David Hentschel: ARP 2500 synthesizer (uncredited)
The video doesn’t match this list. According to the video, Elton played more than the guitar, and Bernie Taupin performed on the track.
So while we didn’t use the term “deepfake” in 1973, this promotional video meets at least some of the criteria of a deepfake.
And before you protest that everybody knew that Elton John didn’t play guitar…undoubtedly some people saw this video and believed that Elton was a guitarist. After all, they saw it with their own eyes.
One of the oddest movie song juxtapositions is the pairing of Pops Staples’ “Papa Legba” and John Goodman’s “People Like Us” in the David Byrne movie True Stories. While researching the former I accidentally typed Papa KEGBA. Which resulted in this.
If you’re curious about the Google Gemini (Nano Banana this week) prompt used to create the first picture, I documented it in the Bredemarket Picture Clubhouse Facebook group here.
Some of you have heard of Dave Winer, who started Scripting News…when?
“Scripting News was started in 1997, by me, Dave Winer.
“Or 1994 or 1996 or whenever you think it actually started.
“I wrote my first blog posts in 1994, that’s for sure.”
Because of his early interest in immediate and direct sharing of information without intermediaries, Winer is considered as one of the first bloggers. And he has undeniable longevity, still publishing today.
But there is a blogger that preceded Winer, Justin Hall, Jorn Barger, Peter Merholz, and others.
Going off on a tangent
And me.
For the record, I didn’t write my first blog post until October 14, 2003.
“Why did synthetica start with fake bluegrass sounds? Why not? This is the Ontario Empoblog, or the blog for Ontario Emperor, which has nothing and everything to do with Canada, New Mexico, and Texas, but also California, which is a location in California. It exists in cyberspace, which is also synthetic.
“The Ontario Empoblog may or may not touch on a variety of subjects, including music, poetry, poker, the supposed familial relationship between Brian Eno and Slim Whitman, the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop (1,121 – I checked), various comments about frogs, and the nature of nature.”
So back then I discussed synthetic music and frogs. Today I discuss synthetic identities and wildebeests. Not much has changed.
What were we talking about?
Back to the first blogger
Oh yeah, the first blogger, predating everyone else by decades.
And blogging on a physical medium, seven inch wide circles of vinyl.
Because I maintain that the first blogger was John Lennon.
Although he didn’t start out that way.
Early Lennon couldn’t “blog”
When Lennon and his band signed a recording contract with a subsidiary of EMI in 1962, the four of them became cogs in a monstrous machine.
They had to report to EMI’s studio, record for an EMI producer, and were almost forced to record someone else’s songs. After they recorded multiple takes (some with a session drummer), their first EMI recording was processed through the EMI sausage system and released in the UK. (EMI’s U.S. subsidiary didn’t want it.)
The September 4, 1962 recording of “Love Me Do” (with Ringo Starr drumming) was released as a single about a month later, on October 5, 1962.
September 4 version. Andy White would come later.
(Most subsequent releases of the song used the September 11 version with Andy White drumming.)
Of course, some later Beatles releases took longer than a month to travel from the studio to the record shops. For example, “When I’m Sixty-Four” was recorded on December 6, 20, and 21, 1966, but was not released on record until May 26, 1967 (in the U.K.; June 2 in the U.S.).
But the times, they were a’changing.
Later Lennon “blogging”
Within the year, the Beatles would have their own record label. Apple was still distributed by EMI, but the Beatles now had more control over the process, especially for their solo releases.
And John Lennon had things he wanted to say…now.
His first chance to practice immediacy was on a song formally credited to The Beatles, but actually recorded by Lennon with Paul McCartney’s help on piano, bass, and drums. Lennon and Yoko Ono married in March 1969. Lennon (with McCartney) recorded “The Ballad of John and Yoko” on April 14, and Apple released it on May 30. Quickly.
“In his biography, McCartney states that Lennon had a sudden inspiration for the song and had suggested that the two of them should record it immediately, without waiting for the other Beatles to return.”
Then Lennon turned to his solo career, which up to this point had consisted of two solo albums with Yoko Ono. Now Lennon started releasing singles.
On June 1, 1969, Lennon recorded “Give Peace a Chance” in Montreal and released it in the U.K. on July 4.
“Cold Turkey” was recorded September 30 and released October 20.
“Instant Karma!” lived up to its name: recorded January 27, 1970 and released February 6. Even with Phil Spector producing.
A mostly-mimed “Top of the Pops” performance.
Lennon subsequently re-focused on albums rather than singles and didn’t release songs as quickly. But those four singles achieved Lennon’s goal of getting something out quickly.
