Lyrical contradictions

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I was listening to the Monkees yesterday, and this line from "Shades of Grey" blew my mind:
"Today there is no day or night."
Anyone else with a favorite lyrical contradiction (preferably unintentional)?

― Nick A., Friday, 27 September 2002 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

anyone who sings something along the lines of 'i will love you always, until the end of time' - Bon Jovi did this i recall

time doesnt end you moron! and if it did then you couldnt love them always could ya?

― blueski, Friday, 27 September 2002 15:57 (twenty-three years ago)

"We don't need no education."

It's a double negative. It means you do need education. Which you do, if you're using double negatives.

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 27 September 2002 20:55 (twenty-three years ago)

time doesnt end you moron! and if it did then you couldnt love them always could ya?

Scientifically speaking, time may well end. It began, so it could end. And 'always' only makes sense while time exists, so there's no contradiction. If anything, that lyric is an elaboration, even a tautology. But not a contradiction.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 27 September 2002 21:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Da dododo dadada is all I want to say to you.

― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 27 September 2002 21:35 (twenty-three years ago)

*sigh* As loathe as I am to defend Bon Jovi, the whole point of the lyric is that time is assumed not to end, so in the sense that Our Pal Jon Bovi is singing it, it does mean always. Sort of like "I will love you til the sun falls from the sky" or some shit like that. What you SHOULD take him to task for is a horrid cliche, a definite case of "use other words please".

As for Eyeball's statement that time "began", that also may be scientifically dubious; there's also the theory that though there may be a finite number of seconds that you can point to, it may actually be a continuum with no beginning or end (there is the theory of the Moebius...ahem). But surely this isn't the place to be discussing temporal physics.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 27 September 2002 22:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm back I'm on the rag and ovulating...

― Kris (aqueduct), Friday, 27 September 2002 23:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Slowly walking down the hall...

Oh, you know the rest.

― My name is Kenny, Friday, 27 September 2002 23:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Damn it, Kenny snagged mine.

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 28 September 2002 00:40 (twenty-three years ago)

who can explain to me what would happen once time 'ended' ?

― mike (ro)bott, Saturday, 28 September 2002 00:49 (twenty-three years ago)

It depends on whether you like the expanding universe theory, or the collapse-back-into-a-small-ball theory.
</physics-geek>

― lyra (lyra), Saturday, 28 September 2002 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

who is jon bovi?

― di smith (lucylurex), Saturday, 28 September 2002 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

"yeah yeah yeah/no no no no no" - the new york dolls, "personality crisis"

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Saturday, 28 September 2002 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

lyra- give me both of 'em. i presume i'll re-encounter 'em both in astronomy class this semester. my uncle is an electrical engineer, he fostered my interest in quantum mechanics and the like when i was a "science head", but i've lost track of them.

― mike (ro)bott, Saturday, 28 September 2002 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Deliberate contradiction: Scan the airwaves for Radio Dada / every Friday evening at six in the morning. [Half Man Half Biscuit]

― Daniel (dancity), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:26 (twenty-three years ago)

i have always been really irritated by " what i choose is my choice" - the stupid smashing pumpkins man that guy annoyed me yeah maybe not a contradiction as such but still it deserves mention as being just plain silly

― donna (donna), Saturday, 28 September 2002 06:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Bono reckons he cant live 'with or without me'...but he has done, lying git

― blueski, Saturday, 28 September 2002 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." -Rush

(Not quite a contradiction, since Geddy Lee makes a distinction here between choosing and decision-making, and implies that the thing being chosen is different from the thing being decided upon. It would seem that "If you choose ... you still have made a choice" is a redundant statement. But if you choose not to choose, you're not doing any more "choosing" than anyone else who breathes, eats, and sleeps by way of those kinds of binary yes-or-no decisions. And furthermore, who wrote this doggerel, a college freshman?)

― Jody Beth Rosen, Saturday, 28 September 2002 13:07 (twenty-three years ago)

And furthermore, who wrote this doggerel, a college freshman?

Better yet: Neil Peart.

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 28 September 2002 23:07 (twenty-three years ago)

As loathe as I am to defend Bon Jovi

Please -- don't start now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 28 September 2002 23:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Sean loooooves Bon Jovi. He told me so.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 29 September 2002 02:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Scientifically speaking, time may well end. It began, so it could end.
If the Aztecs are right, we have until December 12, 2012 to get our collective shit together, or else time will end, and all those "sensitive" balladeers will be obliged to leave their girlfriends.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Sunday, 29 September 2002 02:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Bon Joooovi is so dreeeeeeeeamy. He shot me right through the heart.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Sunday, 29 September 2002 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

That's quite enough.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 29 September 2002 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

but time does not actually flow, so there is no beginning or end or past or future.

― keith (keithmcl), Sunday, 29 September 2002 23:34 (twenty-three years ago)

You're forgetting time is a human construct, an advent of society by which to measure and organize the whole of the universe. It is a continuum. A second and a year are only arbitrary units. To speak of it having a beginning or end is moot.

― Steph (Steph), Monday, 30 September 2002 02:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Really, all this fuss over Bon Jovi?

― Steph (Steph), Monday, 30 September 2002 02:28 (twenty-three years ago)

but i like bon jovi! the only thing they did that sucked was wearing waistcoats with nothing underneath.

― di smith (lucylurex), Monday, 30 September 2002 02:36 (twenty-three years ago)

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