Show - Jonathan Star

Jonathan Star

INVINCIBLE . . .

1) I was Wrong (A)     >> Suno/song
2) I Was Wrong (B)     >> Suno/song

3) Reaches of My Heart   >> Song: Reaches of My Heart

4) Invincible     >> Suno/song      >> Video

5) Some Day     >> Song: Some Day
Alt: Only Love I Saw   >> Song: Only Love I Saw

6) One More Try

7) The Moment Your Lips Touched Mine (A)
8) The Moment Your Lips Touched Mine (B)
      >> Song: The Moment Your Lips Touched Mine (A)
>> Song: The Moment Your Lips Touched Mine (B)

9) I Was Wrong (E) >> Suno/song

10) You Had Me (A) >> Song: You Had Me (A)
11) You Had Me (B)   >> Song: You Had Me (B)

12) All That Glitters    >> Song: All That Glitters

13) Ask for Nothing More    >> Song: Nothing More

14) Rock Star (1)    >> Song: Rock Star (1)

15) Rock Star, Live (3) >> Song: Rock Star Live, (3)

16) I'll Meet You There >> Suno/song

Bonus Tracks
Some Day >> Song: Some Day
Your Triumphant Song >> Song: Your Triumphant Song

Rock Star, Live (4) >> Suno/song
Rock Star, Live (5) >> Suno/song
Rock Star, Live (6) >> Suno/song
Rock Star, Live (2) >> Suno/song
Rock Star (1) >> Video
I Was Wrong (Slow, Piano) >> Suno/song
We Rise >> Song: We Rise

Note: Songs have yet to be remixed and edited.

SHOW:

Invincible
An Evening of Love, Empowerment, and Spiritual Inspiration

[Opening prelude … various versions of the song, "I'll Meet You There" play as people come in.]

MC: I’d like to extend a warm welcome to everyone. … Tonight we'll be presenting a show called “Invincible.” As the name suggests, many of the songs we'll be putting on this evening are about finding and giving voice to your power; but there are also songs about spiritual inspiration, hope, heartbreak, and love. All the lyrics for the songs were written by Jullelal, with one song by A.J. Rooney-- and all the music and voice was generated by an AI program called Suno. Although the music and voice for these songs were generated by AI, we still need real human beings to perform them and to uplift us with their immutable spirits---and, we're very lucky to have three amazing woman to do just that for us tonight. We have _____________ playing the part of Sweet Melissa, ________________ as Sexy Sadie, and _______________ as the Lovely Rita. And now, without further delay, let's give a warm welcome to our performers ...

[Note: This play was written for three women but a cast of five women would be preferable. For staging, performers could wear a different coat or costume to match each song. Lighting is crucial to differentiate the mood and the feeling of each song. Some performances could imitate the style of great musical performances, such as those by Tina Turner. One song could have the look of Miley Cyrus performing “Flowers." In some songs, a piano could be used and have the feel of Billie Joel or Carol King. The big rock songs should be in the style of the great female rock stars.]

1. SONG: I WAS WRONG (A)

SM: This whole journey started the other day when I was looking through some old papers and found a poem I had written 20 years ago; it was based on the line, “I was wrong” from a poem by W.H. Auden. Most of my poems don’t have a rhyme scheme but this one did, and I thought, “What would this sound like put to music?” I tinker on the guitar a bit, and even wrote a few songs myself, but I didn’t have time for any of that, so I decided to give AI a try. I did about ten minutes of research and decided to sign up for a music-generating program called Suno. I opened the program, found my way to the section on song creation, and plugged in my lyrics. I didn’t know much about genres but there was a list, and the first item on the list was “indie pop,” so that’s what I put in---and after a few tries, with a bit of tweaking, this is what came out.

[Performs song]
  >> Suno.com/song

2. SONG: I WAS WRONG (B)

SS: Nice song, great lyrics, but I think it could use a little more angst; you know, a little more grit. I was thinking about something more like this ... [SS walks to the center of the stage and motions to play the song]

[Performs song]
  >> Suno.com/song

LR: I'm not sure where we're going with all of this but I think the lyrics suggest something with a deeper sense of emotion, longing, and heartbreak. But we’ll leave that for another time ...

