Too Many People

Song ratings

Rating Comments Author Date
Average song rating Dmitry August 22, 2012
Average song rating A lot of critics have the opinion that Ram is uncomparable with McCartney. I don't fully subscribe that opinion. There are some songs on Ram that has that Do It Yourself-feeling that McCartney has all around. Too Many People is not the best example, although Pauls (?) guitar solo still sounds amateuristic. I am very glad that Paul used a professional drummer for this album. He planned to use three different drummers, but as Denny Seiwell did that well in the first week, Paul decided to stick with him. It shows: the drumming on Ram is of a much higher level than it was ever on McCartney. Paul also used the guitarist Dave Spinoza and Hugh McCracken on the recordings, plus the New York Philharmonic.
What is Paul singing in the intro of Too Many People? p*ss off cake? The guitar sound shows tension and that's why I like it. Nice drum pattern by Denny here. Linda's harmonies come in a bit loud on 'peace of cake' and 'lucky break'. Double tracked voice on 'that was your first mistake'. Is that a brass sound coming in at 0.52 or just plain keyboards? Either way, it sounds good. Paul lets his voice go loose somewhat at 1.28 to go back directly into the bridge. I don't hear an edit, so that's pretty well controlling the vocals here. The guitar solo (1.58) sounds like Paul's style to me. I has always sounded a bit out of tune to my ears. Me no like. The cowbell is effective here. The guitar licks coming with the third verse (Too May People Preaching Practices) a clear dig at John and Yoko) sounds much better to me. The solo guitar returns at 3.05 and still sounds a bit amateurish to me. Paul is yelling and making sounds like he did in Hey Bulldog. Is it to support the lead guitarist? Some extra drumming on the floortom (?) from 3.26 makes the song even heavier at this point. More percussion coming in. The coda of the song sounds Beatle-ish to my ears, reminiscing of Strawberry Fields. Good song, a pity about the leadguitar.
Bobber April 11, 2012
Average song rating An amazing high-spirited performance. The first 3 1/2 minutes are cool enough with the sharp-edged lyrics (purportedly directed to the embarrassing posturings of John and Yoko) and the driving guitar and vocals (and hey doesn't Linda sound good here?). During the closing guitar solo, Paul's adrenalin kicks in, taking this song into hyper-warp drive with the frenzied war-whoops and booming percussions. This sends the Ram album soaring at a pace that never lets up until the fadeout of "Back Seat of My Car". Paul shows the world that he can render some "Primal Screams" every bit as well as John--except his (Paul's) tend to resemble a frolic in an enchanted forest with satyrs and fauns and a Nymph named Linda, while John's are like the fist-shaking tantrum of a six-year-old.

This song contains the most entertaining rhyming lyric in Paul's career when he links up "Back, this is" to rhyme with "practices".
Bruce Beatlefan October 15, 2011
Average song rating Oscar July 2, 2005

Lyrics

Too many people going underground
Too many reaching for a piece of cake
Too many people pulled and pushed around
Too many waiting for that lucky break

That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you
You broke it in two

Too many people sharing party lines
Too many people never sleeping late
Too many people paying parking fines
Too many hungry people losing weight

That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you
You broke it in two

Too many people breaching practices
Don't let them tell you what you wanna be
Too many people holding back, this is
Crazy and maybe it's not like me

That was your last mistake
I find my love awake and waiting to be
Now what can be done for you
She's waiting for me.

 

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