Q. "Only The Good Die Young" was controversial for the time. Did you know that was going to happen when you wrote it?
A. We thought we might get some flack for it. I took it to the guys in the band, a couple of them are Catholic and I said "Do you have a problem with this?" and they said "No it's true." There'd been all these novels written and movies made about Jewish guilt and there was nothing about Catholic guilt which to me was the ying to the yang of Jewish guilt. Jewish guilt was all visceral and physical gut guilt. Catholic guilt is all incense and bats in the belfry and mental torment. The point of it wasn't anti-Catholic as much as it was pro-lust. In the end the girl kept her virginity...she remained chaste. When there was all this brouhaha, I was like "What's the problem?" But it did get banned. It got banned at Seton Hall University which was a Catholic college and I think the Archdiocese of St. Louis said "Don't buy this record." As soon as you tell kids they can't have something they want it. I wrote them a letter afterwards saying "Please ban my next record."
From The Republican interview
Q. "Only The Good Die Young" was controversial for the time. Did you know that was going to happen when you wrote it?
A. We thought we might get some flack for it. I took it to the guys in the band, a couple of them are Catholic and I said "Do you have a problem with this?" and they said "No it's true." There'd been all these novels written and movies made about Jewish guilt and there was nothing about Catholic guilt which to me was the ying to the yang of Jewish guilt. Jewish guilt was all visceral and physical gut guilt. Catholic guilt is all incense and bats in the belfry and mental torment. The point of it wasn't anti-Catholic as much as it was pro-lust. In the end the girl kept her virginity...she remained chaste. When there was all this brouhaha, I was like "What's the problem?" But it did get banned. It got banned at Seton Hall University which was a Catholic college and I think the Archdiocese of St. Louis said "Don't buy this record." As soon as you tell kids they can't have something they want it. I wrote them a letter afterwards saying "Please ban my next record."