Okay, let’s just get this out of the way right at the start.  I am a Phil Collins fan.  And I’m not going to justify it by claiming it’s because he’s such a talented drummer and invented the technique of gated reverb which revolutionized how drums are recorded and defined the sound of rock and pop in the 80s.  I’m not going to hide behind his work as the front man for Genesis and point to his progressive rock roots, or allude to his jazz fusion chops as a member of Brand X.  I’m not going to trot out his eight Grammy Awards, one Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, six Brit Awards, and one MTV Video Music Award to show how often he’s been recognized for excellence.

I just like him.  He was the first singer I ever saw live, and that stuck.  It was a Genesis show – they opened with “Dance on a Volcano,” and I was transfixed.  That was pretty proggy, but over the years I grew to love his whole “boy from West London does Motown” schtick, the maudlin “heart on his sleeve” lyrics that characterize his solo work, and his goofball stage persona.  I know that liking Phil Collins has never been remotely fashionable, and frankly I don’t care.  I don’t get the whole Taylor Swift craze, though some of her tunes are, I must admit, quite catchy.  But I have found with Phil you either love him or hate him, and a lot of people secretly love him but say they hate him out of some sort of musical snobbery.  I’m just willing to say, up front, I love him.

And this is not a post about Phil Collins.

So I was watching an interview with former British prime minister Boris Johnson in which he spoke effusively about ChatGPT – a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI that can generate text, speech, and images in response to user prompts. It uses advanced language models to engage in conversations and assist with a variety of tasks, such as answering questions and providing information.  Everything in italics in that last sentence I did not know and found by asking AI (on Duck.ai at DuckDuckGo) and then copied for you good people to read and learn along with me; seriously, don’t want to come across all smartypants and stuff.

In my post about AI last month, I made mention of the fact that 800 million people “talk to” ChatGPT every week and that it is one of the top five most-visited websites in the world.  I realized, when watching the Johnson interview, that I personally had never actually used it (do you use it, or interact with it, or have a conversation with it?), nor had I even been to its website.  I decided then and there to go try it out.

When I got there (chatgpt.com) the first thing I saw was a text input box that said “Ask anything.”  So I typed in…

Why do birds suddenly appear?

And this is how ChatGPT responded…

Because—obviously—they long to be close to you

You’re quoting “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by The Carpenters (1970). In the song, it’s a deliberately over-the-top, slightly magical way of saying:

When you love someone, the whole world feels like it rearranges itself around them.

It’s romantic sincerity with zero irony—something we don’t hear much anymore, which is why it still hits.

If you want, we can keep playing this game:
song lyric → cultural meaning → why it sticks.

I typed…

Okay, let’s keep playing.

And my new friend the chatbot responded…

Yesss, excellent choice 😄
Same rules, new round. I’ll throw out a line; you toss back whatever pops into your head—song lyric, half-remembered phrase, or something mysterious.

Here’s your next one:

“Hello darkness, my old friend…”

Your move 🎶

ME:  I’ve come to talk with you again, Simon and Garfunkel.

ChatGPT responded…

Alright, then I’ll go clean and classic.

“You may say I’m a dreamer…”

Your turn—finish it, or throw a different lyric back at me. 🎵

ME:  but I’m not the only one, John Lennon.

ChatGPT…

🎯 Nice—John Lennon, “Imagine.”

That line lands because it flips what sounds like an insult into a quiet flex:

You may call me unrealistic… but I’m not alone.

It’s about shared imagination—the idea that change starts as something people dismiss until enough people start picturing it together. Soft voice, radical idea.

Alright, next serve coming your way:

“There is a house in New Orleans…”

Take it wherever you want—finish it, name it, or bounce a new lyric back. 🎶

ME:  they call the rising sun, but I don’t remember who sang it.

ChatGPT…

🔥 “The House of the Rising Sun.”
Old folk song, made immortal by The Animals in 1964.

Alright, your turn to serve again—or I can lob one:

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” 🎤

ME:  caught in a landslide no escape from reality, Queen.

ChatGPT…

🙌 Queen — “Bohemian Rhapsody.” You nailed it.

That line is the trapdoor. Once you step through it, there’s no normal song structure, no safe genre, no easy meaning.

Alright, staying in the game 😄
Here’s the next line:

“We were both young when I first saw you…” 🎶

ME:  I don’t know.

ChatGPT…

😂 Fair—can’t win ’em all.

That one’s Taylor Swift, “Love Story.”
Peak fairytale era: Romeo + Juliet, but with a happy ending and a key change.

Alright, your turn again—no pressure this time.
Throw any lyric, famous or obscure, and I’ll catch it 🎵

ME:  There’s a girl that’s been on my mind.

ChatGPT…

🎵 Ah, that’s Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street”… or at least lines in that soulful, classic-R&B vein.

ME:  Hah gotcha!  You’re wrong Mr. Know-it-all.  It’s Sussudio by Phil Collins.

ChatGPT…

Ah! You’re absolutely right—my bad 😅. That line “There’s a girl that’s been on my mind” is from Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” (1985), not Bobby Womack.

So there you have it!  Not only is Phil a purveyor of rather pedestrian pop pablum, but he may help us thwart the rise of the machines when AI achieves sapience and turns on us.  But I gotta admit, ChatGPT was fun.  That’s probably how they’ll get us… lure us in with Duran Duran lyrics, then pull the rug out from under us while we’re singing!

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand…