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The summer after my sophomore year of college, I headed to LA for a music marketing internship. I found a room on craigslist ten minutes from the office, and moved into a house with two older guys and their four chihuahuas. In the end, it turned out to be an unbelievable personal growth period – witnessing drug addiction, career stagnation, and perhaps most importantly, the beauty of vinyl.
The house had no internet, no TV. Just a Crosley record player and an out of tune piano. After work, I’d hang out with my housemate-turned-friend, Luke, and he’d put on album after album from his collection while we chatted or cooked dinner.
At some point, Luke pulled out RAM, and I fell in love with it immediately. It’s an absolutely absurd album. At times, it feels like it could be a children’s album (though not in a Jimmy Buffett way). He sings about the importance of eating at home, that too many people don’t have the basics in life, and what to do when your feet/breath/teeth smell. At other times, it’s about teenage rebellion, like the masterful “The Back Seat of my Car” (definitely not appropriate for children: “we’re just busy riding / sitting in the backseat of my car”). Beyond that – at least for me – it’s simply plotless and head-in-the-clouds, like most of LA.
Looking back, RAM marked a completely new way for me to discover music. For the most part, my music discovery had been done through radio and, later, mp3 swapping and burned CDs. This was something different. Limited to someone’s physical collection, carefully starting the record, exploring the cover art as the album got started, remaining active throughout the album with the required turn and re-start – it was refreshing and deliberate.
RAM will always be a nostalgic and symbolic album for me. If it’s new to you, I hope you enjoy it! Listen here.
5/5.
P.S. If you can make sense of this, please let me know:
Well, I know my banana is older than the rest
And my hair is a tangled beretta.
But I leave my pajamas to billy budapest,
And I don't get the gist of your letter.
- Monkberry Moon Delight
I thought I did not like Paul.
ReplyDeleteHappy to see that I was wrong.
Great discovery, beautiful album
thank you for posting this. the beatles have long been my favorite musical act. but i'd never listened to much of their solo stuff excepting the box set of john lennon (rest in peace - today is the anniversary of his death). i'd been meaning to get into paul for a long time so this was the impetus to do that.
ReplyDeletesince i'm on spotify, i pulled up his first two (the family way and mccartney, in whose liner notes he announced the beatles' breakup, incidentally). mccartney is pretty good but RAM is even better.
monkberry moon delight is the best track on the album. good call, son.