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1 April 2013
10.49pm
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SatanHimself
Hades-on-Leith
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The mono version was a radio-only promo, so it’s ridiculously rare if it’s real.  Any commercial releases were only in stereo.  Many bootlegs do exist.

E is for 'Ergent'.

1 April 2013
11.26pm
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Ron Nasty
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My copy is buried away in my boxes of vinyl, but I’m a bit OCD and have everything cataloged. It was bought in Beanos in Croydon (once the largest secondhand record store in Europe, now sadly gone) on 13 October 1987. It cost me £65 (which was a hell of a lot then!), and I have written in brackets after the price, promo. The catalogue number I have is Apple MAS-3375.

"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

2 July 2013
4.09pm
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DrBeatle
The Midwest via Boston
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I think I’ve made it clear on here my love for the mono mixes of the Beatles’ albums, as well as my near-obsession with RAM, but the mono mix of RAM is just fantastic. Anyone else here prefer it to the stereo?

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2 July 2013
4.26pm
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Inner Light
Friar Park
Carnegie Hall
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I don’t notice much difference between the stereo and mono mix. Just some minor differences. Not like the ‘White Album ‘ or ‘Sgt. Peppers’. I to also love mono mixes of songs especially if they were intended to be in mono which is most of the songs from the 1960’s.

The further one travels, the less one knows

2 July 2013
5.20pm
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DrBeatle
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I agree there aren’t nearly as many differences between the 2 mixes of RAM as there are in the Beatles’ albums, but some of the cross-fades are a bit smoother and the bass and backing vocals are more upfront in mono…it just breathes a bit better, in my opinion. You can’t go wrong either way, though…it’s RAM! :D

"I know you, you know me; one thing I can tell you is you got to be free!"

 

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2 July 2013
11.43pm
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meanmistermustard
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Totally agree over Ram . I find the mono a less heavy listen compared to the stereo if that makes sense. I suppose I agree with Dr Beatle saying that it breathes a bit better.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

5 July 2013
11.18am
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Gerard
Hollywood Bowl
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Does anyone have a needle drop of RAM’s mono mix? I am very eager to listen.

6 July 2013
2.44pm
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Gerard
Hollywood Bowl
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Found one in Mono, I 16/44, I want a 24/96 so I can really compare the mixes. The one I got sounds muddier, but Mono could indeed sound better in the long run.

6 July 2013
6.24pm
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SatanHimself
Hades-on-Leith
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I have copies of both on vinyl, and while there are some differences I haven’t found them noticeable enough to declare a personal “clear winner” between the two.  Nice that RAM is getting this kind of love though…

E is for 'Ergent'.

17 July 2013
6.12am
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Funny Paper
America
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This blowhard used a lot of big college words and was able to construct paragraphs that seem intelligent — but he got almost everything dead wrong:

http://www.rollingstone.com/mu…..m-19710708

 

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

17 July 2013
10.45am
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meanmistermustard
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Ram was not a well-received album, its only thru time that its appeal has grown. Some folks would still agree with Jon Landau nowadays, I kind of agree with him over Monkberry Moon Delight (“And “Monkberry Moon Delight ” is the bore to end all bores: Paul repeats a riff for five and a half minutes to no apparent purpose”), it lasts way too long, I am fed up well before it ends. Cut it down by 3 minutes and I might go back to it .

I don’t get bothered by reviews and critics as everything is relative and based on opinion, She Loves You was slated in at least 1 review when released as was Pepper as will a number of albums, singles, books, films and who knows what else that have become classics.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

17 July 2013
1.52pm
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Duke_of_Kirkcaldy
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Thank goodness the ‘Great Reappraisal’ of his entire back catalogue over the last decade is paying off.  a-hard-days-night-paul-8

