Paul McCartney, Ram (Remastered) 1971
It's happened to all of us. You know. You were siting around reminiscing with some friends about the "good old days" and all of your musical references started bubbling up. Names of deep tracks start popping up by artists so far out the long tail that the friends around you glaze over with dismay as the signals spark across synapsis in their grey matter triggering wide-eyed "a-ha" moments. Tracks once loved and forgotten and which, after a few more beers, you realized you just had to have again. The next morning you logged onto iTunes or other dubious music download source and downloaded that long-lost gem by Shawn Phillips. Crow, Moxy, Bread, whomever, only to be royally disappointed when your memory far exceeded reality. "What was I thinking?" "How could I have ever been so into this?"
It's so easy to be disappointed by our memories. This is why I was pleasantly surprised with the new re-release of Paul McCartney's 1971 co-creation "Ram". It was McCartney's second solo effort after The Beatles had officially disbanded and one that was produced with his wife Linda (who shares writing credits and performs backing vocals on most tracks). McCartney has just released the re-master of this album and will continue with more to come. The point was to re-master them for the digital age and digital distribution. I don't know if that's a good thing necessarily, but in this case I can only say that the effect is pure magic to my ears - and my memory.
From the very first strumming chords of that acoustic guitar on , "Too Many People", I'm hooked.
