The Beatles said:
I don’t care too much for money
For money can’t buy me love
The Beatles also said :*
Money don’t get everything it’s true.
What it don’t get I can’t use.
Now gimme money (that’s what I want)*
Any other examples where an artist has given works with such opposite messages?
Not restricted to songs, any medium will do. Feel free to cite movies, books, etc.
Bob Dylan wote a song called “Time Passes Slowly.” Five years later he observed, “Time is a jet plane–it moves too fast.”
While not as direct a contradiction, there’s the Robert Heinlein stuff. On the one hand he wrote Starship Troopers, which many people insist is a genuine representation of his beliefs at the time, which argues a pseudo-fascist highly militaristic (and presumably conservative) world view. On the other hand, he wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, which AIUI is all about free love and libertarianism.
In ***jfk, *** Kevin Costner played Jim Garrison, who asserted that there was a vast CIA-led conspiracy to kill John Kennedy.
In Bull Durham, Costner tells Susan Sarandon “I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.”
Love is wonderful.
Love is terrible.
Cite: every artist ever.
Leonard Nimoy wrote a book titled I Am Not Spock and then later recanted his story and wrote I Am Spock
now I don’t know what to believe
Charlie Daniels, back when he still had some cred as an “outlaw country” artist penned a line in Long-haired country Boy…“I don’t want much of nothing at all, but I will take another toke”. A few years later he got religion, or something and changed the line to “but I will tell another joke”. And wrote another song, In America, with the line “Some panty-waist judge lets a drug dealer go”.
Apparently his views on cannabis had undergone a sea change. Or maybe he was just pandering to his perceived fan base.
For that matter one might compare the song Taxman which is a strongly libertarian/conservative song that the Tea Party would enjoy to Imagine which advocates a Godless communist utopia (essentially).
Robert Heinlein’s novels might count too.
The Beatles may have said it, but they didn’t write it. That song was written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford.
(and I know I’m picking nits)
mmm
And, of course, they complained that “You Never Give Me Your Money,” (Even though we did. Lots of it.)
Actually, though, The Beatles managed to directly contradict themselves within a single line of a single song. “Revolution 1” off the White Album:
But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out (In).
Love does something similar in “The Red Telephone” from “Forever Changes”:
And if you want to count me, count me out/in.
and
And if you think I’m happy, paint me white/black.
(In the Love song, different vocalists sing the contradictory words at the same time [or maybe it is all Arthur Lee, multi-tracked]. In the Beatles’ song, the “in” is added at the end of the line.)
Although you are no doubt right that the Tea Party could get behind the song, I don’t think the fact that George didn’t like paying income tax at the 95% rate really tells us all that much about his underlying ideological attitudes. You do not have to be a libertarian to dislike paying that much in taxes; you do not even have to think it is wrong in principle.
On the same album, Dion complains about the antics of Runaround Sue and the brags about being The Wanderer.
Heinlein also wrote books where he expresses a strong belief in democracy (Double Star) and monarchy (Glory Road).
“Take It Easy” and “Take It To the Limit,” two songs by the Eagles
Speaking of artists contradicting themselves:
John Lennon: “I am the walrus” vs. “The walrus was Paul”
More seriously, I believe Lennon later repudiated the hyper-jealousy of the Beatles song “Run For Your Life.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd did .38 Special and Gimme Back My Bullets. The songs are superficially opposite in attitude towards guns. Somebody told me the second song is really referencing the band’s lack of hits.
And before Whitman
Not contradictory at all, but an excellent example of history’s double standard. A guy is a stud; a girl is a slut.
There’s a short-story collection where Asimov introduces his In A Good Cause… by explaining that 15-20 years prior he was trying to write an unexpected happy ending: one where the reader doesn’t see it coming by dint of not realizing what a happy ending would be. He closes by explicitly admitting that his interest in the technique had blinded him to content; he didn’t notice that he disagrees with its philosophy until after it was published.
(Humanity has spread to other worlds, each pretty much going its own way and occasionally warring on each other; we follow the adventures of an idealist who wants mankind to unite in the face of united aliens; a government official stymies our hero at every turn with forged documents and the occasional paid informant easy as breaking up the occasional peace conference. Turns out that bureaucrat’s plan has been to stir up that in-fighting for decades, with enough suspicion and mistrust to provoke a desperate arms race – such that Earth can now take on the aliens solo. See, we don’t need to unite with potential allies; we only need 'em to sit out the inevitable conflict, refusing to back either side.)
Mark Rothko:
http://chatterbox.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c86d053ef016762eb3bd1970b-popup
Mark Rothko:
