“End Times,” along with other songs I’ll be sharing with you over the course of the next couple weeks or so, will be on Ai Tsuno’s next album, A TOAST TO PLANET EARTH, which will drop on all the streaming platforms on September 1st.
Between the album’s title track and a number of other songs that I first shared in July such as “The Americans are Coming,” “Your Country is a Military Target,” and “Minab,” during the last half of July alone Ai Tsuno songs in video form (portrait-framed AI-generated slideshow videos with captions) got over 800,000 views, and were shared over 10,000 times.
There were also thousands of comments, altogether, for those videos that went viral. The comments were overwhelmingly positive, particularly about the lyrics, the messages, but also about the music, and sometimes even the videos (which are surely the weakest link in the whole production). Comments have been from many different places, but have included a lot of Iranians.
I don’t know how long this kind of thing will keep going. The virality I’ve been experiencing with some of these videos is happening exclusively on Instagram and Facebook. On YouTube and TikTok it’s crickets as usual.
In terms of what 800,000 views and 10,000 shares in the course of two weeks means, this is the sort of view count that for me would normally accrue over the course of five or six months, across all platforms. Another comparison is Canadian rock star Bryan Adams, who’s kickass new song, “51st State,” dropped on YouTube around the same time as my Ai Tsuno antiwar songs started going viral. With lots of mainstream media promotion and a huge following, Mr. Adams’ new song got 800,000 views on Facebook, to date.
For those who may be wondering, my earnings from all of this are exactly zero, since I have been demonetized from both the Google and the Meta platforms.
There’s your brief update on the progress of the Ai Tsuno project. This is the sort of thing I was hoping would happen. We’ll see if it keeps up.
End Times
When a war began
A riddle left unsolved
It depends on when
Your country got involved
Like in 1914
Or 1933
Once this one is over
If we still have history
If there are survivors
Of this tragedy
Unfolding in real time
Interminably
To watch as if we are
Somewhere far away
On this planet we shared
Until today
If these aren't
The end times then
I don't know how
We'll know when
The Third World
War has begun
And if we’ll still be here
By the time somebody won
Now that the US and Israel
Are at war with Iran
And with Iraq, Yemen
Palestine and Lebanon
Now that missiles are flying
Along with jets and drones
From Russia to Egypt
Is a war zone
Now that the US bases
Have all been laid to waste
With the empire cornered
No time left to be chaste
Global calamity
All but guaranteed
With no fuel or fertilizer
So many mouths to feed
Chorus
Now that the west
Has collectively
Concluded they can go
Strike any country
Fly drones into Moscow
What could go wrong
Just bomb them then
Just get along
Why can't we
Pretend we're in
Control of all the many
Wars we win
Let the propaganda
Self-deceive
Which was never meant for us
To believe
Chorus