17 July 2013
2.13pm
Ben Ramon
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A lot of bands now embody and imitate the RAM ethos: as one review put it, “celebrating little pleasures with big melodies.” Whimsical nonsense lyric set to music half-homespun, half-grandiose. It’s all over the place, little bits and bobs rearing their heads in no particular order and then retreating back into the general fray. In 1971 it seemed ridiculous, especially from one of the main songwriters in a band that had so much to say; but nowadays with the rise of “indie” the style is extremely relevant. Plus the practice of having an untutored, “natural” sounding woman’s voice singing in harmony with the male singer; something scorned back then but now taken up by plenty of folky lo-fi bands of the last twenty years, from Belle and Sebastian to Yo La Tengo. I can understand why everyone hated RAM when it came out, but really it was just incredibly ahead of its time.

 

 

 

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SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'

17 July 2013
2.47pm
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parlance
Slaggers
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^^ Thanks for putting Ram into context, Ben. It’s interesting reading reviews of the past, and this one is particularly insightful of the times. While the reviewer pretty much lambastes the album, I find that in 1971 he made observations that people make nowadays make about music in general and Paul and The Beatles in particular: that groups nowadays are often little more than a collection of solo artists or that the whole of The Beatles was better than the sum of the parts, for instance.

I find this paragraph in particularly interesting:

The odd thing about it is that within the context of the Beatles, Paul’s talents were beyond question. He was perhaps the most influential white bass player of the late Sixties, the only one of the Beatles with a keenly developed personal instrumental style. He was also the group’s best melodist, and he surely had the best voice.

Because you often come away with the sense that Rolling Stone just dismissed Paul as a lightweight wholesale. Perhaps when the magazine was still young, some objectivity was still possible? But the above quote shows that at least one critic had and was allowed to express respect for Paul’s talent. I also think it’s interesting the critic flat out called John’s “Power To The People ” flat-out awful.
 
parlance

Beware of sadness. It can hit you. It can hurt you. Make you sore and what is more, that is not what you are here for. - George

Check out my fan video for Paul's song "Appreciate" at Vimeo or YouTube.

17 July 2013
5.59pm
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Von Bontee
496 km NW of the '69 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival
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That review’s been discussed before, in the “Ram Remastered” thread.

As before, I note that Landau managed the remarkable triple achievement of being a music writer, rock critic, and record producer – and sucking at all three! He’s done a great job as Bruce Springsteen’s manager for the last 40 years, I’ll grant him that. Also, apparently, he lost the vision in one eye a couple years ago after surgery to remove a brain tumour, so he gets my sympathy for that. But his writings are still those of a humourless prig. (One time back in the 60s he wrote a negative review of some blues album; and that he was an authority on the subject because “I’ve been listening to blues for six months now”. He actually wrote that! Just like the old saying: A man has to suffer to sing the blues; but can apparently become an authority on it after only half a year of listening. What a douche.)

More thought-provoking Landau goodness:

“Traditionally there have been three types of Negro musicians in pop music. The first consists of artists who either for aesthetic or financial reasons have chosen to sever their ties with specifically Negro music and instead work in the general field of pop. Ritchie Havens, as an exponent of the contemporary urban ballad in the Ochs, Dylan, Paxton tradition, and Jimi Hendrix, as an exponent of freaking, are good examples. The second class consists of performers who are still working in one of the basic Negro musical forms but who seek to alter their approach enough to make it appealing to a large part of the white audience. Motown is the ideal example, but someone like Lou Rawls also falls into this category. Finally there is the hard core: performers who won’t or can’t assimilate, and therefore just continue to do their thing.”

So to sum up: apparently all of Black “pop” music is primarily defined by how “white” it is; and apparently Havens’ blues roots and Hendrix’ blues/soul/jazz elements don’t exist; and in this entire universe of Black music there are exactly THREE types of musicians! You know, just like how there are only three types of bird – ones that are big, ones that are small, and ones that are bigger than the small ones, yet not as large the bigger ones. Expert analysis, that.

