10 Rock Songs That Insulted Other Musicians

For a band that was all about peace and love at the outset, the Beatles deserved a better way to go out than what actually happened. While the Fab Four had been splitting apart creatively for some time before they actually called it quits, the layers of business BS drove a sharp wedge between what used to be some of the best friends to ever form a band together. It was always a little more than business though, and Paul McCartney definitely had some thoughts about his former writing partner.

Since the first solo McCartney album is practically a glorified demo tape, RAM was the first time we got to see what a true solo Macca album would sound like, with the first song aiming straight at John Lennon. Although it may have a cheery bounce to it, Too Many People was written about John’s ongoing peace practices, which got up Paul’s nose a little bit. Even though the peace movement may have been fine back in the day, John’s ongoing messages about how people should live their life was getting a little pretentious for Paul, who wrote a line about too many people preaching practices and not letting them steer you in any one direction.

While RAM has a much better reputation now than it did at the time, this was still the sad split that made it look like one of the greatest partnerships in rock music hated each other. Though John ended up swiping right back (we’ll get to it), Paul did at least try to smooth over the waters with Dear Friend a few years later.