In which I try out ChatGPT and make a music video of the wonderful song "William Glenn"

"William Glenn" is a ballad my band Mappamundi learned from the 1978 recording by Nic Jones. Now that the internet exists, I can see that, for example, Mainly Norfolk notes it's also called Captain Glen, Sir William Gower, and The New York Trader, and that like all "Jonah Ballads" it stars a murderer on a ship. Sailors thought this brought bad luck and the only remedy was to throw the offender overboard. This theme is found in ballads of Scandinavia and Russia as well as Great Britain. Here's the video I did of our version:



Making the video version was complicated because so much happens so quickly in this song. At first I had the grand ambition to paint all the pictures myself but instead fell down the rabbit hole of ChatGPT and found myself creating William Glenn's world with the help of the ecologically devastating data centers of artificial intelligence. In for a penny, in for a pound: I also experimented with having our images lip-synced. I know it looks like people poking their heads through plywood cutouts at the amusement park but it's the best I could do at my current skill level.

Thanks to my pals of Mappamundi, Beth Holmgren, Jim Baird, and Robbie Link for joining me on this adventure. Thanks to my son-in-law Derek Miller for showing me how to use ChatGPT. Thanks to Jerry Brown at the Rubber Room for recording and mixing this song back in the day for our cd World Music Our Way.