Second Coming Blues

It's been eighty generations since You were carried off,
We've been waiting for Your comeback, with our eyes upon the clock
The preacher says "Don't worry, You are surely on Your way,"
But he's been sayin' that since Grandad passed away.

   Second coming, second guessing, how long 'till the second time?
   Until the trumpet blows, we'll be looking for a sign.
   The world's gone crazy, full of sinners, full of sin.
   We've all been looking to the skies, where have You been?

We've saved a spot here for Elijah, in case he's gonna show;
But about the where and when, it seems nobody even knows.
We've been dressed up for the banquet, but the groom is still away
Two thousand years and still there's been no Judgement Day.

   Second coming, second guessing, how long 'till the second time?
   Until the trumpet blows, we'll be waiting for a sign.
   The world's gone crazy, full of sinners, full of sin.
   We've all been looking at the sky, where have You been?

The choir stands ready, and they learned the gospel songs,
Now every lamp is burning bright, but the oil's nearly gone.
Last time caught us off guard when you rolled away the rock,
This time we've spread the word from here to Antioch.

   Second coming, second guessing, countdown to the final time.
   Known only to the Father is that timetable divine.
   The world's gone crazy, full of sinners, full of sin.
   How long until the saints go marching in?
   How long until the saints go marching in?

Real Tracks
~540:Bass, Electric, Pop Sw 165
1862:Mandolin, Soloist WesternSwingAndy Sw 165
~812:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Western Swing Sw 165
1873:Fiddle, Soloist WesternSwingAndy Sw 165
1866:Piano, Acoustic, Soloist WesternSwingJohn Sw 165 (Bluesy)
~812:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Western Swing Sw 165
NashvilleSwing8^5-a:Sidestick, HiHat , b:Snare, HiHat

Tracks
Main Buss: Fame Studio Reverb (Studio A Live), EZ Mix 3 (Americana Master 3)
Lead Vocal: SynthV (Kevin 2), Vulf Compressor (Lots of Attack), VoiceCentric (Natural Voice Mix)
My Vocals: Melodyne, Vulf Compressor, Silk Vocals, VoiceCentric (Background Vocals)
Low Lead Vocal: SynthV (Saros II), VoiceCentric (Background Vocals)
High Harmony Vocal: SynthV (Liam), VoiceCentric (Background Vocals)
Low Harmony Vocal: SynthV (Saros II), VoiceCentric (Background Vocals)
Vocal Buss Verb: Sunset Sound Studio (Chamber, Studio 2)

The Story of My Descent Into AI
I was visiting my brother on vacation, and was showing my brother's kids Suno, an AI program that automatically generates complete songs. I set up an account, took the title of George Carlin's book "When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?" and asked it to combine it with the Second Coming.

One of the results was a jaunty little tune with some clever lyrics. After his kids left, I thought it was a shame that the song would never see the light of day, so I decided to take what I thought were the best bits and see what I could do with it.

The lyrics went through a lot of revisions. In the process, references to George Carlin and pork rinds got excised, although a few key lines from Suno remained. For reference, here's the chorus of the first Suno (bold indicates lyrics that were retained):

Oh, Jesus, where have you been?
This world's gone crazy, full of sin.
Got pulled pork waitin', grace to share,
Just need you to pull up a chair.

This bit came from a verse in Suno's second verse, and remained mostly intact:

The preacher says, "He's on His way,"
Been sayin' that since my granddad’s day.

Here's the original chorus of the second Suno song, where I used a line:

Second coming, second guessing, where’d you leave the time?
Pork rinds grow stale, and old jokes dim their shine.
George Carlin called it, said the punchline’d last for years,
Now we’re sipping stale salvation with some bitter tears.

Most lines got extensive rewrites, such as:

We saved you a spot on my tattered leather couch

which eventually became:

We've saved a spot here for Elijah, in case he's gonna show

Here's the first verse of the first Suno song, which got rewritten and rewritten until there was nothing left except the clock:

Oh Jesus, where'd you wander, you're way behind the clock,
You promised to be prompt, yet here I sit and talk.
The world's been biding, waiting, for your saintly chime,
You were bringing pork rinds, man, but you’re well past your prime.

I thought the start of the lyric was actually pretty strong, but "saintly chime" makes no sense. "You were bringing pork chops" fits the spec, but poor George disappeared from the rewrite pretty quickly. The line "well past your prime" obviously had to go.

That's actually about all that made it into the final song. As much as I loved the melody and backing generated by Suno, that was completely replaced.

Any references to "Jesus" was replaced with "Lord", since the intent of the song isn't to offend, despite the song's origin. In case it's not clear, it's poking fun at the narrator's impatient waiting, despite the lyric of the final verse making it clear that time is completely unknown. I'll confess, my own cries of :"Maranatha" are more for a spiritual awakening rather than for the end of the world. smile

I had Suno take a crack at singing an early rewrite, and it was terrible.

I had intended to use BiaB to create the harmonies, but couldn't find a way to move the &%#$@! audio track to align with the music, so gave up on that and did it in SynthV instead.

I took a couple tries at singing this, but it's out of my range. It's also tricky to sing, as pitch correction software depressingly made evident. Some of my low vocals did make it into the chorus.

My focus was getting this done, so I'm sure there are some rough spots. If you notice any, feel free to mention them.

I'm not sure how I feel about this song - especially given the AI origins and the subject matter.

But that shouldn't stop you from letting me know how you feel about it! laugh

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?