Integrate 2023, The Lyrics
June 26, 2023 Timothy Prickett Morgan
When I was at the POWERUp conference in Denver back in late April along with my co-editor, Alex Woodie, we were sitting in the opening keynote address when Alison Butterill, IBM i offering manager, and Steve Will, IBM i chief architect, were on stage talking about the AS/400 launch and how the platform has evolved over time, there was a point in the presentation when a slide went up that listed some of the key features of the platform. I remember seeing “Innovate” and “Integrate” at the top of the list, and that sent my brain down an internal monologue spiral. . . .
Yup, I suddenly had Michael Hutchence, former lead singer of the band INXS, in my head, a snare drum slapping loudly as he chanted, “Innovate, integrate, love your mate, Silverlake. . . .” And I have not been able to stop playing with the idea, in a Weirdly Al Yankovich way, since then.
Sometimes, as a writer, you have to just put things down to get them out of your head so you don’t have to carry them around anymore. So, here is what fell out of my head. I am not sure that it scans well yet, and I had hoped – or maybe feared – to have a video of this thing done as a spoof for the 35th birthday of the AS/400 on June 21. But the weather was just awful here and I have not had time to be playful with this. Which I think is important, even at our advanced age.
So I decided to share it with you, and I now hope to have the song and video cut by my 34th anniversary – meaning the beginning of my 34th year in this IBM i midrange business – on July 10. It is hard to believe that I have been the editor of The Four Hundred for so long. It has been a tremendous learning experience, as I said when I was talking to legendary System/38, AS/400, and iSeries chief architect Frank Soltis a week ago.
Take a look at what I came up with, and if you are being playful, send along your ideas and I am happy to make this a collaborative effort as I remind myself again and again that parody is not copyright infringement. With a serious bow to INXS and its legendary Kick album, released in October 1987 as the Silverlake project was making its way toward the launch, welcome to my brain:
F
Contemplate, innovate
Integrate, emulate
Dm
A frozen state with Fort Knox fate
Upgrade late, a market waits
F
A heavy weight, the pressure great
Months 28, it can’t be late
Dm
So innovate, and integrate
And speculate and contemplate
F
System create, one memory slate,
Try not to hate, truth debate
Dm
36 migrate don’t deviate
Or deprecate the 38
F
And innovate and integrate
Appreciate, depreciate
C
Eve simulates and designates
a different fate, low defect rate
Am7
Formulate the Silverlake
And fabricate and operate
Dm
A Silverlake, a Silverlake
Bits 48 out of the gate
F
And mediate, reinstate
Anticipate that special date
Dm
My special fate that Silverlake
In ’88 we all rotate
F
In ’98 hits 278
But 20-8, Recession Great
C
The base deflates, hits steady state
with Power8 good incarnate
Am7
A gentle trait to applicate
And fascinate and iterate
F
Don’t tempt your fate, or lie in wait
In ’28 we all rotate
Dm
To integrate and innovate
To fascinate and replicate and emulate
F
And integrate and integrate and integrate
And integrate and integrate . . . .
Dm
35 and still alive
35 and still alive
F
Kick
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