Rolling Stone: "Egypt Station" 1 of Decade's 100 Best
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wingsoverkc wrote:
Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
I don't hate anything . Just stating an opinion. Citing a Rolling Stone review or overall sales means absolutley nothing in terms of quality FYI. Remember, Rolling Stone and the other 3 Beatles HATED RAM that you think is the best album of the 70's and better than Pepper LOLOLOL
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Maccaroni1974 wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
I don't hate anything . Just stating an opinion. Citing a Rolling Stone review or overall sales means absolutley nothing in terms of quality FYI. Remember, Rolling Stone and the other 3 Beatles HATED RAM that you think is the best album of the 70's and better than Pepper LOLOLOL
FYI - Years later RS reviewed RAM again and were quite complementary to the album.
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Yankeefan2 wrote:
Maccaroni1974 wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
I don't hate anything . Just stating an opinion. Citing a Rolling Stone review or overall sales means absolutley nothing in terms of quality FYI. Remember, Rolling Stone and the other 3 Beatles HATED RAM that you think is the best album of the 70's and better than Pepper LOLOLOL
FYI - Years later RS reviewed RAM again and were quite complementary to the album.
So one employee didn't like it and years later one employee did like it. The moral of this story is not to take any notice of what these people are paid to write. Trust your own ears.
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Kestrel wrote:
Yankeefan2 wrote:
Maccaroni1974 wrote:
wingsoverkc wrote:
Ahh Maccaroni, another hater to deal with on this site. Ok, lets play. "New" was rated the FOURTH best album of the year by Rolling Stone and got almost universal acclaim. The only clunker on that album was "Alligator", which of course, you liked. Duh. "New" reached #3 in the US, UK, and Canada; #2 in Japan, France, and Germany. Yeah, pretty solid 'clunker'.
I don't hate anything . Just stating an opinion. Citing a Rolling Stone review or overall sales means absolutley nothing in terms of quality FYI. Remember, Rolling Stone and the other 3 Beatles HATED RAM that you think is the best album of the 70's and better than Pepper LOLOLOL
FYI - Years later RS reviewed RAM again and were quite complementary to the album.
So one employee didn't like it and years later one employee did like it. The moral of this story is not to take any notice of what these people are paid to write. Trust your own ears.
I do trust my ears and I never thought RAM was that good. Only songs I really liked were "Dear Boy" and "Backseat Of My Car".
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And my ears tell me that RAM was a superior album and was a huge part of my love of music as a teenager. Rarely does a month go by in the past 45+ years that I don't listen to several songs on this masterpiece. Always thought RAM would have what the Beatles would have sounded like in 1971.
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I'm sort of in the middle between Yankeefan and wingsoverkc. I don't consider Ram to be a masterpiece, but these are the songs on it that I like: Too Many People, Dear Boy, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Heart Of The Country, Monkberry Moon Delight, Eat At Home and Backseat Of My Car (so the majority of them) Only Dear Boy made my top 20 of all solo songs.
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As far as the Ram discussion, just wanted to add my feelings about the album.
At the time the album was released in 1971, I clearly remember Ram getting pretty strong radio play especially on FM rock stations. I remember liking some of the songs but wasn't in love with all the songs I heard. Since I was just hearing individual tracks from the radio, I also knew I wasn't getting the best sound reproduction either. I remember Monkberry Moon Delight sounding very strange at the time especially with Paul's over the top vocals. At that time in my life, I didn't buy the album because I was newly married and money was very tight.
Fast forward many years later and my financial was much better. I bought the CD Archive Remastered Ram in 2012 just as I had bought the Archive Band on the Run a little earlier that I loved. I must say that once I bought Ram and started hearing it regularly on my car's CD player, my feelings significantly changed. Hearing all the songs with good car speakers, the tracks and overall album really grew with me. Bottom line, I think Ram from track to track is very consistent and Paul's vocals were especially tremendous. The album as a whole became one of my favorites after just a couple of months.
The only song that I dislike on Ram is "Long Hair Lady". Similar to a few other Paul songs that are not favorites of mine, "Long Hair Lady" is too long (almost 6 minutes in length) and gets monotonous to me. I'm also not crazy about parts of Linda's vocals. Not a terrible song in my opinion, but again it is too long. Other than that one track, I like all the others. My favorites right away after getting the Remaster were Too Many People, Dear Boy, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Heart of the Country and Back Seat of My Car. Songs that really grew with me after repeated album listens were 3 Legs, Ram On, Smile Away, Monkberry Moon Delight, and Eat at Home. I remember not caring so much for Smile Away and Monkberry Moon Delight way back in 1971 became favorites much later with the Remaster. Paul's vocals on both tracks are terrific.
