Episode 48 – Beatles ’71 pt2

With the solo efforts of John, George and Ringo still on the charts, the spring of 1971 saw Paul McCartney putting the final touches on the follow-up solo release that he hoped would help restore his name as a hit-maker and cement his status as a contender with the likes of his former bandmates. The result was RAM, a more polished studio LP that included an abundance of pure McCartney sound and Beatle-esq melody. From the sprawling Back Seat Of My Car to the stripped-down, almost Yer Blues/For You Blue-esq Three Legs, McCartney proved he had more in him than the results of his hand-made solo debut the year prior. But despite a massive hit with the quirky Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and record advance preorders, the public reaction was cooler toward RAM than Paul had hoped. Critics weren’t sure what to make of Paul’s production and while no one could deny it was a step in the right direction, it fell short of the massive expectation Paul’s contemporaries assumed he was capable of. But this album would prove to grow beyond those initial reactions and stand as an LP ahead of its time. If an initial burst of success was out of reach for Paul, John Lennon too struggled to find commercial footing with the political anthem Power To The People failing to top the charts. Only George and Ringo seemed capable of conquering all they touched in the first half of 1971, a feat no one in the Beatles could or would have predicted…