To celebrate the occasion of my university professor brother's transition from a collegiate venue to one in private industry, I wrore a poem: "Flinging Knowledge In the Air." A few months later, I was looking for something to feed into the maw of the usually entertaining, but rarely actually good, current crop of A.I. tools. In particular, I'd been playing with Suno, by uploading audio files and letting it do its thing.
Its thing turned out to be, as is usually the case with AI, rather hard to control and mostly playing to a fairly low common denominator. Still, the results were almost good, and very fun in some ways. As a result, I decided to give it just the lyrics and let it create the musical component from scratch.
The results are still pretty "safe," and if I handed this song to a competent human record producer, I think the results would be quite a bit more engaging. Nevertheless, in this case, some excellent (if I do say so myself) lyrics combined with some not-too-shabby composition and orchestration have resulted in something really quite fun.
Click on the link above to play the song
My first couple of passes, the instructions I gave Suno for the style of the piece was "Funky uptempo R&B boy band with funky horn hits like Earth Wind, and Fire or Crazy 8's." It took a couple of passes and revising my instructions, including figuring out where to position the chorus (which I had to create for the song because the poem version didn't need a chorus), to arrive at the final result.
You will find the full lyric sheet with annotations for guiding Suno at the bottom of the page. In particular, Suno absolutely refused to pay any attention to the [Silence] or [Whisper] tags half-way through the last verse. I tried various alternatives but it just would have none of it.
Click on the link above to play the song
Out of curiosity, I used my last free Suno pass of the day to try the song in a very different style. This time, I asked for "Laid back jazz ballad with a touch of funkyness, The lead singer is a rich Aretha-style alto, with mixed gender voices as backup." In this version, Suno did pay attention to the [Whisper] directive.
I'm still not sure which one I like better. They're both so much fun!
[Verse] You stand at the front, laser pointer ready, grabbing handfuls of knowledge to fling into the air at a room full of students who are utterly unready for the curious experience of getting facts in their hair. [Chorus] Flinging! Flinging knowledge in the air Be brave, be bold, be sassy Knock their socks off, show you care Cause you’re flinging Flinging knowledge in the air Dedicated educator Let the ignorant beware! [Verse] For some unknown percentage, a pending revelation: their notebooks are like pressing-books where facts are dried and stored. But “knowledge” is a verb, an action and reaction, a being and a doing, a shield, and a sword. [Chorus] [Choir] Flinging! Flinging knowledge in the air Be brave, be bold, be sassy Knock their socks off, show you care Cause you’re flinging Flinging knowledge in the air You can make their world get bigger All you have to do is share [Verse] You are just a catalyst, an element whose presence causes expedited chemistry, speeding up the task of transforming information into actionable insights, into integrated networks where your teachings can unmask [Bridge] The power and the triumph of a liberal education, of a broad and varied survey that provides a solid base for functioning and serving as a member of society, giving those you offer lectures to the means to make a place [Build] In the world where they can matter, make a difference, make a stand. Once they graduate, they’ll scatter to the corners of the land. [Silence] [Whisper] But for now they sit before you. Some are napping. Others stare. So it goes. Soldier on, flinging knowledge in the air. [Final Chorus] Flinging! Flinging knowledge in the air Be brave, be bold, be sassy Knock their socks off, show you care Cause you’re flinging Flinging knowledge in the air If they're yearning for some learning Bring it on, with savoir faire Flinging, Flinging, Flinging Flinging Knowledge in the Air!