One of the first things I noticed about the track listing for The McCartney Archive Collection edition of Ram was this guy named “Dixon Van Winkle”. Not exactly a household name, even in a McCartney fan’s household.

I had to figure out what his story was. Dixon Van Winkle wanted to get in the business as a recording engineer. He got a job at Phil Ramone’s A&M studio in 1969. Ramon later oversaw the orchestral overdubs for the Ram album. It’s interesting to note than Ram is probably McCartney’s most “Bacharach-esque” album and that he had one Burt’s right hand man, Phil Ramone, work on the sessions. Ramone later handed off some duties to Van Winkle during the Ram sessions. I don’t know how these things work, but I would think that delegating responsibility to someone else on a McCartney session was a little audacious. Apparently it wasn’t a problem, as Van Winkle later worked on Red Rose Speedway, and in 1987 Paul attempted to record an entire album with Ramone as producer.

Here is a quote from Dixon Van Winkle from Mix Online about working on Ram:

Paul McCartney came to A&R to record Ram, his second solo album, with Phil Ramone behind the board. Swamped with projects by this time, Ramone turned the reins over to Van Winkle. “What a ball I had! Paul felt comfortable with me. Each day he and Linda, along with their baby, Mary, would be led up to Studio A in a back elevator. We’d set up a playpen for Mary and go to work. I also worked on Red Rose Speedway. Paul is such a pro! And he’s a one-taker. Paul liked to develop ideas in the studio, and he encouraged me to throw different sounds at him to inspire him. For example, he’d play his guitar, and I’d put different loop and echo effects on it and feed the processed sound out through his cans. He liked that spontaneity. One day he was standing around strumming on a ukulele, rocking from side to side, singing “Ram On”. I ran out and put a mic on the ukulele, one on his face and a pair of mics down by his feet. The tapping you hear comes from the mics on his feet. We were recording to an Ampex MM1000 16-track machine that looked like something you should be making ice cream with.

Somehow Van Winkle also chose “Another Day” as the lead single. For as much as a “tyrant” as some claim him to be, it seems that Paul was taking ideas from everyone. Perhaps it was easier to take ideas from someone he barely knew than from someone with whom he had a defined, long-standing, relationship such as George Harrison.

Dixon Van Winkle mixes of “Hey Diddle” and “Great Cock And Seagull Race” will appear on the Deluxe Ram. This raises all sorts of questions about the timing of chronology of these tracks. I though “The Great Cock And Seagull Race” was from late 1971, whereas the Ram sessions ended in early 1971. So perhaps, “The Great Cock And Seagull Race” had its on origins in the Ram sessions with further overdubs in late 1971. Or maybe Van Winkle was just around to do the mixes. “Hey Diddle” is assumed to be a Ram-era mix. Surely, the liner notes will sort it out.

For the super-curious, Jon Kelly, who mixed “A Love For You”, is mostly know for production and engineering for Kate Bush, The Damned, and Chris Rea. His McCartney credits are for the Deluxe McCartney II, Press To Play, and Flowers In The Dirt. The common denominator between those three projects is the version of Cold Cuts prepared in 1986-87. Presumably, that means we’re getting an eighties mix of “A Love For You”. I never would have expected that.

Ram Deluxe! Here it is. What we’ve all been waiting for. The agonizing speculation can end, and the agonizing complaints can begin. That is sort of a joke. Who can really complain about this? We’re going to get a newly remastered version of Ram. That’s good. We’re going to get the mono version of Ram, which was never available before. We’re going to get Thrillington, which is really not that big a deal.

And we’re going to get what we should be thinking of as 4 new songs. “A Love For You” was released with some contemporary updates several years ago on a soundtrack (The In-Laws), so it doesn’t really count as “new”. “Hey Diddle” is new (never mind the little snippet on Wingspan). “Great Cock And Seagull Race” was broadcast on the radio once in 1972. It’s an instrumental. I thought it was a Wings song based on the broadcast vintage, but it might be another Ram outtake. “Sunshine Sometime” is the lovely tune from the Rupert The Bear soundtrack. And lastly, “Rode All Night” is the jam with Denny Seiwell that was transformed into “Giddy” for Roger Daltrey for his 1977 album One Of The Boys. I don’t know if this is the full jam, or an edit.

RAM Deluxe 4CD/DVD + download details

CD1 Ram (remastered)

CD2 Bonus tracks (remastered):
1. Another Day
2. Oh Woman, Oh Why
3. Little Woman Love
4. A Love For You (Jon Kelly remix)
5. Hey Diddle (Dixon Van Winkle mix)
6. Great Cock And Seagull Race (Dixon Van Winkle mix)
7. Rode All Night
8. Sunshine Sometime (earliest mix)

CD3 Ram mono (remastered)

CD4 Thrillington (remastered)

DVD
Ramming; Heart Of The Country; 3 Legs; Hey Diddle; Eat At Home On Tour; a selection of Now Hear This jingles

Download – Hi Res audio (both limited and unlimited)

Release date May 22

Now for some complaining. As a collector of McCartney “rarities” and other various “jazz mixes”, I know a little about what isn’t included in this package. We have super early mixes of “Long Haired Lady”, “The Back Seat Of My Car”. There are Ram-era versions of songs that came out later, such as “Little Lamb Dragonfly”, “I Lie Around” (with Paul singing the entire thing!), “Get On The Right Thing”, plus all of those amazing Ram Demos we reviewed in the last post. None of that stuff is on this release. Okay, I really shouldn’t know, let alone have heard any of that stuff, so my complaint has to be tempered.

