Log In
Register
2.57am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline
As do I, Mind Games is one of my favourite Lennon albums. It’s just important to differentiate between an article and review. Both set out to do very different things.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
1.35pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline 
To answer the original premise of this thread, RAM, and it’s not even close. Imagine has some gems on it but a few turds, too. RAM is pure perfection, in my opinion.
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
Facebook: rnrchemist
6.08pm
1 August 2013
Offline Funny Paper said
Nice review.
Thank you! 
9.34pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline 
For me some of the songs on Ram are too long, the screaming ending on Monkberry being one example where I would far rather it had been cut by 2 minutes. Back Seat could also have been ended earlier and it wouldn’t have mattered to me (tho many will shriek at such a comment).
Eat At Home was a continental single according to wiki and reached #7 in Holland. You learn something every day.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
11.31pm
8 August 2013
Offline This is incredibly hard as I adore both. I have to be in different moods. If I fancy some rocking, uncomplicated screaming joy I listen to Ram . If I’m feeling reflective or in need of some Lennon truth it’s got to be imagine. I’d say Imagine just about wins though. Crippled inside, gimme some truth, jealous guy, all some of my favourite songs. I suppose I have got a bit desensitised to Imagine (song) just because it’s played all the time and pushed down our throats a bit. I still love it though and crank up the volume whenever I hear it.
1.28am
Reviewers
29 August 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
For me some of the songs on Ram are too long, the screaming ending on Monkberry being one example where I would far rather it had been cut by 2 minutes. Back Seat could also have been ended earlier and it wouldn’t have mattered to me (tho many will shriek at such a comment).
Eat At Home was a continental single according to wiki and reached #7 in Holland. You learn something every day.
I remember it being played a lot on the radio at the time here in Oz as well and had just assumed it was a single, I was rather surprised to find out it apparently wasn’t.
==> trcanberra and hongkonglady - Together even when not (married for those not in the know!) <==
5.34am
3 August 2013
Offline RAM is the superior collection of songs. Imagine has superior cultural impact. Both are awesome.
Don't you know? It's gonna be alright. (Shoo-bee-doo-wop)
7.32pm
8 November 2012
Offline acmac said
Just one more, I think, in case anybody’s still reading.
I definitely read to the end. That was a marvelous review of both albums. Ram is already by favorite Paul album (and Long Haired Lady my favorite song on it) but I’ll definitely be listening to it with new ears now.
parlance
9.29pm
1 August 2013
Offline parlance said
I definitely read to the end. That was a marvelous review of both albums. Ram is already by favorite Paul album (and Long Haired Lady my favorite song on it) but I’ll definitely be listening to it with new ears now.parlance
Thank you, that’s so nice of you to say. Glad you enjoyed it.
1.51am
3 September 2013
Offline RAM was the first solo album I bought, just a wee lad of eleven. Loved it and still do….but I gotta go with Imagine . That’s a damned close call though.
....ya won't be interferin' wit the basic rugged concept o' me personality would ya madam?
1.57am
3 September 2013
Offline Now if it was RAM versus Plastic Ono Band – in my opinion – RAM doesn’t even come close to that masterpiece.
Just my thoughts
My thoughts too, man.
....ya won't be interferin' wit the basic rugged concept o' me personality would ya madam?
8.58pm
20 September 2013
Offline When I was younger (probably 7 or 8) I would always hear RAM and I knew about it even before I really loved the Beatles. I would always be humming Uncle Albert /Admiral Halsey – it was my favorite. I’m not saying that I don’t like Imagine , I mean the title track is one of my favorite songs, but I grew up with RAM so it’s more of a personal favorite. Actually, only about a year ago my dad told me that RAM was Paul. I had just become a huge fan and I totally flipped. 
"Being in the audience actually looks like quite a lot of fun." -Paul McCartney
8.10am
10 June 2013
Offline I really like Crippled Inside ! Hadn’t noticed anyone mention it specifically. I George’s dobro solo is totally killer and can relate all too well to the message. And How?. man, sometimes I feel I’ve had enough.
“Too Many People ” is a masterpiece in it’s own right and I love good openers and McCartney totally wins for me here.