Like a blogger.
Google Gemini. This is not real.
Lennon died before technology allowed musicians (or pirates) to post music files directly on the World Wide Web for immediate download. You can, um, imagine what Lennon could have done if those capabilities had existed in 1969.
Or in 1962.
June 1962, when Ringo Starr was still playing at Butlins with Rory Storm.
While the deepfake video generators that fraudsters use can be persuasive, the 6-second videos created by the free version of Grok haven’t reached that level of fakery. Yet.
In my experience, Grok is better at re-creating well-known people with more distinctive appearances. Good at Gene Simmons and Taylor Swift. Bad at Ace Frehley and Gerald Ford.
So I present…Willie Nelson.
Grok.
Willie with two turntables and a microphone, and one of his buds watching.
If you thought “Stardust” was odd for him, listen to this.
Once Grok created the video, I customized it to have Willie rap about bud.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it doesn’t sound like the real Willie.
And for the, um, record, Nelson appeared in Snoop’s “My Medicine” video.
As an added bonus, here’s Grok’s version of Cher, without audio customization. It doesn’t make me believe…
Grok.
Reminder to marketing leaders: if you need Bredemarket’s content-proposal-analysis help, book a meeting at https://bredemarket.com/mark/
As some of you know, my generative AI tool of choice has been Google Gemini, which incorporates guardrails against portraying celebrities. Grok has fewer guardrails.
My main purpose in creating the two Bill and Hillary Clinton videos (at the beginning of this compilation reel) was to see how Grok would handle references to copyrighted music. I didn’t expect to hear actual songs, but would Grok try to approximate the sounds of Lindsey-Stevie-Christine era Mac and the Sex Pistols? You be the judge.
And as for Prince and Johnny…you be the judge of that also.
Repurposing can be found all over the place. Let’s look at the history of the Cure song “A Forest.”
Somehow I escaped hearing “A Forest” until decades after it was released, when the song was used on the old Fox Soccer Channel. This song was originally released in 1980, very early in the Cure’s career, and was a goth-yet-driving track that fit in with the times. And Robert Smith had not yet become Edward Scissorhands.
“A Forest” official video.
But then another Robert, Robert Palmer, would inject himself into the story.
Palmer had not yet become The Mannequin Guy (that would come four years later), but he was still pretty big. Big enough to rank higher than the Cure in the lineup for the Rock Werchter Festival on July 5, 1981. And when you’re a supporting act like the Cure was on that day, things don’t always go your way.
“The day before in Torhout the band had been able to play 15 songs, in Werchter they would only play 13 songs skipping “Three Imaginary Boys” and “Faith”. The Cure, consisting of Robert Smith, Simon Gallup and Laurence Tolhurst, was scheduled to play just before Robert Palmer and while they were playing, they were told to cut their set short by Robert Palmer’s managers.”
So the Cure was only allowed to play one more song. Robert Smith announced to the crowd:
“This is the final song because we’re not allowed to carry on anymore, cause everybody want’s to see Robert Palmer I think. It’s called ‘A Forest.'”
Cue malicious compliance.
The band starts playing the slow introduction to the song…with a few extra flourishes that stretched the intro out a bit.
After a minute-long introduction, the song finally picks up at the normal tempo. Well, with a little more of an instrumental introduction before Smith starts singing.
He sings the verses of the song, through the final words “again and again and again and again and again.” And five minutes in, it appears that the Cure has “a bad case of loving” the song, because they keep on playing.
And playing.
And playing.
With less of a drum beat and bass line as Smith explores every chord, and every note, on his guitar.
Six and a half minutes in, as you start to see backstage activity, Smith begins to sing new lyrics, “parting is such sweet sorrow” among them.
But the Cure didn’t part. They kept on playing. And at seven and a half minutes in, they picked up the pace again.
By the 8 minute mark, Smith is channeling his inner Hendrix/Townshend as the band finally concludes the song, “encouraged” by Robert Palmer’s roadies.
You can see the performance for yourself. Language warning at the end.
The Cure playing “A Forest” in 1981. The infamous “F Robert Palmer” performance.
This sudden, provoked improvisation permanently affected future live performances of “A Forest.” Here’s a 1992 example, in which the song stretched for over 13 minutes. Minute-long slow intro, four-minute song proper, and a coda as long as the entire Werchter performance.
The Cure playing “A Forest” in 1992, “addicted” to the new longer arrangement.
So feel free to repurpose YOUR content, longer or shorter as you wish. The original piece may resonate with some, while the newer pieces may resonate with others.
If the Fox Soccer Channel had played “A Forest” more often, maybe it would still be around today.
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