Waltz Time (Again)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd written a couple more songs in three-quarter time back when I was writing songs. The first was written sometime in 1996, I think, not all that long after I'd moved out of my house in Lansing and into an apartment in East Lansing. I'd met someone at an open mic event, and while I was quite attracted to her, I was hesitant to get too deeply involved with her due to... circumstances. As I recall, the song didn't take very long to write (sometimes it happens that way), and musically, it's a little clunky, but I think I hurried it a bit in order to perform it at a subsequent open mic—the only time I'd performed it until now—so I'd almost forgotten how it goes. I considered adding a harmonica break, but I couldn't quite work one out to my satisfaction.

The other one regards a woman for whom I fell pretty seriously. A year or so after we'd met, I think, her eldest daughter was getting married, and to mark the occasion, I wrote a song for her, mother of the bride, called "Dress Her In White". There might even have been a parenthetical attached to the title at one time (something like "A Mother's Song" or something like that), but it's not written down that way in my book. I originally recorded it on a four-track recorder I had borrowed from a friend, and I asked her other daughter to add harmony vocals on the refrain, which turned out quite lovely. As with the wedding song for Barbara I mentioned in Part I, I failed to keep a copy of the recording for myself, hence a newly recorded version (without a harmony vocal).

A few years later, I wrote another one for the same woman at a time it seemed to me we might have a future together. This recording took me at least a dozen tried to get a reasonable performnce. At various times, I sung the wrong words or hit the wrong chord.

As with almost everything I've recorded of late, my voice strays from correct pitch occasionally—I'm not in the least a trained singer, after all.

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A Thing For Waltzes

Back when I regularly wrote songs, I occasionally wrote in waltz (3/4) time. Possibly the earliest one came as a result of trying to write a song honouring my mother. The plan was to write four verses, one for each of her sons, and as I was lying in the tub with my writing book and pen in hand trying to work out the verses, the thought occurred to me that in addition to having had four sons, there was a stillbirth between me and the birth of my youngest brother. The song didn't take long to write, and it seems only fitting that it's brief.

I'm not sure if my mom ever heard it. I burned an early recording of it to a CD and sent it to her, but I think she couldn't get it to play correctly.

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Another one I wrote not long after that was based on a dream I had. I am terrible about recalling my dreams but I guess this one was vivid or surprising enough that I worked it into a song. The dream involved a friend of my then-wife, Penny. Penny and I and her friend and her husband spent a bit of time together socially, whether at our homes or at local gatherings or events. In case you're wondering, no, I didn't harbour any fantasies about her, but there she was in one of my dreams one night, dancing with me. The song, in all likelihood, is longer than the dream lasted.

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In the summer of 1997, I wrote a three-verse waltz as a gift to a friend in the D.C. area who was getting married. I'd been invited to the wedding but it just wasn't within my budget at the time to make the trip, so I wrote the song as a gift of sorts. I recorded it and sent a cassette tape to her, but didn't keep a copy for myself. I can't for the life of me recall the melody, but a few months ago I asked her if she still had it as I had recently come across the lyrics in my book. She does, but after thirty years, it's not readily accessible. I hope she comes across it some day, I'd like to get a copy.

DEAR BARBARA
Copyright 2026 by Patrick T. Power. All rights reserved.

Dear Barbara, I'm sorry I can't make the wedding
I'm sorry I can't join in that feast
but my car's broken down and I haven't the money
for making that long trip out east

as much as I've planned for this day
I simply could not make ends meet
so maybe we should see it this way:
I won't dance all over your feet

Dear Barbara, I love you as much as a friend
can love you from so far away
so, wrapped in a melody this gift I send
to you on your wedding day

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My friend Susan turned 50 in 2004, and I had this brilliant idea to write a quick song and send a recording of it to a friend of hers in Florida so that it could be played at a party being held in her honour. Susan happens to be the biggest Wizard of Oz fan ever, so I just had to incorporate that into the song somehow, along with a favourite phrase of hers, "ooh la la!", which since I've been to Paris several times sinice I wrote the song, I couldn't help but change it to what the French actually say.

