Making The Ballad of Bob
The tale of how I engaged musicians from around the world to produce three distinct versions of my Dad’s obituary in the style of a sea shanty.
We were sitting by my Dad’s side as he passed away on June 25, 2023, just shy of his 84th birthday. Surrounded by family, he opened his eyes and pushed himself up from the bed. He looked at us and clearly said, “Goodbye.” Then he lay back against his pillows for the final time, and he was gone.
Gone… but by no means forgotten. This, then, is the tale of how I produced “The Ballad of Bob” to honor his immortal legacy.
What set the ball in motion was the process of collaborating with the family on his obituary for his hometown newspaper. The result was a perfectly reasonable summary of his life, as good as any obituary.
Robert “Bob” James Adams passed away on June 25, 2023 at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, NC from complications due to pneumonia. Bob was born on the Fourth of July in Colorado Springs, CO, to Alan James Adams and Margaret Virginia Adams, making him a second-generation Colorado native. He was the second of their four children, with sisters Esther Irene Adams and Margaret Ann Lyman, followed by brother John Alan Adams… etc…
You can read the full text, and it’s fine as far as it goes… But I felt it was missing something. The perfunctory obituary style didn’t really convey the meaning of his life, the emotion of the moment, and was bereft of spirit.
So, I did what anyone in this day and age would do… I turned to ChatGPT for help sprucing it up. One of my favorite uses of the tool is to turn email I write into pirate speak… I don’t know why, other than I think it’s kinda’ fun. And for no reason other than that, I ran the obituary through with my standard “Speak Like a Pirate” prompt. And, as I had expected, the pirate version was much better!
Arr, listen up, ye scurvy dogs! Robert “Bob” James Adams be takin’ his final breath on June 25, 2023, at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, NC, from the cursed complications o’ pneumonia. Bob, a true swashbuckler, be born on the Fourth o’ July in Colorado Springs, CO, to Alan James Adams and Margaret Virginia Adams, makin’ him a second-generation Colorado native. He be the second o’ their four scallywags, with sisters Esther Irene Adams and Margaret Ann Lyman, followed by brother John Alan Adams… etc…
And the fact that Dad was proud of being in the Navy (and we frequently joked about pirates), I could feel his spirit start to flow into the text. That kicked off the next synapses to fire as I started thinking about how sailors celebrate the lives of crew-mates lost at sea. I could imagine them raising a flagon o’ rum, singing well-known ballads late into the night… and, as easy as that, I realized we needed a rousing shanty! So I prompted ChatGPT to “Write the obituary as a sea shanty,” and seconds later:
In the land of Hendersonville, ol’ Bob met his fate,
On June twenty-five, two thousand twenty-three, the hour late,
From pneumonia’s grip, he couldn’t escape,
Pardee Hospital claimed his soul, sealed his fate.Hey ho, on the land and sea,
It’s where we go for memories made,
Through the years we’ll be set free,
Bob’s spirit is his legacy!Oh, Bob James Adams, a Colorado-born son,
Sailed the seas of life, his journey now done,
Born on the Fourth of July, proud and true,
To Alan and Margaret, his parents, he drew... etc…
Boom! A full set of lyrics emerged (nearly) fully realized. All I had to do was tweak the chorus a bit, and voila! I am by no means a lyricist, so there’s no way I could have written the song if left to my own devices… chalk up another win for the ‘bots! And since I can’t stop until I see the project through, I’m sure you can see where this is going. The obvious next step was to figure out how to get the song made!
Knowing that I have absolutely zero musical talent, and (sadly) there isn’t a SingGPT AI (yet), I reached out to another of my favorite online resources… Fiverr. Yup, the same place where Griffin and I commissioned some artists to whip up the “Going Full Iron Man” design for our t-shirts.
I put out a call for bids on the work along with a pretty simple description:
Looking for someone to compose the music and record a song written to celebrate the life of Robert “Bob” Adams, a proud Navy sailor. The goal is to produce a song that can be played at his wake as an entertaining way to share his long life with gathered friends and family as they raise a pint of beer, mead, or grog (and, perhaps after a few pints deep, they can join in the chorus).
I also included a few examples such as the “Sea Shanties Medley”, “Wellerman”, “The Last Shanty”, “Irish Pub Song”, “Don’t Forget Yer Old Shipmate”, and “Leave Her, Johnny” with a flavor of heavy drums like those of Clanadonia. Further, I asked that the tone and feel should be upbeat and celebratory and use instruments such as the fiddle flute, whistle, uilleann pipes, accordion, concertina, mandolin, or Bouzouki.
With that… I sat back to field the responses as they came in. I didn’t have to wait long… as within a day I’d received a half dozen responses interested in bidding on the project. Glancing at a few of their descriptions and sampling the examples of what they’ve done I narrowed the field to three potential options… but wow… they were all so talented that there was no way I could pick just one. So, I decided to hire ’em all!
What really sold me was that they were all from different parts of the world and promised to bring their own region’s sound to the ballad. In my mind I could hear each version of the song, as if it was a true ballad that had sailed the seven seas, learned ship-to-ship in ports around the world. And, honestly, I could NOT be more pleased with the results!!!
First up was the recording by Matt Sky hailing from the UK. He even sent me a custom sample before I’d even hired him which was a great way to hear what he was thinking. We also discussed how much leeway he had in massaging the lyrics to make a more traditional song. I gave him full reign, believing that he would do the piece justice in his own voice. And wow… it was brilliant! I ultimately selected his version as the track used in the video remembrance. The pacing, the energy, the layered performances all come together for the win!
Next was the take on the ballad performed by Olga Gorbenko, an amazing artist from Ukraine. I loved her sound and, honestly, I’m a sucker when it comes to funding folks in Ukraine at the moment (for obvious reasons). I was also heartened when I signed off one note to her with “slava Ukraini” and she immediately responded with “heroiam slava!” Then, when her version came in, it was crazy cool to hear the Eastern European flair in the sound she created. As a bonus, I loved how she introduced the sound of seagulls in the intro and outro. Chefs kiss!
Finally, Marvin Fockens sent his recording from his studio in the Netherlands. Not only did he bring a distinct sound to the project, but he introduced a fantastic bagpipe interlude to the song. He could have easily just performed the song as written, but he took the time to step back and consider the build and pacing. In fact, you’ll hear in his version that he builds energy up to the rousing interlude (just listen to the grunts of the drummers giving it their all), and slowly releasing the energy. Masterful!
You really have to experience all the versions back-to-back to tease out the details of how each one brings something magically unique to the song. So, to hear the all together, I created a “The Ballad of Bob” music player. You can play each version individually or one after the other, and also download the MP3 for the UK Edit (from Matt), Ukrainian Edit (Olga), and Dutch Edit (Marvin) separately. Feel free to add them to your personal music collection… and remember to add them to your Fourth of July playlist as the rum is poured!
And yes… I used Midjourney to create the “singing Bob” on the album cover. I first generated a singing pirate, then merged the result with a modified photo with Dad to create the final image which was then expanded to the wider version. And Bob’s yer’ uncle! :)
Now, raise yer flagon ‘o grog and sing along to the memory of good ‘ol Bob!
