"Ram" sessions (Sound Recorders Studio, Los Angeles)

About

From Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney, by Howard Sounes:

Paul and Linda flew to Los Angeles to complete Ram. Despite the good work done in New York, Paul had become bogged down in indecision, unable to select between the 20 or so songs he had recorded. To try and help his brother-in-law finish the record, John Eastman introduced Paul to the fashionable producer Jim Guercio, a fellow Eastman & Eastman client who’d won a Grammy for his work with Blood, Sweat and Tears. Guercio was so keen to produce Paul that he cancelled his honeymoon to help out with Ram, laying down a new track, ‘Dear Boy’, and working to make a final selection from the songs Paul already had in the bag. It was clear McCartney felt under pressure to do better than his début album, partly in answer to Lennon’s criticism of McCartney as Engelbert Humperdinck music. Yet the pressure had a paralysing effect on the star. Instead of finishing Ram in LA, Paul kept fiddling with it, block-booking a Hollywood studio and insisting Guercio was there every day from 10:00 a.m. so they could record, though Paul rarely showed up before mid-afternoon. Then he’d smoke a joint and jam. Guercio tried to assert some discipline, but could not guide or control his star: ‘Paul is not an artist you can direct or collaborate with. You kind of have [to] support his ideas.’ As weeks passed, and the album was no nearer completion, Guercio gave Paul a suggested track listing and told him the engineers could do what was necessary. He had to go. ‘I think he took offence. I said, “No, no, this isn’t personal, Paul, you don’t need me. I can’t come in here every day. We’ve got to finish … I have other obligations … I gave up my damn honeymoon here!’

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When we decided to do the new album, we wanted to make it fun, because it isn’t worth doing anything if you can’t have fun doing it… Ram is real sweaty rock’n’roll… It strikes me as being a hundred times better than the McCartney LP… The McCartney thing was a whole different trip that I needed to go through. This one, though, is really my music, this is really where I am.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

Ram is one of those albums that takes a bit of time to get used to. I can imagine the plight of a lonely little reviewer somewhere, sitting in an office, the heating has been turned off and he’s got this record, which he has got to say these wondrous things about. And he’s got to keep his reputation, so a whole load of things come into his mind when he puts it on and I think if it isn’t totally immediate, you do tend to get these not too hot reviews.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

When I mixed ‘Long Haired Lady’ he never commented, he was just listening to what I had done. He stood behid me, with his hands on the chair, with his head next to mine, because he wanted to hear exactly what I heard from the speakers when I mixed. And when it finished, I turned around and I saw a tear running down his face. Paul is a very, very sensitive person. Listening to his vocal work with Linda really got him into it. It was amazing.

Eirik Wangberg – From Facebook

Last updated on April 16, 2023

Songs recorded

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