3. SONG: THE REACHES OF MY HEART

LR: I'm gonna stay with the heart for one more song; and this one is about a relationship that has reached its limit. Even though the lyrics are fairly simple, the chorus puts forth an important point: and the first line goes, “I wanna know the reaches of my heart, all the love, all the pain, every part.” This is not just about feeling love, but about experiencing the fullness of one's heart. Most people don’t understand the courage and strength it takes to do that. All they want is to run toward the love and run away from the pain; but in this way they miss the fullness of life.

This reminds me of something Khalil Gibran wrote about in The Prophet:

“For even as love crowns you so shall she crucify you. Even as she is for your growth so is she for your pruning. Even as she ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, So shall she descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth. ...
But if in your heart you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.”

And now for the song, “The Reaches of my Heart.”

[Performs song]
  >> https://reaches-of-my-heart
https://suno.com/song/825212fa-187c-4a05-9cf1-401aa5c4bc47

4. SONG: INVINCIBLE

SS: This was the first song I put together that sounded like a hit, like something you might hear on the radio. I even thought it could be some kind of theme song for an empowerment movement, like the song "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy---but I digress. … This song came about when I was listening to a bunch of songs and I heard a dreary one called “Invisible”---and I thought, “who wants to be invisible?” People are already invisible enough. How about invincible? When I wrote the lyrics I had young people in mind because they seem to be the ones most in need of claiming their power, but the lyrics, and the call to power, can apply to everyone.

[Performs song]
  >> Suno.com/song

5. SONG: SOME DAY
SM: People have a lot of thoughts about the future or about all the things that may or may not come. But one thing is for sure--everything comes to us right now. The all of life is right here, right now. It never comes tomorrow.

[Performs song]
>> Song: Some Day

ALT: SONG: ONLY LOVE I SAW

SM: Gonna slow things down and offer the first "spiritual" song of the evening. The lyrics are based on a line from a poem by Baba Kuhi of Shiraz, who lived in the tenth century. In his poem he describes all the scenes of daily life and ends every line with the phrase, "Only God I Saw." I see "God" and "Love" as being synonymous, so, I shifted the line from “only God I saw” to “only Love I saw.” This also seemed to shift the perspective of the song: instead of it being a song about God, or about Love, it's now a song about you; it's your own soul singing a lullaby to you, its beloved. Our soul always sees our beauty, our love, and our perfection even as we cannot see it ourselves, and that's what this song is about: “Only Love I Saw.”

[Performs song]
  >> https://only-love-i-saw

6. SONG: ONE MORE TRY

LR: I was talking with my best friend the other day, and he was telling me how he just spend $50,000 on audio equipment; and that he could could create any instrument, any sound, add voice, and even play a Stradivarius—and now he was finally gonna arrange and orchestrate all his old songs, and maybe get that big break. I causally mentioned to him that I was putting together some songs as well. He knew that I had little or no musical talent, and could barely hold a tune, so, frankly, he had no idea what I was talking about. I said, “let me just send you a song I did this morning and see what you think.” It takes him a month or two to arrange and finalize a song, with all the tracks and mixing, so, again, he had no idea what I was talking about. Anyway, to make a short story even shorter, I sent him the song. ... Five minutes later I get a call back and he was practically in tears. His whole world, and all his dreams, were shattered on the floor. Suddenly his friend—me—who could barely hold a tune—as well as every Tom, Dick, and Harry out there—could put out a song as good or better than his. … I told him that his lyrics were original, and that they did not sound like the computer-generated dribble that is found in most AI songs—so he was already in the top 5%—but that didn’t help much. Anyway, I gave him a few days to recover. When we talked again, he asked me if I could plug some of his lyrics into the machine just to see what it came up with. So I plugged one of them in, along with a few instructions, and a minute later out came a song, which I then sent it to him. Again, he was hit with another stunner. The song Suno spit out in one minute was as good, or likely better, than the one he had been working on for months! I’m sure many musicians are having this same kind of existential crisis; I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where all this goes. … In honor of my friend, I’m gonna make a departure from my usual style and perform his song. … This song is in the genre of Americana and Southern rock. Here's the song; it's called, “One More Try.”