Imagine I don’t think is such a great album opener, but thats just total personal taste. And on the note of that song I’ve said on here once before but I’ll say again, hopefully better: I think people misinterpret Imagine somewhat, especially when they go on about the “no possessions” and the heavy handed idealism. They completely ignore the title, you have to “imagine” the song isn’t being written by a pop star on a Rock & Roll (sex,$,drugs,etc) record. I don’t think Lennon was that stupid to think people would believe he not only advocated these ideals but also followed them letter by letter. It’s an exercise for the mind to think of a world that hadn’t at all turned out like the one we live in. and he even calls those people out “I wonder if you can?”- apparently not?
“Eat At Home ” is awesome, whats there really more to say, though?!
I think RAM is probably a more interesting, more fun, therefore entertaining sounding record by far. But Lennon’s tunes feel more adjusted personally, especially on my own life. Though I usually end up skipping I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier eventually when it comes on and occasionally I won’t listen to It’s So Hard .
"P. P. P. P. S- L. P. Winner."
1.06pm
3 September 2013
Offline I just listened to them back to back again this week. Ram seems to get the nod because its more fun, more accessible, not preachy, don’t like Phil Spector….I love them both but every single song on Ram is too long, just go on and on and on….Sir George Martin said Imagine was “…pure magic. I’d like to have produced that.” I think Ram would have benefited greatly from his overseeing it. PS. I thought Spector was quite restrained on Imagine , nowhere near the overdone Wall of Sound on All Things Must Pass .
....ya won't be interferin' wit the basic rugged concept o' me personality would ya madam?
4.18pm
3 May 2012
Offline Yeah I agree with what you’ve said there, WhereArtEsteban. I can see that ‘Imagine ‘ is probably quite a hard album to listen to for some people, so they might prefer the ”lightness” of ‘Ram ‘. See the latter for me is just a little too fun and games. It’s a good album, but I prefer the former. I can relate to John in some ways, particularly there, so I guess that helps. It’s like listening to your own thoughts sometimes.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
4.32pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline Imagine I find to be a vastly overrated album. Some great tunes on there (How Do You Sleep, Crippled Inside , Jealous Guy , Oh My Love), a wildly overrated title track, and some filler that is truly endless (I find it interesting someone above said Ram seemed to go on and on…listen to Gimme Some Truth and I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier and get back to me!). I love John, but to me Ram and Imagine show the differences between John and Paul…once John loses interest in something, which was typically pretty quickly, all effort at improving it goes out the window, whereas Paul is obsessive over every little detail. I love both of them dearly as musicians, but for me, choosing between these 2 albums is no contest…I’ll take Ram any day of the week, all 8 of them 8)
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
Facebook: rnrchemist
4.42pm
3 May 2012
Offline Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
4.48pm
3 September 2013
Offline LOL DrBeatle left myself wide open for that one!
....ya won't be interferin' wit the basic rugged concept o' me personality would ya madam?
5.11pm
Reviewers
29 November 2012
Offline walrusgumboot said
LOL DrBeatle left myself wide open for that one!
No worries 
I respect your opinion, and I hope mine didn’t come across too harsh…both in print and verbally, I tend to be very opinionated and stubborn in my convictions 
"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"
Please Visit My Website, The Rock and Roll Chemist
Twitter: @rocknrollchem
Facebook: rnrchemist
6.54pm
1 November 2012
Offline It was eleven months ago today,
Funny Paper taught the Bible to play…!
Sorry, got carried away. I just remembered a topic (An allegory of the Lennon/McCartney symbiosis & synergy) which I put up on November 1, 2012, where I playfully imagined an analogy between Paul and John, and the “two Captain Kirks” from an old Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk gets strangely split apart into two beings — one that has all his goodness but is wimpy and passive; the other that has all his power and charm, but is rude and aggressive and dark.
The thing about Paul and Ram is that, generally speaking, Paul was always more about the music, and a playful love of music for music’s sake; whereas John tended to need to be more “significant” and have “meaning” and tap into emotion more.
Of course, this is a generalization, and one can find glimmers of a playful love of music in John, and of meaning and emotion in Paul — but I think these overall reflected respective weakness and strengths: which is precisely why they complemented each other and the two of them dovetailed in the Beatles into a symbiotic fusion.
Paul & John were a Yin/Yang.
Then a Yoko had to come along and ruin it.
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
2 Guest(s)