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Paul McCartney and two of the key musicians on his 1971 classic solo album Ram, looked back on the collection on the eve of its 50th anniversary.

Guitarist David Spinozza recalled to Mojo, that McCartney’s first full-blown professional studio set since the Beatles‘ demise didn’t disappoint: “Immediately what dawned on me was how good the songwriting was. I couldn’t believe how well Paul could sing the melodies to these songs, and sometimes even change the melody. He would just sing it different each time.”

Spinozza, who would go to supply lead guitar on John Lennon‘s 1973 Mind Games album, spoke about how the two former-Beatles differed: “The were both very biz-like. Paul took a little more time with the production. John liked to work fast. Paul was into a lot of the detail. He was always looking for a special, special sound.”

Drummer Denny Seiwell, who went on to form Wings with McCartney during the summer of ’71, credited Linda McCartney for the success of the Ram album: “She was the one who got Paul off his ass when he was having to sue the other Beatles. His heart was broken. He would’ve sat up there in Scotland and just become a drunk. She said, ‘Come on, you’re a songwriter. Let’s go to New York and make a record.’ If she hadn’t gotten on his case, Ram never would’ve been made.”

McCartney agreed that the credit goes to his late first wife: “Linda was great. She just eased me out of it and just sort of said, ‘Hey, y’know, you don’t want to get too crazy’ and made me feel a lot better. And then I moved again into music therapy, which was Ram.”

Paul McCartney explained that despite rock becoming more compartmentalized in the 1970’s, variety was still the key element to his music: “Y’know, I’m not kind of into that, ‘this is what I do — one specific kind of thing.’ Sometimes I sort of think, ‘Well, maybe I should kind of get it all together into one kind of music form, so we come on and play one kind of thing.’ But I’m not like — that’s not me, y’know? It never ends up like that with me. It always ends up a touch of this, a touch of that, ‘touch of that, c’mon, let’s have a laugh, get y’hands together, and we’ll have a touch of that.”