What is "So I Said to This Bloke?"

QUESTION: What is “So I Said to This Bloke?”

Well, “So I Said to This Bloke, Or Adding Other People’s Words Into an A.I. App” is a collection of songs I made on the Mozart AI songwriting app.

QUESTION: What’s it all about?

It doesn’t really have any theme. When I first downloaded the app I wondered what certain things would sound like if they were put to music, and then I wondered what certain songs would sound like if they were put to different styles of music.

 The first three songs on the collection, “Lydia the Tattooed Lady”, “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”, and “I’m Against It” were originally sung by Groucho Marx. I wondered what they’d sound like when put to a sort of punk/rock kind of beat. 

The fourth song, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away” was originally released in the sixties by Napolean XIV – not his real name. It’s one of the greatest novelty songs ever released, and this version was put to a reggae beat.

The final three songs came from the original idea, what it would sound like if something which wasn’t originally a song would sound like if it became a song. “At War With Germany” is taken from the speech made by U.K. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made in September 1939 when the country declared war on Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland.

“So I Said to This Bloke”, the title track of the collection, is a collection of one-liners from one of my favourite stand-up comedians, Tim Vine, along with a quote about his comedy style, which became a kind of chorus. The title for the song was taken from one of his shows.

Finally, “On the Ning Nang Nong” is a poem written by one of my heroes, Spike Milligan. To say that the guy was a comedy legend would be an understatement. It’s a short piece, but quite enjoyable.

QUESTION: It’s a bit messy though, isn’t it?

Well, it is. These were the first songs I made with the app, experiments if you will. They were made by simply pasting the lyrics into the app without any prompts or further instructions. That’s why they feel a little rough around the edges.

QUESTION: So why release them?

Why not? We live in a time where anyone can do anything. If you had told me back in the nineties that I’d be able to write about professional wrestling and that half a million people a month would read my ramblings I’d have thought you were daft. But a few years later I was writing about professional wrestling online, and at one point I was getting half a million readers with my syndicated ramblings.

The way music is delivered to the masses today via services like YouTube and Spotify means that anyone can be heard and seen. I mean, for example, I wouldn’t be listening to most of the artists I do today if it wasn’t for finding them on social media, and I wouldn’t be making an online music show about those artists.

Also, by releasing these songs to the streaming services I can say to someone “look, I’ve done this!” It may not mean much, but I can say that I’ve done something that I never thought I’d be able to do, in this case release a song. I’m not a musician by any means, and I can’t play an instrument, but I can at least say I’ve done this.

QUESTION: What’s next for you? Any more releases?
Yes. I’ve got a couple of more on the horizon, including a reworking and expanded version of this very release. Now I’m a bit more experienced with the way the app works I’ve reworked these songs, as well as a few others I didn’t include on the original release, and given them more structure, proper verses, proper choruses, etc. The results have been a lot better second time around.

QUESTION: Where can we listen to your music?

You can watch the album listen-along on my YouTube channel from 8pm on December 17th:

 

Or you can stream it now on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/album/0Mv33zZffvvKwkLvE2AcmG?si=afuHwcf_Re-QgWAUoGPrsA 

THIS HAS BEEN AN UNPAID PROMOTION. NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS MADE-UP ONE PERSON INTERVIEW.