Bob Seger "2+2=?" vs. "The Ballad of the Yellow Beret"

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Is one of these songs a joke? Is Seger a chameleonic songwriter, switching politics and POVs at will? Exactly what is the deal here? I cannot quite reconcile how an artist would do both of these songs within the space of a couple years.... one is a reactionary anti-protestor song, the other is a vicious blue-collar anti-war, anti-draft song. I is confused.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 17 January 2005 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

cf. john lennon

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

he answers this in another song:

Hey, got my hands in my back pocket
I'm a jumpin'
Unscrewing the light from the socket
And I'd rather stand than sit
Puttin' all the people in the dark
Tellin' everyone good night bye bye
I put the sound

Carryin' the truth in my back pocket
My hands are holdin' me down
I've been waiting for people to ask me
What have you found

I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
I was dead before a gypsy
She held my head and
Fought with my boots till my eyes turned red
I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
Oh I'd rather stand than sit
I've been down to the gutter
Hopin' I've lived on honey and butter
But with me a life's a game
I call insane
I'm not the one to blame
I'm called insane

I was hung when I was young
I was named insane
I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
I broke all the laws before my age
I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
Yeah I'd rather stand than sit
I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
I turn around to see the clown
But with me a life's a game
I call insane
I'm not the one to blame
I'm called insane

I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
I'd rather stand than sit
I'm a jumpin' humpin' hip hypocrit
I'd rather stand than sit
I put the sound

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

see, he's insane. and a hypocrite. who can't spell. punk rockers are often quixotic like this.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 17 January 2005 22:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Didn't he later apologize for "Yellow Beret"? Lose a couple of friends in Nam and it might change your 'tude a bit . . .

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 17 January 2005 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that it is indeed a case of changed mind.

2+2= is one of the best songs ever.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Monday, 17 January 2005 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Although my housemate has just come in and said that Yellow Beret was a joke.

― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Monday, 17 January 2005 23:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Kinda Slim Shady-looking lyrics there. Kris Kristofferson, freash out of the Army, wrote "Whose Side Are They On," about antiwar marchers (although they were the ones who thought shoutouts to Ho Chi Minh were gonna change American minds). He's long been one of the most outspoken peaceniks in Nashville and Texas. And Merle Haggard was denouncing "Bush Wars" (Gulf Wars I as well as II) from the stage, way before the Second one happened. (Which didn't keep him from calling in during a live Toby Keith concert on CMT, and requesting "Fightin' Side Of Me." TK was "OK!")

― don, Tuesday, 18 January 2005 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

'Ballad Of The Yellow Beret' is the only blackspot on an otherwise unimpeachable early career. Right up to 'Seven', Bob was totally on the money.

― laticsmon (laticsmon), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

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