In case you don’t know, I’ve been obsessed with producing songs lately by exploiting the amazing AI service Udio. I’ve already made and released two full albums based on a strange story I wrote back in 2021, named Odes to My Triceratops. It follows the adventures and misadventures of a trio of friends who live in a town lost in the map. The main dude is a songwriter named William Griffin, who’s passionate and sensitive, if a bit unhinged. Another character is William’s next-door neighbor Claire Javernick, who’s a blind redhead. Then we have Lorenzo, who’s a sentient triceratops for no justifiable reason. You can download the first two albums of this story through this link.

As I was planning this new song, titled “Farewell, My Friends,” and trying to determine what genre it would fall into, I loved how it sounded both as a rock ‘n’ roll and as a new wave song. Unwilling to discard either, I chose to do both, using the same structure and lyrics. I will likely do this in the future in the rare case when such a thing happens.

Anyway, both this version of the song and the new wave version, that I will post later today, have been among the hardest songs to put together of the seventy-five or so I have already made. They’re both long musical journeys.

Lyrics below:

In a frozen nowhere-town
Stands William Griffin, waving us goodbye,
One hand on his guitar’s neck,
The other holding out a shiny blade.

William Griffin, boy of melodies and songs!
He has a triceratops and a killer girlfriend.
Well, not anymore (oh no!):
The triceratops is six feet under,
And Claire’s probably sucking off strangers
For pocket money and coke.

William used to be a good friend of mine
Until he lost his damn mind.
He has so little life left in him,
It’s a miracle he hasn’t wasted away.

In his throat, a dark-red portal to a land
Where damned souls roam free.
Stretching forever, a bridge through time
To the endless pit that awaits us all!

Yeah, I’m crossing over into a realm
Where my old pal now dwells,
A place where we’ll feast and dance,
And be young once more.

I’ve done many wrongs,
But I can still do one more.
The hell that awaits down below
Will be funner than the one above.

I don’t have any friends left,
And I don’t want to live anymore,
So goodbye, I’m outta here.
I’m taking a step into the dark
With my guitar on my back,
And a hole in my neck!

My name is William Griffin,
And I will exist forever,
In every word I have written,
In every song I have sung!