Paul McCartney deliberately kept his debut solo album a bit on the ramshackle side. He changed that strategy on his next release, which was credited to him and his wife Linda. Ram, released in 1971, brought to the table some of the production finesse that McCartney once utilized in The Beatles.
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Ram took an early beating from critics and ex-Beatles alike. As years have passed, folks have come to appreciate the album as one of Macca’s finest. Check out five tidbits of information surrounding some of its songs.
An Ex-Beatles Was Targeted
McCartney’s relations with his former band members were still extremely strained when he started putting Ram together in late 1970. He decided to let off a little bit of steam on “Too Many People”. The song begins with the message, “P*ss off, cake,” which was intended for John Lennon. As the song progresses, McCartney references Lennon’s (and Yoko Ono’s) behavior without mentioning them by name. He suggests they’ll regret it. Maybe McCartney ended up regretting it more because Lennon’s response, “How Do You Sleep?” proved a much nastier shot across the bow.
The Hit Single Referred to Actual People, Both Familial and Historical
On The Beatles’ final album, Abbey Road, McCartney had taken pieces of several different short songs and assembled them into a massive, side-long medley. “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” took that same approach, only in a much shorter span of time. It yielded a huge hit single for Paul at a time when he needed it. The title characters were not just creatures of McCartney’s imagination. He did indeed have an uncle named Albert. And the second name was taken straight from the pages of history. Admiral William Halsey Jr. played a big role for the US in World War II.
Linda’s Ex Caught a Stray
This is one of those songs where all you can do is sit back and marvel at McCartney’s gift for melody. You not only get the main tune but also all the countermelodies that come from the backing vocals. “Dear Boy” can be enjoyed based on that alone, before you even start to consider those lyrics. Speaking of the words, many thought that McCartney was again having a go at John Lennon. Instead, he was alluding to Linda McCartney’s ex-husband. More than anything, the song is McCartney’s tribute to his wife for helping him get through the tumultuous time following The Beatles’ breakup.
The McCartney Children Contributed to the Wildest Song
The Beatles developed a late-career tendency to write lyrics that had little meaning but sounded cool when sung. For the most part, this was John Lennon’s milieu. Think of songs like “I Am The Walrus” and “Glass Onion”. But McCartney wasn’t immune to the charms of such an approach, which he took on the gleefully demented “Monkberry Moon Delight”. The vocal style was borrowed from Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. As for the titular beverage? McCartney’s kids would often playfully call milk “monk,” and that term stuck here in altered form.
Mother Nature’s Son Made a Comeback
When The Beatles broke up, McCartney struggled with bouts of depression. Luckily, he found refuge in spending time with Linda at their farm in Scotland. McCartney wasn’t exactly new to country living. This was the same guy, after all, who called himself “Mother Nature’s Son” on a White Album song. On Ram, he returned to that theme on “Heart Of The Country”. The track, which features a rare occasion of McCartney doing some scatting, talks about the place where “the holy people go”. That phrase explains just how hallowed McCartney thought the bucolic life to be.
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