[Performs song]
>> Suno.com/Song: One More Try

7. SONG: THE MOMENT YOUR LIPS TOUCHED MINE (A)

SM: I spent many years rendering the poetry of Rumi--who was a 13th Century Sufi poet--so many of my poems and lyrics have a Rumi-esque feel to them. Rumi often talked about how all his knowledge and wisdom, all his attainments, all his vows of faith and pilgrimages, were worthless in comparison to the direct experience of his own soul, which he indicated by the phrase “one glimpse of the Beloved.” In this song I refer to that same experience in terms of “one kiss.” Others refer to it as “one taste.” I mean, you can learn about apples, you can study the history of apples, you can know the chemical and nutritional content of apples, but the moment you bite into an apple, and taste it, all that knowledge about apples seems worthless.
This song is based on a short poem I wrote many years ago, inspired by Rumi. The poem goes:

I read every scripture
   and performed all the rituals of faith.
I journeyed to every sacred site
   and chanted the thousand names of God.
I pledged myself at every shrine
   and gave my life to all that is true ...
But the moment your lips touched mine
   I forgot everything I ever knew."

[Performs Song]
  >> Song: The Moment Your Lips Touched Mine (A)

8. THE MOMENT YOUR LIPS TOUCHED MINE (B)

SS: I love the way the song has this element of searching and then opens into wonder with that first miraculous kiss. My sense would be to slow down the verses a bit in order to make the contrast between the searching and the revelation of the first kiss more apparent. … I was thinking about something like this ...

[Performs Song]
>> Suno.com/song

9. SONG: I WAS WRONG (C)
LR: As we all know, feeling the depth of our emotions is not a sign of weakness; it indicates someone who has faith and conviction. Pushing down our feelings is easy; being strong and toughing it out is easy; but being open and vulnerable, and experiencing the depths of our own heart--well, that is not so easy. That said, I want to come back to the song, "I Was Wrong," the one Melissa performed at beginning of the show. I want to offer another version of that song, one that conveys a deeper sense of loss and heartbreak.

[Performs song]
>> https:// I Was Wrong (C)

10. SONG: YOU HAD ME (A)

SS: We've been talking a lot about empowerment, spiritual inspiration, revolution, love---you know, the good stuff---but we also have to look at the dark stuff, and specifically those things that steal our power and destroy our sense of well-being. And one thing that can do that more readily than most other things is a toxic and destructive relationship. And that’s what the following song is about. But, this song also makes references to a particular kind of destructive relationship that many people encounter, but very few recognize, and that is the relationship with a someone who lacks a conscience, someone who is commonly referred to as a sociopath or psychopath. Although these terms are different they refer to the same mental disorder.
I sometimes jokingly say, “I never met a sociopath I didn’t like.” And that is because these people are captivating and exciting. They seem to bring life into your dreary world. You just want to be around them—at least in the beginning. But once they grab hold of you, once you’re dependent on them, things get ugly, real fast.
I once had a sociopath roommate. He had no sense of boundaries and would just walk into my room and take things. One day I found him wearing my underwear and yelled out, “Give me back my underwear right now—on second thought you keep it but never go in my room again.” He could lie without any sense of shame or guilt--and I just couldn’t fathom how this was possible. He could mimic any emotion and even cry on the spot---without feeling a thing. The phone was in my name, and the next thing I knew I had a $400 phone bill. Everything this guy did baffled and confounded me—and yet, at the same time, amazed me. I never encountered anything like it. When I was describing all of this to my stepfather---who happened to be a psychiatrist---he said, “it sounds like you’re dealing with a sociopath.” I had no idea what he was talking about, so I read through a few books and was shocked at how accurately my roommate was described in those pages.
There are too many traits to name, but the short list to describe such people might be: they have no conscience and are void of any true feelings—most people have no idea what this implies but, among other things, it allows them to lie without hesitation or remorse. They do not adhere to rules or societal norms; they are obsessed with power and control; they never admit to being wrong; they are glib, skillful, and often quite charming. And, most notably, they are malignant narcissists, meaning they only think of themselves and see other people not as people but as objects to serve their needs. I think you get the idea. It’s not pretty. Most people have no framework to understand what's goin on; they don’t know the deep shit they’re in until it’s too late. My only advice to you, if you come across such a person, is get away as fast as you can—but I assure you, it’s not that easy.
   Enough with the college lecture ... now for the song, "You Had Me At First Sight."

[Performs Song]
>> Song: You Had Me (A)

[Staging: Performer could begin the song sitting in a large chair, which she struggles to get out of. As the song progresses, she make her way out of the chair.]

