i'm going through a mini-mccartney obsession as of late. i can't stop listening to ram. it is not a flushed out piece of pop symphony by any means. it's an album consisting of little ideas, snap-shots of melodies and lyrically, it's just scatter-shot. but, as a whole, it flows so well. it's such a sweet album, and by sweet i mean soft-hearted. the fact that this is paul and his wife recording and singing these songs like "eat at home" and "long haired lady" and "the back seat of my car" is very comforting. it's greatly undervalued and i wished he would have made a few more albums like this.
his debut album, just called mccartney, was a particular obsession of mine back when i was in college at huntsville. mccartney consists of mere sketches of ideas of melodies and lyrical approaches. i mean, it is an album that sounds like an album of outtakes and demos. it really does. but at the time, i was intrigued by brian wilson's modular approach to recording, which he utilized on good vibrations and smile. and i thought, what if instead of taking these little recorded track sections and putting them together to form a cohesive album, instead you record little track sections and never put them together, but combine them into an album of little ideas. and that's what appealed to me so much with paul mccartney's debut album. it was an album of little ideas. and it was impressive that such a pillar of the music industry at the time would release such an album. you could argue that the beach boys did it first with smiley smile, but i wouldn't agree with that argument considering smiley smile only existed because smile was too complex and complicated for the beach boys and smiley smile was just a collection of tracks recorded for smile that they re-recorded and released subsequently.
you would think finding paul mccartney albums is easy. it's not. go to a record store and you won't find a lot of his 70's albums besides the debut, ram and band on the run. you'll find some of his more recent recordings, which i understand are pretty good.
but i'm interested in finding red rose speedway. (which strangely enough, i used to listen to on vinyl because my dad owned it. i listened to it when i was a kid, not because i liked the music, but because the insleeve contained photos of naked women in pseudo s&m poses. for a ten year old kid, that was like finding the lost city of gold).
i would also like to explore some of his early '80s stuff like mccartney II, and tug of war.
but back to ram, i'm not sure of a modern artist who's recorded an album such as this. i'm sure i know of one, but at the moment, i'm at a loss. but there are brilliant moments of exhilaration on that album and distinct beauty. i hear it in my head right now. great album.
his debut album, just called mccartney, was a particular obsession of mine back when i was in college at huntsville. mccartney consists of mere sketches of ideas of melodies and lyrical approaches. i mean, it is an album that sounds like an album of outtakes and demos. it really does. but at the time, i was intrigued by brian wilson's modular approach to recording, which he utilized on good vibrations and smile. and i thought, what if instead of taking these little recorded track sections and putting them together to form a cohesive album, instead you record little track sections and never put them together, but combine them into an album of little ideas. and that's what appealed to me so much with paul mccartney's debut album. it was an album of little ideas. and it was impressive that such a pillar of the music industry at the time would release such an album. you could argue that the beach boys did it first with smiley smile, but i wouldn't agree with that argument considering smiley smile only existed because smile was too complex and complicated for the beach boys and smiley smile was just a collection of tracks recorded for smile that they re-recorded and released subsequently.
you would think finding paul mccartney albums is easy. it's not. go to a record store and you won't find a lot of his 70's albums besides the debut, ram and band on the run. you'll find some of his more recent recordings, which i understand are pretty good.
but i'm interested in finding red rose speedway. (which strangely enough, i used to listen to on vinyl because my dad owned it. i listened to it when i was a kid, not because i liked the music, but because the insleeve contained photos of naked women in pseudo s&m poses. for a ten year old kid, that was like finding the lost city of gold).
i would also like to explore some of his early '80s stuff like mccartney II, and tug of war.
but back to ram, i'm not sure of a modern artist who's recorded an album such as this. i'm sure i know of one, but at the moment, i'm at a loss. but there are brilliant moments of exhilaration on that album and distinct beauty. i hear it in my head right now. great album.
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