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Ram is the second solo studio album by Paul and Linda McCartney, released in May 1971 on Apple Records. The album was recorded amid Paul McCartney's legal action in the United Kingdom's High Court to dissolve the Beatles' partnership, following the band's break-up the year before. It is the only album credited to the couple. He and Linda recorded it in New York with guitarists David Spinozza and Hugh McCracken, and future Wings drummer Denny Seiwell. Its release coincided with a period of bitter acrimony between McCartney and his former bandmate John Lennon, who perceived verbal slights in the lyrics to songs such as "Too Many People".
On release, Ram was unfavourably received by the majority of music critics, although opinion has become more positive in subsequent decades. The album was a commercial success nonetheless, topping the national albums charts in the UK, the Netherlands and Canada. Three singles were issued from Ram: "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey", which was McCartney's first number 1 hit in America as a solo artist, "The Back Seat of My Car" and "Eat at Home". The album was remastered on vinyl and CD and released as a deluxe box set in May 2012.
According to Peter Brown, John Lennon believed that a number of songs on Ram contained jibes aimed at him, particularly "Too Many People" and "Dear Boy".[24][25] Lennon thought the line "Too many people preaching practices" was directly referencing him and Yoko Ono.[26] McCartney later claimed that only two lines in "Too Many People" were directed at Lennon. "In one song, I wrote, 'Too many people preaching practices,' I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn't anything else on [Ram] that was about them. Oh, there was 'You took your lucky break and broke it in two.'"[nb 7][27] Brown also described the picture of two beetles copulating on the back cover as symbolic of how Paul McCartney felt the other Beatles were treating him.[24][25] George Harrison and Ringo Starr were said to consider the track "3 Legs" as an attack on them and Lennon.[6] Paul said that "Dear Boy" was directed at Linda's ex-husband, and not Lennon.[20] As well as conducting a war of words via the British music press,[6] Lennon's response was the scathing "How Do You Sleep?",[24][25][28] and it has been considered too that "Crippled Inside", also from his Imagine album, was directed at McCartney.[6][16] Early editions of Imagine included a postcard of Lennon pulling the ears of a pig in a parody of Ram's cover photograph of McCartney holding a ram by the horns.