After getting back to the album with the Archive Release, I consider Rqm to be one of Paul's best Post Beatle albums. I would probably rank it in my Top 5. Again, a very consistent album with no clunkers, great vocals and all in all, one of Paul's most creative albums. I think the best under the radar tracks on Ram are Eat At Home and Ram On (full version). I also think 3 Legs is very underrated.
As far as the initial negativity about Ram, I wasn't surprised. Paul was getting it from a good number of music critics and radio personalities (disc jockeys) at the time at least here in the New York and Philadelphia markets. I also did not take the negativity from the other 3 Beatles seriously either. Afterall, they were all feuding with Paul especially after he felt forced to sue them. Looking at the album many years later, younger critics that in many cases weren't even born at the time of its release are looking at the overall Ram sessions much more objectively. They see Ram much differently and how creative Paul was at the time.
As a much older Paul fan (can't believe I'm over 70) I don't consider Ram to be in my Top 3. I like some of Paul's later albums even better mainly because Paul's lyrics have generally gotten better with his age. They are more meaningful and mature when he puts his mind to lyrics. Lyrically, I like albums like Chaos and Creation, Memory Almost Full, Egypt Station and Tug of War better. It's why I have trouble comparing Ram with some of these later works. Afterall, Paul was still quite young when he made Ram. One of the reasons however that I love Paul musically is that he has been all over the map when it comes to his composing. While the lyrics on some of the Ram songs are not the best in my opinion a, it is still a great album to my ears. I just wished that Paul could sing now like he did in the 70's.
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BJ and Crew: As usual, BJ's response to all this was great reading. Of course, I LOVE 'Long Hair Lady', but to each his own. My history goes like this; in 1968 my wonderful Dad gave me "The White Album" for my 11th birthday. Let's just say I wasn't thrilled; the music just didn't make sense to my 11 year old brain. Now, three years later, at 14, my Dad tried again and bought me RAM. And the rest, they say, is history. As the 70's went by I became of course, a huge Wings fan, but also loved Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Black Sabbath, Boz Scaggs, Earth/Wind/ Fire, etc. I'm sure I owned over 250 albums and became a creature of 70's Classic Rock. Sooo, IMO, RAM still stands as by all-time favorite album. I wrote a letter to Rolling Stone after they printed their dreadful, untrue, and awful review of RAM; still remember exactly what I told them. They never responded. Ha. Anyway, I will defend RAM to the death (well okay, close to death) and with my last breath. RAM is an amazing sounding album; I remember reading an interview with Hugh McCracken, who played guitar on the album, who said he thought it was his best work. No other album, Beatles, Wings, Zeppelin, Floyd, etc., touched me the way RAM did and still does.
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wingsoverkc wrote:
BJ and Crew: As usual, BJ's response to all this was great reading. Of course, I LOVE 'Long Hair Lady', but to each his own. My history goes like this; in 1968 my wonderful Dad gave me "The White Album" for my 11th birthday. Let's just say I wasn't thrilled; the music just didn't make sense to my 11 year old brain. Now, three years later, at 14, my Dad tried again and bought me RAM. And the rest, they say, is history. As the 70's went by I became of course, a huge Wings fan, but also loved Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, Black Sabbath, Boz Scaggs, Earth/Wind/ Fire, etc. I'm sure I owned over 250 albums and became a creature of 70's Classic Rock. Sooo, IMO, RAM still stands as by all-time favorite album. I wrote a letter to Rolling Stone after they printed their dreadful, untrue, and awful review of RAM; still remember exactly what I told them. They never responded. Ha. Anyway, I will defend RAM to the death (well okay, close to death) and with my last breath. RAM is an amazing sounding album; I remember reading an interview with Hugh McCracken, who played guitar on the album, who said he thought it was his best work. No other album, Beatles, Wings, Zeppelin, Floyd, etc., touched me the way RAM did and still does.
Wingsoverkc...great story especially with your Dad. As I said, Ram took a while to grow on me but the Archive Remaster of 2012 really did it for me. Definitely one of Paul's best to my ears. I have found over the years that a good number of people who are not super big Paul fans like you and me really love Ram and think it is Paul's best Post Beatles' album. As a side note, the guys who do the "Take It Away" Podcast (also can be heard on this Site) who cover all of Paul's Post Beatle songs and albums, think that Ram is Paul's best album. I really respect their opinions.
