people. We got someone to throw a lot of drummers at us, out of which we picked Denny Seiwell who’s one of the best, and his personality fitted. Then we went in, worked with him, Hugh McCracken, Dave Spinozza, a couple of New York session men, and did RAM.” To avoid arousing too much interest, the auditions were held under the guise of a session for a commercial jingle. As well as Paul’s lead vocals there are harmonies from Linda. “I gave her a hard time, I must say, but we were pleased with the results. Elton John later said somewhere that he thought it was the best harmonies he’d heard in a long while. It was very much the two of us against the world at that point.”

RAM’s singular sonic palette was unlike its predecessor—or anything else for that matter—and has grown exponentially in stature and influence over the decades. Critically polarising at the time, the album was instantly beloved by fans, hitting #1 in the UK and giving Paul his first post-Beatles American #1 single, the GRAMMY-winning Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey. In recent years the record has continued to solidify its standing as one of the most loved in Paul’s unparalleled output.

Fans and critics alike continue to sing its praises: Rolling Stone has hailed the album as “a masterpiece” and “a grand psychedelic ramble full of divine melodies”; Pitchfork has praised it as “a domestic-bliss album, one of the weirdest, earthiest, and most honest ever made” and Mojo, perhaps most accurately of all, has deemed RAM “quintessentially McCartney.”