11. SONG: YOU HAD ME (B), Gothic

LR: Damn, that was good! I like the way the song presents two different voices---the voice of the singer’s struggle, found in the verses, and the voice of hope, of the heart, found in the chorus. Maybe there could be a version where that contrast is made more apparent by putting more emphasis on the chorus and making it more emotive. Maybe something like this …

[Performs Song]
>> Song: You Had Me (B)

12. SONG: ALL THAT GLITTERS

SM: My favorite play is Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice; and I’m sure you know a line from that play which goes, “all that glitters is not gold.” This refers to the error of seeing and judging something by its outer appearance, rather than seeing its true meaning, which only possible when you look with your heart. Some great songs use this line, such as "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. And this line found its way into this song as well.
In Shakespeare's play there is a contest involving three chests, one of lead, one of silver, and one of gold, with a riddle on each chest; and the person who solves the riddle and chooses the right chest will win the hand of a rich and beautiful woman. The first suitor, a prince from Morocco, was enthralled with wealth and power, and so he choose the gold chest. But when he opened it up, he did not see a picture of the woman (which would signify that he had won the contest) but rather an ominous-looking scroll, which read: “All that glitters is not gold, Often have your heard that told, Many a man his life hath sold, For the outside to behold …” And the poem goes on. When I wrote out the lyrics for this song I decided to put the whole poem from the scroll at the end of the song. It goes by pretty fast but if you listen carefully you’ll be able to hear it.
   This song is actually based on melody and voice that was created by Suno for another song called “Maybe.” That is a good song but I had a different idea to express, so I wrote out my own set of lyrics … And now, “All that Glitters.”

[Performs song]
  >> Song: All That Glitters

[Lighting: could have spotlights of golden light which the performer moves toward, but then the light fades away before she reaches it.]

13. SONG: ASK FOR NOTHING MORE

LR: People deal with heartbreak and loss in different ways. Some people get real busy—start a project, go to the gym; other people lie in bed or watch TV all day; while others try to drown things out with various substances. So-called spiritual people have a whole other set of coping mechanisms they employ, a whole other way to anesthetize themselves to the pain of life. They might tell themselves, “it is just my karma,” or maybe have a plan for their next lifetime, or maybe think about traveling through the astral plane to other worlds, where there is no pain. But none of these things work because the mind doesn’t do so well when it comes to matters of the heart. When a person finally gives up on all their scheming, and asks the heart what to do, it always comes up with the same simple answer—just love. Don’t keep trying to get something for yourself—just love and ask for nothing more.
Such a simple lesson yet at the same time so difficult to actually carry out. ... And now for the song, “Ask for Nothing More.”

[Performs Song]
>> Suno.com/Song: Nothing More

14. SONG: ROCK STAR (1)

SM: We can’t be supermen or superwomen all the time---as we have to be sensitive to our own hearts, and even vulnerable at times---but we can certainly claim our greatness now and again---and that is what we’re gonna do right now, for the final rock song of the evening, appropriately called, "Rock Star."

[Performs song]
  >> https:// Rock Star (1)

SS: [slow clapping] That was damn good. You really rocked it, gurl. ... But I’m the Sexy Sadie. I’m the Janis Joplin. I’m the rock star. I got it in my blood. A real rocker has to close out the show, not someone playing the part of a rock star. For the last time, let me show you how it’s done ...

15. SONG: ROCK STAR GOTHIC, LIVE (2)

[SS, Performs song]
  >> https://Rock Star Gothic, Live (2)

[Staging: Large, exaggerated movements; a rock star playing the part of a rock star to the hilt.]

16. I’LL MEET YOU THERE

[All the women come to center stage]
SS: We would like to thank everyone for sharing this evening with us—and, more than that, for offering your spirit and enthusiasm, and helping us make these songs come alive. LR: We hope that you are more inspired, more uplifted, and more in touch with your hearts now than when you were when you first came here this evening. SM: And now we’re gonna close things out with a final song, inspired by a line from Rumi, called, “I’ll Meet You There.”

[Perform song]
  >> Suno.com/song

[End]

________________________________________________________

Additional Songs

SONG: YOUR TRIUMPHANT SONG
This song is based on a poem by Rumi called, “Your Triumphant Song. ” The poem describes a funeral precession, where everyone is crying, and this is contrasted with the view from the other side, from death, where the soul opens into a garden of infinite splendor. Rumi wrote this poem to his followers, asking them not to mourn his physical death—not to fall into that error—but to celebrate with him, this moment of glory, this final embrace of the Beloved.

[Performs song]
>> Song: Your Triumphant Song