The Paul McCartney Song He Says Is About ‘Mad Captain’ Donald Trump
Paul McCartney has always been an activist for issues he is passionate about. Back with The Beatles, he often spoke up on racial discrimination and he and the band refused to play at any segregated venue. Today, Paul McCartney is an activist for climate change and once wrote a song about it where he called Donald Trump a “mad captain.”
Paul McCartney wrote a song about climate change for ‘Egypt Station’
Egypt Station is the 17th solo studio album from McCartney and debuted in 2018. The album features 16 songs, including “Come On to Me,” “Who Cares,” “Fuh You,” and “Back in Brazil.” Egypt Station debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and is the first number one album for McCartney since 1982’s Tug of War.
One of the songs on Egypt Station, “Despite Repeated Warnings,” was a call for action on climate change. The former Beatle wrote the song after reading an article in a Japanese newspaper that was discussing climate issues. The article pointed out that no one in the government was doing anything about it despite repeated warnings, which is where he found inspiration for the song.
Paul McCartney wrote ‘Despite Repeated Warnings’ about Donald Trump
In an interview with BBC, McCartney discussed the message he had in “Despite Repeated Warnings.” He wanted to call out the politicians who don’t address climate change, which can be seen in lines like “Those who shout the loudest/May not always be the smartest.”
“People who deny climate change… I just think it’s the most stupid thing ever,” McCartney said. “So I just wanted to make a song that would talk about that and basically say, ‘Occasionally, we’ve got a mad captain sailing this boat we’re all on and he is just going to take us to the iceberg [despite] being warned it’s not a cool idea.'”
The “mad captain” he is referring to is former president Trump.
“Well, I mean obviously it’s Trump but there’s plenty of them about,” the singer admitted. “He’s not the only one.”
McCartney is a major activist for fixing climate change
McCartney has never been shy about sharing his politics and the environment is an important issue to him. He has voiced his opinion on racial injustice and attended a recent March for Our Lives rally in New York City. The former Beatle is a vegetarian and owns a farm where he can be one with nature. In an interview with Vice, McCartney says part of his activist spirit comes from his late-wife, Linda, who he believes would be protesting if she were here today.
“Yeah, she would have been out front, she would have been out there,” McCartney explains. “You can look at all these protestors and go, ‘They’re out of step, they’re not doing what ordinary people do.’ But then you would still have slavery, you would still have women with no rights. There would be no changes made. These things all had to have quite violent beginnings, actually, if you think about it. So this is actually quite nice, stopping a few people going to work. I think we’re at a good place and we need to go further and further, but people need to do it themselves. You can’t bully anyone into doing it, you have to attract people to do it.”
