Hi. Thank you for visiting my music site! I’m Joe McNeill and my music name is Joe Tucson.

When a young person thinks of how to respond to the question “What would it mean for you to pursue music?” – unfortunately they may respond “that would mean me being on a stage and being a star- all eyes on me- a celebrity- in front of a large audience of adoring fans”.

I believe that all good music comes from a human being working (often alone) and concentrating on finding a unique melody or chord sequence that stands on it’s own (isn’t an imitation or copy of another work) and musically surprises the creator and/or another listener and takes them to a unique place musically in their mind.

There are many aspects of music- performance in front of an audience- learning to play an instrument well- learning to sing well- the production of music to make it sound radio quality- arranging sounds and instruments around a song idea to fill out the song- etc. – but all of the aspects are dependent on one or a few people pulling an original melodic tune or musical piece out of thin air where there was no music before- a basic composition. Without a unique tune- there is no performance, production, instrumentation, singing, etc.

So now we come to AI. AI can promote the real, authentic, magic in music- the SONG- the original composition in the songwriter’s original vision- to be in it’s rightful place above performance or cultural conformity (liking an artist more for their personality or perceived cultural coolness or because they perform well live rather than their musical uniqueness and invention) AI now allows songwriters- music’s original idea people- to use technology to bring their songs to life without engaging a producer, a studio, other musicians, or the traditional music business model.

Songs have been put on the back burner for the last 30 years or so. Technology like YouTube has allowed exponential numbers of aspiring musicians to copy- inch by inch- the compositions created by the hard work of others- teaching them proficiency on an instrument- but not how to create for themselves. We have never had so many skilled players (skilled at mimicking the compositions of others) in soooo many bands while at the same time- in ratio- so few bands writing creatively great songs.

Add to this the digitalization of music and music sharing in the late 1990’s making the sale of albums- CDs- unprofitable for musicians- so the musicians had to perform live to make a living. So playing live and being a great live band became more important than writing great original creative songs.

Shows like American Idol nurtured in the American public’s mind the idea that music was essentially about performance and competition- and thus ego and ‘look at me-ism’- and gave little thought, credit or respect to songwriters (the actual creation and talent behind the scenes). These talent shows made the unforgivable mistake of attempting to place the importance of the performer over the song itself- which can never make for good music. Even in performance and singing ability- these shows never seemed to produce a brilliantly unique individually distinctive talent like a Karen Carpenter, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Barbara Streisand, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Thom York, etc. The contestant’s talent seemed to be measured by how well they conformed to a comfortable “normalcy” expected by many in suburban American culture. There was certainly not going to be a successful Geddy Lee, Kate Bush, Marvin Gaye or Ozzy Ozbourne singer on these shows- the shows were for the safe and the tame. The performers on these shows deserve credit for conducting and expressing themselves under pressure- but it was more about sport than music. The best music is to be heard with the ears- not seen with the eyes. There is a legend that a Legendary producer and a talented music artist went to check out an up and coming singer at a club. At first the artist thought the guy on stage was killing it and the crowd was responding well but then the producer said “turn your back for a minute and listen with your ears and not your eyes” and the artist did so. After a minute the artist said “your right- he doesn’t really sound good and doesn’t sound at all original- he looked good and had a solid voice and a strong personality and the crowd was responding but he wasn’t making great music”-“you see” the producer said “always listen with your ears- never your eyes”.

A great song that catches your ear while driving or at home listening to the radio or in a shop or restaurant doesn’t lie- as long as your not liking it for cultural reasons and you find the melody unique, surprising regardless of what the words are- then you’ve encountered a good song- based on music itself- something very rare these days- and in that moment you shouldn’t care who’s performing the song- you should be lost in the melody (yes much more than the lyrics or words even- without that specific melody line those words would just- at most- be words of poetry in some library. When people think of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen they often think principally of their words- but they wrote fantastic melodies- without which you would never have heard those great songs- because they wouldn’t have existed as songs otherwise.)

The final nail in the coffin was the traditional music industry deciding to create demand by limiting the musical pipe through which audiences hear music- radio and streaming- to promote (and thus allow) lowest common denominator appealing music (musical repetitive cliches that were already familiar to an audience) instead of music that lead listener’s ears and minds in fresh new directions. There was a time when musically creative songs like Roundabout by Yes or Strawberry fields by the Beatles or The Spirit of Radio or Fly by Night by Rush or Strawberry Letter 23 by the Brothers Johnson were regularly heard on the radio- no longer- “just a basic repetitive rhythm please- and I just want to concentrate on the words and submit to the culture”.

Gradually- and without noticing- (like boiling a frog) mass audiences began expecting less- and thus pursuing less- fresh creative original music. Jam bands and Boy bands and Girl bands and rock bands that were strong in personality and performance ability but weak in unique musical invention- became generally what was expected from audiences. A child or grandmother who is not a musician may often judge a slickly professionally produced sonically perfect suburban church voiced recording of a musically bland two chord cliche as a “better song” than a rough demo on a 1960’s tape recorder of Paul McCartney singing Yesterday shortly after he woke up that day. Scary. (Yesterday IS the better song by the way- no matter how shabbily it was recorded or sung- because it contains brilliant original melody).

So now this all has the opportunity to change. AI has allowed myself and other songwriters to realize their creation into “radio ready production quality” form. Every Joe Tucson song begins with me alone in a room trying to work out a new musical idea that didn’t exist in the universe before- after years of practice at trying to develop this skill- and finally coming up with an original melody line over unique chords- and then adding rhythm and words/lyrics- and thus a unique song is born. I then take this song and record it to an audio file and thus have a master recording. Then the music file song is loaded into AI where I select better instrumentation- a better singer than myself- and much better production quality than my spare bedroom “studio” with one cheap microphone will allow. Then after careful supervision and numerous creative decisions by me I use AI software to make a radio ready production quality cover of my original song- absolutely and foundationally based on my original song and it’s unique melody and chords- the versions of which became Joe Tucson songs heard on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music etc. Below is an example:

The first is a thirty one year old recording on a cheap tape recorder which was low on batteries at the time (you can hear the warbly tape sound as the batteries are on there last legs of power). This was recorded in my small cabin by Cypress Creek in 1995 in Wimberley Texas. Here, despite the condition of the recording, anyone can hear the critical elements of the song- the Melody Line- the chords supporting the melody line- the rhythm- and the lyrics. Here we have a master recording on which to add a British 1960’s style horn section (which I didn’t happen to have in my small cabin)- a better singer than myself and some arrangement ideas around the main melody of the song. This is what I would have done if I had had the means to fly to London and hire George Martin as my producer and rent out musicians and Abbey Road Studios for a few weeks. Easy for a poor guy living in a cabin Texas creekside with a cheap guitar and tape recorder- right? So the second recording is my AI copy/cover of my master recording where I was able to control how I wanted my master recording to sound after more professional sounding production. Notice that no elements of the “after AI” recording would be possible to exist without my master because they are dependent on it in order to compliment it. So AI didn’t write this song- a human being did and used AI tools to produce the song into a radio ready version of the original master recording. In the third song below-Mrs. Cavender- you can hear the melody line and chords and (based on the first song below) you can easily imagine me writing and singing this tune (I won’t subject you to any more tape warble!) since it stands on it’s own without much production being necessary. I included this because it’s a simple song that shows how important an original melody and chords are for music. So far AI isn’t able to write original melodies like this- we still need human beings for that. Almost any professional vocalist could sing this song- and any basic knowledge guitar or piano player could play the chords- and the song would still stand on it’s own as a specific melodic song whether it’s recorded well or not. So far- it takes a human being to write a song like this.

So now any poor kid with with a cell phone can record an original melody and rhythm and create a radio ready song without the need of spending thousands of dollars on a studio, producer, musicians, etc. and this may or may not lead to her becoming a celebrity. This will suck for those earning a well deserved living at recording production, studio musicians, etc. just as telegraph operators were put out of business in the 20th century. But it also may lead to an era of more inventive original music that stirs the soul like The Beatles, Kate Bush, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, Marvin Gaye, The Stylistics, Neil Young, etc. (all of which were great performers- but would never perform without first defining who they were musically by writing great songs first.) “Real bands play live?”- not really- it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter who’s playing that great song that you’re enjoying on the radio or streaming in your car that’s making your day. Music is an Aural medium- it’s meant to be heard- not seen- it’s meant for your ears. A great song based on a unique original melody cannot lie- it stands on it’s own. And your child diligently and honestly working and aspiring to bring a new song into our world is perhaps a better goal for them than aspiring to make an “all eyes on me” spectacle/idol of themselves and be rich and famous. The former is a life of good intention, exploration, honest achievement and wonder while the latter is one of egoism and the measurement of one’s worth in relation to the perception of others.

It’s the songs that really matter in music. Our world needs more great songs. A great song moves human beings and improves their lives. AI does not yet write great songs. If you hear an artist’s song- and you really like it- and the artist used AI in production- it was the human artist’s original melody line and chord sequence that made that song great. Thank you for listening- both to the music and to my opinion and perspective! Joe McNeill

(Keep dreaming, conceptualizing and writing those unique original melody lines, chords and rhythms kid- don’t be afraid to be different- recognize your unique self and perspective and respect and appreciate the uniqueness and unique perspectives of all others-let this fellow uniqueness be the basis of an honest sense of community- “put aside the alienation- get on with the fascination- the real relation- the underlying theme”.)