In the fall of 2010, I wrote probably first song—more a ditty, really—since moving to San Francisco. In fact, I hadn't been writing all that many songs since 2006. I recall waking up realizing it was my friend Marya's birthday, and words and a melody just tumbled into my head, featuring the word Marya uses to help people pronounce her name.

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I have two more that I've written since 2006, but I've not played either of them in quite some time, so I might have to post a Part II once I re-learn them.

Note: I've not played guitar or sang regularly for the last fifteen years, so my fingers are a bit clumsy, and my voice cracks a bit and wanders out of tune, so bear with me.

 

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first kiss, part II

anna was the first
alice was the first
that meant something
that involved tongues

she too had the experience
i lacked
but that i welcomed
with open arms
and open mouth

we sat on her backdoor steps
and in my heart of hearts
i felt love
and loved
for the first time

there is something about being
literally connected
with someone
at the lips
that changes the world

 

first kiss

 

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first kiss

it wasn't momentous

several of us had gathered
at our twin friends' place
above a vfw hall
with the plan
to pile into a vw bus
for a night
of christmas carols

anna held mistletoe
above her head
and beckoned me
i obeyed
obliged

i think i was sixteen
she would have been fifteen
i suspect now
what i didn't consider then
that this was not her
first kiss

maria
her best friend
my one-time crush
stood by
and i wonder
still
all these years later
if it all was
just
for
a
laugh

 

part II

 

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More Crass Manipulative A.I.

A couple of days ago a friend re-posted another's Bluesky post which linked to a song on YouTube. The song is obstenibly an Irish interpretation of Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Minneapolis." The above image, which serves as the thumbnail for the video, suggested to me that I was going to hear two guys from Ireland. Realizing it was a still image and not a video, I listened to the song while doing something else. I even kind of liked the version more than the original Springsteen version, and I was just about to share it on Facebook when I noticed on the page's sidebar recommendations that there was a "France version," which I also clicked on and listened to for a few seconds.

That's when I noticed that there were even more versions, none of which I'm providing links for, only screenshots.

Along the way, I found another account which appears to be posting the same kind of slop.

And another.

And another.

As regards the first handful above, I did a web search to see if Ethan Gontar was an actual person. At the moment, I'm not sure I can say so for sure. I found a website as well as social media sites using that name, but "his" website looks very much like it could be AI-produced. If indeed Gontar is a real person, it seems that video production—not music—is his thing.

I found an interview with what initially appears to be a legitimate news site, but neither the interview nor any of the other stories I've clicked through to on the site have bylines. They're all attributed to Ldn-Post... all 22,624 of them, which suggests to me that the entire site is AI-generated. I mean... the opening paragraph:

Ethan Gontar is an Israel-based musician, composer, producer, and a singer-songwriter. We’ve been trusting that Ethan will enlighten us additional regarding his work strategies, what moves him, his opinion on thoughts, and whether he jumps at the chance to work alone or in a gathering for quite a while. We visited with Ethan for some time and got to hear some interesting things from him.

What reasonably intelligent journalist writes like this?!?

"We’ve been trusting that Ethan will enlighten us additional"?

"his opinion on thoughts"?

"jumps at the chance to work alone or in a gathering"?

So this is where we are. YouTube accounts which are full of artificially produced music, likely being mass-produced with very little effort, all for the purpose of monetizing off the music of others. And in the case of Springsteen's "Streets of Minneapolis", capitalizing on a highly emotional moment in time.

Currently, the "Irish Folk Version" has over 120 thousand views; the "Irish Female Duet" (which features a trio in the photo!) has over 57K views; the "Rock Version" has over 33K; the "Live Version" has over 16K. The other versions are in the thousands. Two more "covers" were added to the page today: What if "Here Comes The Sun" were an Irish folk song? and What If 'Yellow Submarine' Was a Country Song? While the view counts on those is rather low at the moment, no doubt thousands of Facebook users will be clicking on them and sharing them, completely unaware of what's going on.

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Unless otherwise noted, all writings on this blog are copyright Patrick T. Power. All rights reserved.

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