The Banned Paul McCartney Protest Song Paul Simon Called “Garbage”

Paul McCartney and Paul Simon are two of the greatest songwriters of all time. There is no argument that can’t subvert that claim as they are the trailblazers of contemporary music. Even though both these artists share the same decorated and influential status, they were still highly critical of each other’s work. Though, you know what they say—Iron sharpens iron.

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The innate competition between McCartney and Simon not only led to some phenomenal generational hits, but also led to some very poignant and raw comments. Particularly Paul Simon, who called McCartney’s song, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish,” “Garbage.” For context, the track was banned from UK broadcast by the BBC.

It’s not the music Simon thought was lacking. Rather, it was the poor articulation of the political subject matter.

Poor Taste and Politics—Why Paul Simon Hated McCartney’s Single

Despite the fact that Simon was a decorated folk singer at the height of the genre, he still was not a fan of political music. He told Rolling Stone in 1972, “I don’t see that one should be involved in radical politics any more than conservative politics, if that’s their inclination.” He continued, “I don’t see what one thing has to do with another” and “It’s all completely tied up with capitalism. It’s stupid to separate it. That’s an illusory separation.”

Per Paul Simon’s comments, you could probably surmise why he wasn’t the biggest fan of McCartney’s Irish political perspective. However, we will let him tell you why he has a gripe with the single. Simon transparently told Rolling Stone, “‘Give Ireland Back to the Irish’—that’s garbage.” “I don’t say that someone can’t write a social song, or even a song that’s a political song, and have it work, as a song and as a political statement.” “But mass manufacturing of tunes, sort of let’s knock off ‘Power to the People,’ I find it in bad taste. It offends me. I don’t feel it talking to me at all,” concluded Simon.

According to Simon’s comments, it seems his issue with McCartney’s song and political songs in general, is the hypocrisy embedded within them. In his lens, they are hypocritical because they are taking part in the very system they are trying to critique. Simon hated McCartney’s political take, but he didn’t hate McCartney or his taste whatsoever. Matter of fact, he considered McCartney to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time besides Hank Williams and George Gershwin.

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns