Today, when music fans think of the grunge genre, naturally names like Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain come to mind. But in the Pacific Northwest where the heavy, sludgy musical style was born, there are a slew of other important artists.
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When it comes to vocalists, specifically, names like Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees come to mind. What separates these two from crooners like Cornell and even Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is that both Marks boast harsher, more singular sounds.
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Sadly, we will never know what a song featuring the two singers would sound like if written today. Lanegan passed away in 2022 after complications due to COVID-19. But here we can create the next best digital thing. That’s why we reached out to ChatGPT for some assistance. Here, we asked the artificial intelligence bot to compose a song in the styles of both Lanegan and Arm to see what a new work might resemble.
“A Mournful Song”
(Verse 1 – Mark Lanegan style)
Mark Lanegan:
In the darkness, I find my way,
Through the smoke and shadows, we both decay,
Whiskey on my breath, the night is cold and long,
But your voice cuts through the silence, like a mournful song.
(Verse 2 – Mark Arm style)
Mark Arm:
Yeah, I’ve been down that road before,
Grit and grunge, it’s what we both adore,
Guitar strings scream, and feedback’s in the air,
Our voices intertwine, like a tortured pair.
(Chorus – Together)
Both:
In the city’s heart, where the neon lights gleam,
We’re chasing dreams, it’s a twisted scene,
Mark and Mark, we’re the kings of the night,
Singing our souls out, till the morning light.
(Verse 3 – Mark Lanegan style)
Mark Lanegan:
Through the broken glass, and the shattered dreams,
We’ve seen it all, or so it seems,
But in your eyes, I find my redemption,
In this sea of chaos and deception.
(Verse 4 – Mark Arm style)
Mark Arm:
With a punk rock heart, and a rebel’s soul,
We’ve paid our dues, and we’ve played our role,
In this underground world, where the misfits roam,
We’ve found our home, and we’ve made it our own.
(Chorus – Together)
Both:
In the city’s heart, where the neon lights gleam,
We’re chasing dreams, it’s a twisted scene,
Mark and Mark, we’re the kings of the night,
Singing our souls out, till the morning light.
(Bridge – Mark Lanegan style)
Mark Lanegan:
Through the highs and lows, we’ve walked this line,
In this world of darkness, we both shine,
With every note we play, and every word we sing,
We’re the voices of the lost, the broken, and the king.
(Bridge – Mark Arm style)
Mark Arm:
In the feedback’s roar, and the thunderous beat,
We find our solace, and we find our heat,
With the passion in our hearts, and the fire in our eyes,
We’ll keep on rocking, till the day we die.
(Chorus – Together)
Both:
In the city’s heart, where the neon lights gleam,
We’re chasing dreams, it’s a twisted scene,
Mark and Mark, we’re the kings of the night,
Singing our souls out, till the morning light.
(Outro – Both)
Both:
Mark and Mark, we’ll keep the music alive,
In this world of chaos, we will survive,
With our voices as one, and our hearts ablaze,
We’ll rock this world till the end of our days.
Final Thoughts
To paraphrase a famous folk tune, it takes a mournful man to make a mournful song, and here we have two artists who at their best can write mournful songs that make you want to thrash and rage and even improve your soul. Truly, living or dead, this stanza rings true forever:
In the city’s heart, where the neon lights gleam,
We’re chasing dreams, it’s a twisted scene,
Mark and Mark, we’re the kings of the night,
Singing our souls out, till the morning light.
Photo by Jordi Vidal/WireImage
