美国国家公共电台 NPR On Her Latest, Norah Jones Returns To Old Influences

On Her Latest, Norah Jones Returns To Old Influences

play pause stop mute¹ unmute max volume 00:0006:00repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Instead of Saturday morning, imagine it's late on a Saturday night, a smoky bar from the days of black-and-white photos and films. This is the mood that opens the new album by Norah Jones.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BURN")

NORAH JONES: (Singing) The plot begins with you and me in dark-lit rooms. Your cigarette cuts through. I wear it like perfume.

SIMON: After forays into folk and pop, Norah Jones returns to jazz and the piano for her album "Day Breaks." She joins us now from our studios in New York.

Thanks so much for being with us.

JONES: Hi. Thanks for having me.

SIMON: You go back with jazz to when you were a teenager in Dallas, I gather.

JONES: I do. That's when I sort of first started listening to it and got mildly obsessed³ with it.

SIMON: Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, I've read.

JONES: Yeah. They were two of my favorites.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BURN")

JONES: (Singing) Book pages left to turn. Our chapters we should burn.

JONES: I always sort of gravitated towards ballads⁴, in general. And the intimacy⁵ of that music when it's slow is pretty special.

SIMON: Let's listen to a little bit from a track from this album that's getting a lot of play now. It's called "Flipside."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLIPSIDE")

JONES: (Singing) Try get high but you wanted me low. Good things are happening but happening slow. It's some kind of mystery from long ago.

SIMON: Is it OK to hear this and think of "Compared To What" and Les McCann, yeah?

JONES: Yeah, that very much inspired this. I remember I was listening to that song and dancing and also feeling angry and, you know?

SIMON: Dancing and angry.

SIMON: Yeah, the lyrics⁶ of that song, you know, they're very defiant⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMPARED TO WHAT")

LES MCCANN: (Singing) President, he's got his war. Folks don't know just what it's for. Nobody gives us rhyme or reason. Half of one doubt, they call it treason.

JONES: They're very topical. And they're still relevant so many years later. And I think that's really interesting and sad and also makes you want to shout.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLIPSIDE")

JONES: (Singing) You saw your reflection all over the news. Your temperature's well past 102. Put the guns away or we'll all going to lose.

There's just a lot going on. You watch the news, we're so hyperaware of everything now, too. It really will keep you up at night - guns, innocent people getting hurt, terrorism. I mean, politics is crazy, you know? It's a lot (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLIPSIDE")

JONES: (Singing) If we're all free, then why does it seem we can't just be?

SIMON: Most of the songs on this new CD are originals by you or co-written by you.

JONES: Mhmm.

SIMON: But there are a few covers. Let me ask you about a Neil Young song you do - not one of his best known ones. First, let's have a clip⁸ from Neil Young doing the song "Don't Be Denied."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T BE DENIED")

NEIL YOUNG: (Singing) When I was a boy, my mama said to me, your daddy's leaving home today. I think he's gone to stay. We packed up all our bags and drove out to Winnipeg.

SIMON: And now, if we could, let's listen to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T BE DENIED")

JONES: (Singing) We packed up all the bags and drove up to Anchorage.

SIMON: Now, one of the first things you notice is you have a lot longer drives than Neil Young did.

JONES: (Laughter) Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T BE DENIED")

JONES: (Singing) They got to Anchorage. She checked in to school.

I love that song so much. And I had a hard time singing those lyrics. They're so personal to him and talking about being a young boy and moving to Winnipeg. So I kind of changed the perspective. And I made it third person about a girl going to Anchorage, which is something that happened to me when I was 11. My mom and I drove up Anchorage from Texas to live for a little while.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T BE DENIED")

JONES: (Singing) Used to sit on the steps at school and dream of being stars.

SIMON: You have a young family now.

JONES: Yeah. I have two little kids.

SIMON: They are, what, an infant and a toddler?

JONES: Yeah pretty much (laughter).

SIMON: I've heard that you have, perhaps, as well as a microwave, a piano in your kitchen.

JONES: I do (laughter). It's little. It's a little piano. It collects a lot of junk mail on top.

SIMON: Ever spill oatmeal on it?

JONES: No, my mom ingrained in me, very young age, never to put a drink on a piano. And that's always kind of stuck with me. So nobody gets to put any food or drinks on it (laughter).

SIMON: Norah Jones in New York. Her new album is "Day Breaks." Thanks so much for being with us.

JONES: Thank you.

1 mute   

n.哑子，默音字母，弱音器；adj.哑的，无声的，沉默的；vt.减音，减弱；vi.（鸟）排泄

参考例句：

• He is mute on the subject of social system.他对社会制度的问题保持沉默。
• Her daughter was mute after a serious illness.她的女儿在一场重病之后失去了说话能力。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

4 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

5 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

6 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

7 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

8 clip   

n.夹子，别针，弹夹，片断；vt.夹住，修剪

参考例句：

• May I clip out the report on my performance?我能把报道我的文章剪下来吗？
• She fastened the papers together with a paper clip.她用曲别针把文件别在一起。