Last night Josh Hill (who needs to get a website!) presented a song cycle with text from The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed, a book of prose written by a computer program in the early 80s.

The following texts were presented:

More than iron, more than lead, more than gold I need electricity.
I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber.
I need it for my dreams.

He is quiet. He is Paul, the man I chant about, and he is
quiet because his pants are very long. His pants are long
and his vest is short. He sings at morning and at night,
Is this not comical and unfortunate? I fantasize that Paul
is both happy and unhappy, and I think that he sings because
his pants are long. And his vest indubitably is short.

And here are some of my favorites:

I gave a man a coat. I gave a woman a brassiere.
I gave myself and electric current. We all were
happy and full of delight. Take the coat from the
man and remove the brassiere from the woman and take
the electric current from me and we will be sad
and full of anguish.

Bills sings to Sarah. Sarah sings to Bill. Perhaps they
will do dangerous things together. They may eat lamb or stroke
each other. They may chant of their difficulties and their
happiness. They have love but they also have typewriters.
That is interesting.

I find the whole thing- and the song cycle- amazing.