VOA慢速英语2011--“Ghost on the Canvas” Final Album fo

American Mosaic¹ - “Ghost on the Canvas²” Final Album for Country Star Glen Campbell

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I’m Doug Johnson.
The singer Glen Campbell has released his first album of new songs in years. The album is also his last because Glen Campbell has Alzheimer’s disease.
Today, Christopher Cruise³ tells us about the singer and his new CD.
(MUSIC – “Southern Nights” Glen Campbell)

Glen Campbell
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: You may never have heard about Glen Campbell. But he was one of the best-known singers in the United States in the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. He even had his own television show.
Glen Campbell
Campbell sold tens of millions of records. He had twenty-one top forty hits – two of them reached number one - and nine number one country albums. And he received five Grammy Awards from the music industry.
He had hits with songs that have been called “arresting country pop classics,” like “Rhinestone Cowboy,” “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and “Gentle on My Mind.”
(MUSIC)
Even before his success as a solo⁴ artist, Glen Campbell had been one of the music world’s most in-demand studio musicians. He played on songs recorded by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys, among others. Even with Alzheimer’s disease, he remembers those days well.
GLEN CAMPBELL: “I could play, I could play guitar, you know. When I, when I was in California I could, I could play. And I knew I could play. People have said this and that and that and that. And my dad said ‘Son if you think you can do it, you can do it, but you gotta’ work at it.’ [Laughter] And I said ‘OK.’”
But after his success, the music changed. Glen Campbell and his songs simply were no longer popular. He continued to perform, but released few albums. In the nineteen eighties and nineties he had problems with drug abuse and alcoholism.
The lowest point came in two thousand three, when he was caught driving drunk. He hit a police officer and was jailed for ten days. The experience shook him. He says, as a result, he stopped abusing drugs and alcohol.
Now, at the age of seventy-five, Glen Campbell’s career is coming to an end. Not because of his age, but because Alzheimer’s disease is slowly robbing him of his memory. Campbell decided⁵ to record one last album while he was still in good health. He co-wrote some new songs and recorded them on a studio CD called Ghost on the Canvas. This song is called “Any Trouble.”
(MUSIC)
I was lucky to have a chance to meet Glen Campbell in nineteen sixty-seven -- when I was eight years old. At the time, my mother wanted to meet him. But he was so popular that it was impossible - unless you were a friend or had connections in the music industry. So, my mother added a note at the bottom of a form letter that had been sent to her by the Glen Campbell fan club. The note invited us to meet with Campbell before his sold-out show in Boston, Massachusetts. She then wrote his signature at the end of the note. To my surprise, it worked. Security guards let us into his dressing⁶ room and, before you know it, I was looking up at the famous singer.
Glen Campbell was nice. He called my mother by her first name and she was calling him “Glen.” The picture I have of me from that day, with Campbell putting his arm around my shoulder, is one of my prized possessions.
I showed the picture to the singer when I met with him before his recent performance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He looked at it, pointed⁷ to himself in the picture and asked me who that good-looking gentleman was. It took me a few seconds to understand he was not joking. He did not recognize himself in the picture. But he signed it for me anyway. We have posted the picture on our website – VOA Special English dot com.
(MUSIC – “The Billstown Crossroads”)
At our recent meeting, Campbell asked me where he was. When I told him he was in Philadelphia, he asked me why. He knew he was with his children and his wife. But he did not know why he had come to Philadelphia. When I told him it was because he was to perform that night he seemed happy. His wife says he becomes Glen Campbell again when he is performing on stage.
(MUSIC – “A Thousand Lifetimes”)
Glen Campbell no longer knows the words to even his most-famous songs - the ones he has been singing for forty or more years. During his show, he uses an electronic device that shows him the words he once knew by heart.
(MUSIC)
That was “Hold on Hope” from his new CD. In the song, he sings about how “everybody’s got a hold on hope. It’s the last thing that’s holding me.”
Campbell will continue performing for as long as his health will let him. He is set to perform in concerts through the end of the year throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom. He even has a concert set for next February.
We leave you with a song from Glen Campbell’s new album that he co-wrote with Julian Raymond. The song is called “A Better Place.”
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON:
I’m Doug Johnson. This program was written by Christopher Cruise and produced by Caty Weaver⁸.
If you have a question about American life, send it to www.tingroom.com/voa/ .  You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.
Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC – “Ghost on the Canvas”)

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 canvas   

n.粗帆布，一块油画布

参考例句：

• The times that people used canvas boat have become history.人们用帆船的时代已成为历史。
• Smith painted an oil painting on the canvas.史密斯在画布上画了一幅油画。

3 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。

4 solo   

n.独奏，独唱；adj.单独的；adv.单独地；v.放单飞，单独表演

参考例句：

• Tara is currently working on a solo album.塔拉眼下正忙着制作个人专辑。
• There's wonderfully lyrical flute solo in the middle of this symphony.在交响乐中间有一段奇妙的抒情长笛独奏。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

7 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。