A new song and new video. If you want to skip the whole story and just watch the video, the video link is on the next line and the lyrics are at the bottom of the newsletter.

Video of Nancy Drew is Free (Nothing Sacred).

THE WHOLE STORY:

Since my goal is to write a song a week for the Jack Hardy Songwriter Exchange meetings that’s why, when Alix Cohen in her wonderful review said, “[Steve] can (and does) make anything into a song,” that’s a literal statement and this week’s song couldn’t be more of that calibre.

Everything can and does turn into a song. I saw a headline, “Nancy Drew’s copyright has expired along with many other characters from 1930. ”

Suddenly the phrase “Nancy Drew is free today to be her own kind of girl” popped into my head.

That’s a song, I says. Crikey that’s a song.

But the irony is she can’t be her own kind of girl. It actually puts her at the mercy of “everyone in the world” because anyone can do anything with her anytime they want. And with the Internet, it’s kind of disheartening, even though it’s also freeing for artists who use pop iconography as part of their art.

I quickly wrote the song with guitar and made a rough demo.

Then, playing around with Suno—as most songwriters do now that they realize they can convert every demo they’ve ever made into fully produced viable songs—I put in my solo demo, gave it zero instructions so it would stay true to what I was awkwardly playing, and what came out stunned me. Not merely the nice production but something else.

It was a woman’s voice singing.

A song that felt observational, from a male looking in, became a song where the vulverability only lives when it comes from the vulnerable character itself. In this case, Nancy Drew, a young woman.

The guitar part is exactly what I was playing, or trying clumsily to play.

The vocalist is using all my vocal inflections. She’s singing it exactly as I sang it but with subtle things that I can’t do, but would have if I could have. It me but not me.

In the world of AI, the human songwriter is king. A song with no point of view is generic and any AI can write generically.

What matters is the thought itself. No AI sits around thinking and pondering the universe. It is a tool.

But then how do I release a song I’m not actually singing? I want people to hear it. Also, the streaming services are trying to stop fake songwriters flooding the streaming market with fake bands where the AI is doing all the work and they’re just hitting buttons making hundreds of fake songs to monetize and game the system.

Searching YouTube, I found a link to Whisk, an animation tool that is still in progress. And within two days, I created a video with Nancy Drew actually singing the song.

So, now it’s a song about people using Nancy Drew images to create other art by creating art that uses Nancy Drew images for a song.

The chorus is “Nothing Sacred” and that gave me an opportunity to play around with other iconic images. A total escape into my imagination.

The headline here is that I was able to write, record, produce and then storyboard and execute a fully animated music video in a week.

Now, there are people here on my newsletter list who absolutely despise the use of AI in anything. And I completely understand and respect where they are coming from because feelings are feelings. Whether they have a moral problem or a creative problem — or they just hate it viscerally — I hear you and you don’t have to like any of this.

But I got the same pushback when I started my online diary in 1996 and that’s what gave us a half page in the New York Times when, under normal circumstances, we would have not been see as having any newsworthy to discuss. That feature happened because I grabbed the nearest available new tool and I used it.

You can use the tool or you can let the tool use you.

All I know is I had a deadline and I met it and now I have a new one for next week.

NANCY DREW IS FREE (NOTHING SACRED)

©2026 by Steve Schalchlin

Nancy Drew was freed today
To be her own kinda girl
But now she’s at the mercy of
Everyone world

Today lost her copyright
Now the gooners take control
When you lose your copyright
You also lose your soul

Nothing sacred, nothing gained
Everything twisted, everything the same

Monuments are crashing down
Now Mickey Mouse does porn
Betty Boop is pregnant
Leading yoga every morn (in the nude)

Poor Miss Marple’s lost her license
On the street in rags
Pluto’s now called Rover
And pisses on her bags

Nothing sacred, nothing gained
Everything twisted, everything’s the same

Maybe someone someday
Will portray me as a Nazi
Or make me show my dingaling
In front of paparazzi

No one know me now or
Even cares how I might feel
If I’m famous in my afterlife
Too bad I won’t be real

Nothing sacred, nothing gained
Everything twisted
But still it’s the same

Watch the live video of Living in the Bonus Round 2025 at Urban Stages on YouTube.

You are free to stream the songs but purchasing them is the best way to support independent artists such as myself. Or if you have the means, you can make a small donation through PayPal or Venmo using my email address: steveshack@gmail.com.

And please share this with friends!