Lyrics By Numbers

 

Thomas Cole--The Course of Empire Installation Diagram

AI music is interesting when you want to write in a range of different genres based on a conceptual lyric idea--in this case, historical inflection points, with lyrics that consist mostly of numbers that have 3 syllables, and are pronounced on a downbeat ("eighteen" doesn't work well musically, but "seventeen" does. "Eleven" doesn't because it is pronounced on an upbeat).

How old you are at those moments determines how you react to history. If you were 41 on September 11, 2001, your emotional reactions would be different from those of someone who was 21, 61, or 81. You have a different constellation of memories and experiences. If you're 41 now, you have no real memory of the first Gulf War, compared to someone who was 41 then, and so understands the current war with Iran differently. 

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth was 29. Lincoln was 56. Someone who was 61 in 1966 would have had no interest in what the Beatles were doing, someone who was 31 on VE day would have been in the prime of their life at the beginning of a First Turning, one of history's luckiest people.

This is obviously based on the book The Fourth Turning, published in 1997 (Third Turning), but I didn't read it until 2008 (Fourth Turning). Even your age at the time you read it makes a difference in how you position yourself in history.

I couldn't possibly write this and sing these myself, so my role is as a "producer". For the blues treatments, I would have to hire session musicians to play them, which is an absurd idea in itself. 

This relates to an idea I had a few years ago about studying history through songwriting. 

"Discuss history as a topic for song lyrics"

 

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41
In 41
61
In 1966

31
In 29
45 
In 1946

41
2001
61
in 2046

28
In 68
41
In 1963

51
In 92
21
In 2021

34
In 56
29
In 1865 

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Other lyric-by-numbers songs: 
 

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