Everyone Always Talks About A Good Thing Coming To An End, As If Life Was Over. But I'll Be 40 When This

MAY 17th, 1971: RAM IS RELEASED

❝ Ladies and gentlemen, this is an album from a long, long time ago, when the world was different. This is an album that is part of my history – it goes back to the wee hills of Scotland where it was formed. It’s an album called RAM. It reminds me of my hippie days and the free attitude with which was created. I hope you’re going to like it, because I do! ❞

Genre: indie pop, psychedelia SIDE ONE: 1. Too Many People                                2. 3 Legs                                  3. Ram On                    4. Dear Boy                    5. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey                    6. Smile Away SIDE TWO: 1. Heart of the Country                     2. Monkberry Moon Delight                     3. Eat at Home                     4. Long Haired Lady                     5. Ram On (Reprise)                     6. The Back Seat of My Car

PAUL: Linda and I were travelling through Scotland, heading north from Glasgow. As I’m driving, I’m just thinking. Linda often used to say she can see my brain working, my face would get a look on it and it’d be just filing through ideas. And I just hit upon the word ‘ram’. It’s strong, it’s a male animal, and then there is the idea of ‘ramming’, you know, pushing forward strongly. 

⊱  The cover photo was Linda’s and the surrounding border was something I did. It was all very homemade and quirky, but I think that added to the charm of it. I remember when we were doing the layout for the gatefold, we put a little piece of grass from the garden and stuck it on. There were all sorts of little things that just came from our lifestyle at that moment. […] when we went to Scotland, we had a very free, sort of hippie lifestyle. It meant I could sit around in the kitchen in the little farmhouse we lived in, with the kids running around and me just with my guitar, making up anything I fancied. 

⊱  I’d been serious long enough with the Beatles, and I wanted to see if I could do something that played more into my love of the surreal. As far as art’s concerned, I probably like modern art more than traditional art. […] For me, it manifested itself in things like “Monkberry Moon Delight” or “3 Legs”. They were slightly wacky; it was nice having an opportunity to do that rather than having to write for someone else’s preconceived notion.

 ⊱  I tried to avoid any Beatles clichés and just went to different places. So the songs became a little more episodic or something. I took on that kind of idea a bit more than I would’ve with The Beatles. I suppose I was just letting myself be free. So if I wanted to do “Monkberry Moon Delight” with a “piano up my nose”, then I figured, that’ll be ok.

Skåne, Sweden

PAUL and LINDA McCARTNEY during WINGS' recording of LONDON TOWN. 1977. Photos taken by HENRY DILTZ. (x)

Love this image of Paul looking like your eccentric drunk uncle taking his leave.

they're so annoying....... like ur in the middle of an interview.....

Paul McCartney writing too many people and dear friend in the same year is insane I feel bad for John

I have two moods.

1. Constant panic and worryng about every little detail

2. It is what it is

It came as a welcome relief that John and Paul, along with Neil Aspinall, planned a quick trip to New York on May 11, where several press events had been scheduled to announce Apple Records in the States. Friends agreed that getting John away might do him a world of good; being alone, with just Paul to steady him, might have a calming influence. Paul was grappling with his own set of anxieties. “We wanted a grand launch,” Paul said, “but I had a strange feeling and was very nervous.” Drugs, he later admitted, may have been at the root of his problem. – Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography

Dusty quickly realized that people were phoning to say goodbye and she was unable to deal with this, although she constantly spoke with Linda McCartney who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995. She put Dusty in touch with her own American consultant, who agreed with the treatment Dusty was receiving from The Royal Marsden. Linda was a huge support, sending her flowers and gifts each week, but no-one knew just how ill Linda was. Her death on 17 April 1998 devastated Dusty because she never believed her friend’s cancer to be terminal. After all, she had beaten it before, why couldn’t Linda? Paul took over from his late wife by phoning and sending gifts.

Sharon Davies, Dusty: an intimate biography of Dusty Springfield, 2008