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

17 July 2013
6.18pm
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parlance
Slaggers
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Von Bontee said

More thought-provoking Landau goodness:

“Traditionally there have been three types of Negro musicians in pop music. The first consists of artists who either for aesthetic or financial reasons have chosen to sever their ties with specifically Negro music and instead work in the general field of pop. Ritchie Havens, as an exponent of the contemporary urban ballad in the Ochs, Dylan, Paxton tradition, and Jimi Hendrix, as an exponent of freaking, are good examples. The second class consists of performers who are still working in one of the basic Negro musical forms but who seek to alter their approach enough to make it appealing to a large part of the white audience. Motown is the ideal example, but someone like Lou Rawls also falls into this category. Finally there is the hard core: performers who won’t or can’t assimilate, and therefore just continue to do their thing.”

So to sum up: apparently all of black “pop” music is primarily defined by how “white” it is; and apparently Havens’ blues roots and Hendrix’ blues/soul/jazz elements don’t exist; and in this entire universe of black music there are exactly THREE types of musicians! You know, just like how there are only three types of bird – ones that are big, ones that are small, and ones that are bigger than the small ones, yet not as large the bigger ones. Expert analysis, that.

 

LOL. Dear lord, that was… execrable. And is that from the ’70s? If so, who was still using Negro, especially in print?

parlance

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Von Bontee

Beware of sadness. It can hit you. It can hurt you. Make you sore and what is more, that is not what you are here for. - George

Check out my fan video for Paul's song "Appreciate" at Vimeo or YouTube.

17 July 2013
6.38pm
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Ron Nasty
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Landau wasn’t the only one at Rolling Stone writing reviews like that at the time. They were all trying to outdo Greil Marcus’s opening line to his review of Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait the previous year. Now a much reassessed album, considered a cornerstone of Americana, and rumoured to be the subject of the next in Dylan’s Bootleg Series along with New Morning. Marcus opened his review with the unforgettable “What is this shit?”

Difficult to think of a more damning review!

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"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty

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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966

17 July 2013
10.03pm
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Von Bontee
496 km NW of the '69 Toronto Rock n Roll Revival
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I always liked Greil Marcus, though! He had interesting insights and nice turns of phrase and a great sense of humour, qualities which I rarely encountered in Landau’s stuff.

EDIT: Parlance, that piece was from 1967 or early ’68, so “Negro” was still pretty much the standard terminology, although “Black” was becoming hip. (Which Landau certainly wasn’t!)

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

17 July 2013
10.21pm
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Funny Paper
America
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Ram was not a well-received album, its only thru time that its appeal has grown…”

I knew with utter certainty, from the first moments I heard Ram played, back in the summer of ’71 on speakers set out on the front porch of a house by people I didn’t even know, that I loved it.  I didn’t need Any Time At All .

 

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

18 July 2013
1.25am
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WhereArtEsteban
Nashville Tennessee
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RAM!! I love every bit of it!

Jon Landau just isn’t a groovy enough dude I guess. With his comment saying “Eat At Home ” and “Sitting in the Backseat of my Car” are the only worthy numbers shows his bias I think- destined for Bruce Springsteen (ironic he bashes Paul’s “Smile Away ” vocal, really). So something like “Three Legs” or “Heart Of The Country ” “Monkberry Moon Delight ” probably sounded lame or off the cuff or something, but when viewed from a different perspective it’s really not. 

My favorite is “Too Many People “, I’m a sucker for a great opener and I’m shocked that this song didn’t make the album for people like it did me! The vocals on “TMP” and “Admiral Halsey ” are so inspiring, the energy is moving to me. And Monkberry is brilliant psychedelic-angst wordplay. John Landau must’ve been frigid as fuk

Personally I think “Heart Of The Country ” is a much more interesting track than “Blackbird “(but not more than “Mother Nature’s Son “); certainly more relevant to me- feeling like getting away from the city etc…other than the “you were only waiting for this moment to arrive” bit, that’s true for everyone a-hard-days-night-george-10

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