The Pale Shade in the Still Air (WInter Rain Jazz Rock Mix)

Описание: This suite of songs started as a joke. What would be the most “AI” song title, with the most “AI” lyrics? How many times could I cram words like “neon”, “static”, “ghost”, “glitch”, “algorithm”, etc into one song. Got some suitable lyrics together, then paired them with the usual “AI slop” combination of “sexy” (ie “breathy”) female vocals, dance beats, electronic “glitches” etc. Thus “Neon Ghost in the Static” was born.

   • Neon Ghost in the Static  

This caused several seconds of amusement. Then I thought what would be the polar opposite of this song? But keeping the same lyrical theme? A bunch of elves sitting around a campfire, singing a Middle Earth type ballad OBVIOUSLY. Re-wrote the lyrics, coupled them with a folky vibe, lutes etc. The result? “The Pale Shade in the Still Air (Middle Earth Mix)”.

   • The Pale Shade in the Still Air (Middle Ea...  

I couldn’t let it lie there. (“Why not?” screams the audience) (what audience?). My current favourite genre is jazz/rock. Think Chicago Transit Authority, or, as I prefer, someone like Eddie Vedder fronting Snarky Puppy. And so we have “The Pale Shade in the Still Air (Winter Rain Jazz Rock Mix)”.

   • The Pale Shade in the Still Air (WInter Ra...  

Nearly done, but not quite. I looped back to the original lyrics having seen an online discussion about AI music never sounding “authentic”. What if I paired those original, hyper-AI lyrics with a grizzled jazz/blues vocal and piano/drums/double bass backing? Well, you might get something like “Neon Ghost in the Static (Spirits Blues Mix)”. I like this version a lot.

   • Neon Ghost in the Static (Spirits Blues Mix)  

Finally, what if someone like Sam Cooke covered a song like this? Again, I re-wrote the lyrics, hopefully coming up with something that would not have sounded out of place in a dim, smoky, Harlem club in 1963. “Lonely Ghost in the Streetlight Glow (Late Train Soul Mix)” is the result, for now!

   • Lonely Ghost in the Streetlight Glow (Nigh...  


[Verse I]
I wake where the starlamps glimmer
On roads of silver dew,
A pale shade cast by moonlight
In lands I once walked through.
The night breathes soft with whispers
Of words we never said,
My heart still beats, though thin as mist,
For love long thought dead.
[Pre Chorus]
Old echoes call me onward
Through hush of wind and leaf,
I wander in the aftersong
Of joy entwined with grief.
[Chorus]
I am a pale shade in the still air,
Drifting where lost vows roam,
Bound to the threads of days gone by,
Far from hearth and home.
A pale shade in the still air,
Beneath an ever turning sky,
I fade between the years uncounted —
Ask me not the reason why.
[Verse II]
Lanterns burn on distant hills
Like memories grown dim,
I trace your name in falling ash
Where once our hopes had been.
My love was forged of living breath,
Of song and mortal flame,
But time has thinned its shining thread
Till nothing stays the same.
[Pre Chorus]
Dreams break upon the farther shore
Where all our endings lie,
I’ve walked this path in other days
When stars were yet more kind.
[Chorus]
I am a pale shade in the still air,
Caught in the turning tale,
Lost in the long defeat of years
Where bravest hearts grow frail.
A pale shade in the still air,
With tears like winter rain,
I walk the roads that circle back
To love and loss and pain.
[Bridge]
Echo of song, and shadow of flame,
A voice half known that calls my name,
Footsteps fading, torchlight low,
The weight of all I cannot show.
I feel you near in the hush of night,
Like starlight veiled from mortal sight,
A memory time could not unmake,
A vow the ages could not break.
[Chorus] [Return, fuller, more solemn]
I am a pale shade in the still air,
Wandering till the world grows old,
Lost in the weaving of fate’s design
No hand may truly hold.
A pale shade in the still air,
Dreaming of the life I knew,
No more than a whisper among the leaves
Still reaching out for you.
[Outro]
Shade…
Starlight…
Echo…
Still…
I pass beyond the circles of the world
Into a dream grown quiet and pale,
Where all the songs are finished
And every road lies veiled.