Auxvasse song
Image created by Google Gemini. Song lyrics by Google Gemini and Thomas Dryden. Music, orchestration and recording generated by Suno.com.
Over dinner a few weeks ago, friends who had just attended A Beautiful Noise—the musical about composer and singer Neil Diamond—were waxing rhapsodic about the show and Diamond’s undeniable contribution to pop music.
“There will never be anyone who can write and sing like him,” my friend Maury declared.
I somewhat sadly disagreed. AI is fundamentally changing the way creative people create, and it’s only just getting started. Composers, lyricists, musicians, singers, authors, ad writers, graphic designers, illustrators, painters, content creators, models, photographers, actors, playwrights, animators, voiceovers —we aren't merely endangered species; we’re staring down the barrel of extinction. As much as it pains me to say it, AI can do the work most creative types do faster, better, and cheaper.
To prove my point, I bet Maury I could instruct Google Gemini—my go-to AI resource —to create a song that sounded exactly as if Neil Diamond wrote, orchestrated, and performed it. That night, I did just that. The next morning, I sent Maury and our dinner companions an mp3 file of the result which sounds amazingly, almost frighteningly, as though Diamond himself had created it.
All of which brings me to the point of this blog post (which I assure you I am, indeed, writing myself. For now.).
A Song for Auxvasse
This morning, I decided to test AI’s songwriting abilities again. I instructed Gemini to create a song about my hometown: Auxvasse, Missouri. The idea was based on a blog post I wrote years ago, which I updated for my recent book, Retired and Moved to Florida: Old Age and Other Absurdities. (By the way, the book, whose cover was created by — you guessed it — AI, makes a lovely Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or "treat yourself" gift, and is available on Amazon. Sorry for the digression, but since we writers are about to disappear forever like the sabertooth tiger or dodo bird, I gotta strike while the iron is still hot.)
Here, verbatim, are the exact instructions I provided to Gemini:
Write a humorous but sweet country song about my hometown, Auxvasse, Missouri. If it helps you create the humor, Missouri has lots of towns with weird names including Peculiar, Blue Eye, Climax Springs, Tightwad, Useful, and Cooter, to name a few. But Auxvasse is the one that has a name nobody but a native can pronounce properly. Out-of-towners pronounce it “Ox-vas-see” or try to make it sound French by calling it “Awe-vass,” but neither of those are even close. Auxvasse natives pronounce it “Of Oz” but with no break between the words—they say “OfOz.”
The town is tiny—fewer than 1,000 residents—and has only one stoplight that doesn’t even change colors; it simply flashes red on and off. Auxvasse is surrounded by farms and populated by hard-working, church-going people. Please generate and record a song that sounds like it was written, orchestrated, and performed by a stereotypical male country singer who has a twang.
And that, folks, was the sum total of the information I provided. A few seconds later, Gemini generated the lyrics. I tweaked maybe five percent of them, but the rest were better — far better — than I could have possibly imagined.
There was just one small hiccup on the audio side. When I tried to get Gemini to record the full song, it informed me it can no longer produce full-length recordings like the Neil Diamond knock-off song it had generated a month ago. It can now only produce 30-second clips of songs. That response pissed me off—especially since I use Gemini so much I fork over $20 a month for its premium service.
Happily, Gemini kindly referred me to Suno.com, an AI-powered music generation platform that allows users, for free, to instantly create complete, professional-quality songs—including lyrics, arrangements, vocals and instrumentation.
Abracadabra. Within a few minutes after I had pasted Gemini’s lyrics into Suno, it generated three versions of the Auxvasse song. Two were full versions with all the lyrics. The third was a one-minute clip of a version Suno said it would be happy to complete if I paid $10. That version, naturally, was head and shoulders above the other two, so I paid the ten bucks to download and use it however I wished.
Those of you who, like me, either grew up or live in Auxvasse, will be amazed to hear a song about your hometown that sounds like it was produced in a Nashville recording studio. I think the rest of you will be, too. To hear it, press the arrow below.
Complete lyrics are printed under the arrow.
Welcome to Auxvasse (full lyrics)
(Verse 1)
Well, out here in Missouri, towns have some funny names
Like Tightwad and Peculiar, playing linguistic games
If you're driving down to Cooter or through old Blue Eye
Those ones are easy-peasy, but the next will make you sigh!
That town’s a little spot I love, surrounded by the corn
The finest piece of farmland where this country boy was born
Now the sign says A-U-X-V-A-S-S-E, plain as day
But watch the out-of-towners try to figure what to say!
(Chorus)
They say "Ox-vas-see," they say "Awe-vass," trying to sound so grand
Like it’s some fancy French word they don't quite understand
To say it like a native does, and earn the town's applause,
Say "Of" and add the Wizard's home, yeah, welcome to OfOz!
My town ain't got a yellow brick road, just a flashing light of red
But there ain't no place I'd rather lay my weary head.
(Verse 2)
It's just a dot upon the highway, far away from any crowd,
Hard-working, church-going folks, and Lord, we do it proud
We got one single stoplight, hanging by a wire
It never changes colors, it just blinks red like fire
We treat it like a stop sign, wave the tractors on right through
We might be short on city life, but our hearts are tried and true
From Climax Springs to Useful, our state’s map is mighty strange
But the way we say our hometown, well, we're never gonna change.
(Chorus)
They say "Ox-vas-see," they say "Awe-vass," trying to sound so grand
Like it’s some fancy French word they don't quite understand
To say it like a native does, and earn the town's applause,
Say "Of" and add the Wizard's home, yeah, welcome to OfOz!
My town ain't got a yellow brick road, just a flashing light of red
But there ain't no place I'd rather lay my weary head.
(Bridge)
So keep your city traffic, your buildings reaching high
I'll take Sunday morning bells and open country sky
We know exactly who we are, we know exactly how to speak
Even if our town's name is a little bit unique!
(Chorus)
They say "Ox-vas-see," they say "Awe-vass," trying to sound so grand
Like it’s some fancy French word they don't quite understand
To say it like a native does, and earn the town's applause,
Say "Of" and add the Wizard's home, yeah, welcome to OfOz!
My town ain't got a yellow brick road, just a flashing light of red
But there ain't no place I'd rather lay my weary head.
There ain’t no place I’d rather …
Lay my weary head.