However, as recently as January, more material was, in fact, planned to be on Ram Deluxe. Many of my “missing” tracks were included:

• I Lie Around (Paul on vocals) 1971 mix
• Get On The Right Thing (1971 mix without Red Rose Speedway overdubs)
• Little Lamb Dragonfly (1971 mix, with Paul singing, without Red Rose Speedway overdubs)
• Smile Away (Live 72 )
• A Love For You (1979 mix)
• Heart Of The Country (Take 1)
• Now Hear This Song Of Mine (Version 1)
• Now Hear This Song Of Mine (Version 2)
• When The Wind Is Blowing (1971, prior to 1978 overdubs)

Apparently, “When The Wind Is Blowing” was dropped at the last minute in favor of “The Great Cock And Seagull Race”, but it isn’t clear why.

In August 1971, McCartney considered releasing “Get On The Right Thing” as a single, with “A Love For You” as the b-side. The single, which would have been pretty good, was cancelled. Previously unknown to me, another attempt at releasing these songs was planned for early 1972, which “The Great Cock And Seagull Race” included as an additional b-side. Obviously this didn’t happen either.

These deluxe releases have been uniformly excellent, but they haven’t generally been a “collector’s paradise” (aside from McCartney II). Presumably, much of this “missing” material is being held back for the McCartney HP cloud project. There is also supposed to a “demos” project someday, so some of this stuff could find a home there. Regardless, this will be a nice release. More new stuff would have been nice, but Ram Deluxe will still be a highpoint for McCartney fans in 2012.

 

Paul McCartney recorded dozens of demos for Ram, his second studio album. This list of Ram demos appeared on Internet forums a couple months ago. I copied the text as it was originally posted, without any corrections. A quick scan of the titles is enough to make a McCartney fan give a left arm.

Recorded in scotland and in London for a period of 4 months ( May to August ), here is the listing of the 29 songs put on tape just before going to New York ). But sorry, no other infos, and never heard any of them . Just have the listing thanks to a good friend of mine, with handwriting notes by a unknown listener, could be eddy Pumer. Enjoy. I hope we will hear these one day.

1. HEART OF THE COUNTRY ( great voice and feel )
2. TOO MANY PEOPLE ( embryonic version )
3. WHY AM I CRYING ( embryonic )
4. BACK SEAT OF MY CAR ( wonderful )
5. JUST ANOTHER DAY ( great )
6. GYPSY GET AROUND ( wonderfulm beach boys song ) on uké
7. RAM ON ( on uké )
8. RUPERT SUNSHINE SOMETIME ( cool )
9. RUPERT GUITAR SONG INSTRUMENTAL ( with whistling )
10. RUPERT LITTLE LAMB DRAGONFLY ( magical )
11. SMILE AWAY ( at the end , Paul talked to Linda about having Jimi Hendrix and a jazzy drummer for forming a trio and records this song soon )
12. LOVE IS LONG ( with unknown verses ) with Linda
13. EAT AT HOME / BUDDY’S BREAKFAST / INDEED I DO medley with Linda, loose
14. MONKBERRY MOON DELIGHT / FRENZY medley ( wonderful and crazy)
15. GET ON THE RIGHT THING ( with another talk between Paul & Linda about Jimi possible involvment at the end ), great take
16. LITTLE WOMAN LOVE
17. COUNTRY DREAMER ( with insects noise around )
18. LONG HAIRED LADY ( with Linda )
19. I LIE AROUND ( country feel )
20. 3 LEGS ( drunk version ) totally out of tune version
21. WE RE SO SORRY ( drunk too )
22. A LOVE FOR YOU ( bluesy slow version )
23. SHE CAN’T BE FOUND ( country tune )
24. SOME PEOPLE NEVER KNOW ( great home version)
25. HANDS ACROSS THE WATER ( fun but too long )
26. TOMORROW (with a fun quote about yesterday at the end, Paul said he wrote this as a game) )
27. BIG BARN BED ( embryonic version on guitar )
28. GREAT DAY ( with the kids around )
29. I AM YOUR SINGER ( with Linda )

I think we can account for all of these songs. It’s interesting to note that remarks made at the time referred to 22 tracks or 30 tracks being recorded during the Ramsessions. I thought it is was an exaggeration, but it seems quite likely based on these demos.

Some notes:

• “She Can’t Be Found” is almost certainly part of what became “Hey Diddle”.
• “Rupert Guitar Song Instrumental” sounds like it could be “When The Wind Is Blowing”, as that song features whistling throughout.
• We also see that “Little Lamb Dragonfly” was, in fact, a “Rupert” song.
• “Why Am I Crying” is probably the song later known as “Fourth Of July” which was recorded by John Christie.
• “We’re So Sorry” is unidentifiable.
• Jimi Hendrix on Ram? What would that have done for Paul’s damaged rock cred I wonder?

The McCartney Archive Collection seems to be moving forward with Ram as the next album. I don’t expect to see many of these demos on that set. He should probably give away some of the fragmentary demos, then hold the more complete demos for his supposed “demos collection”.