Haters claim that literally anyone can write an AC/DC song, but this has never been the case. Hell, sometimes even AC/DC have struggled. But now, with the aid of artificial intelligence, it's at least possible to come up with a half-decent set of AC/DC lyrics.
Want proof? Look no further than the work of satirist Funk Turkey, who used a set of lyrics provided by lyrics.rip – a web service that scrapes the Lyrics Genius database for a particular artist, then cleverly splices together the results using predictive algorithms to compose a new song – then added some music, before singing the results in the style of Brian Johnson. The result? Great Balls.
Musically speaking, Great Balls borrows from From Those About To Rock (We Salute You), but it's lyrics that really sparkle. "Wasn't the dog a touch too young to thrill?", asks Funk Turkey/Johnson, before proceeding to the chorus: "Great balls! Big balls! Too many women with the balls!"
Eagle-eared viewers may question why the word "rock" – surely the most populous word in the AC/DC canon – doesn't appear in Great Balls, but the technology behind the AI (known as a Markov Chain) is smarter than that, and provides lyrics based on numerous possible word sequences, not just the most obvious.
"Plugging AC/DC in to the AI to generate lyrics and I almost choked from laughing too much," says Funk Turkey. "The AC/DC Markov Chain is obsessed with balls, women, guns, dogs and bones."
This isn't Funk Turkey's first brush with AI. Last month he came up with The Nickelbot, which used the same techniques to compose a new Nickelback song, Nobody Died Every Single Day.
Funk Turkey is welcoming suggestions for future projects. In the meantime, we salute him.
We asked lyrics.rip to come up with a new Led Zeppelin song. This is the result.
There's a queen without a punch on a white mare in my car
For you I cursed the sun began to quit you, babe
So today, my
Hey baby, baby, baby, baby
I think I wanna leave you know, I would still be sinking
To have you
Oh
I would still be sinking
Happiness - look, see
But I reach it callin' me?
Ah, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk
It's not Robert Plant's best, to be fair.
