Isn’t technology wonderful. Reminiscing about life in the seventies all I have to do is sit down at my computer, tablet or phone, type out some witty text, copy and paste some relevant pictures and maybe include a YouTube video or a Spotify playlist. Send it off in an email to Colin and Paul and let them do their magic. Next day it appears for all to see on the blog onceuponatimeinthe70s.com
Why go to all that bother and try to be creative and original ? I could just as easily go to one of the myriad of Artificial Intelligence sites, type in a few key words and let it come up with a plausible story line. Maybe I already do ?
Back in 1976 I phoned an American friend of mine Paul. He was a bit of a songwriter and asked I him if he could write me something with a blues/ jazz/gospel feel about old friends meeting up, having a beer and getting nostalgic for the past and perhaps sad for the loneliness of their present day lives.
He got together with some session players from the Muscle Shoals studio, sax player Michael Brecker and Bob James (the ‘Taxi’ theme guy) to arrange some strings and woodwind.
The first two verses follow the brief perfectly with the gospel Rhodes piano of Barry Beckett and a simple bass and drum accompaniment. It then goes to the bridge
Four in the morning, crapped out, yawning
Wow ! Where did that come from? I wasn’t expecting that. What an amazing departure from the main theme. It then morphs into a dream like orchestral sequence before one of the most soulful sax solos ever heard in modern music. It slowly returns to the main theme repeating
Still crazy after all these years.
Masterful ! Thanks Paul. I owe you one.
Fast forward nearly fifty years and I instruct AI music site Suno to produce something with the same instructions I gave Paul back in the 70s.
It is bland, uninspiring and repetitive. It’s an abomination against song writing. The fact these sites exist is a travesty.
Learn an instrument. Develop the craft. Don’t just type a statement into a computer for an immediate fix. All the programme does is emulate what is already out there.
It is plagiarism. It is not creativity!
I have to admit I don’t know Paul Simon personally and have never asked him to write me a song. He is still creating music, I’d like to imagine with guitar, pen and paper. He is 83 with a lifetime of experience and an extensive catalogue of perfectly crafted tunes. He had a new album out just a couple of years ago and he’s still touring.
Now sit back and relish the real thing in all it’s glory while I have a cup of tea and a lie down.
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Now if you’d asked Suno to recreate your favourite Kraftwerk song John, you may have been happier with the result.
The Suno, Paul Simon attempt is pitiful but the autotune vocals push it over the edge!
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it’ll be a very dark day for mankind if or when people just give up learning to play a guitar or piano, or come up with an original melody or an original story to tell.
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