美国国家公共电台 NPR To Ray Davies, America Is Still A Land Of Opportunity

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The newest album by Ray Davies features him in a reflective mood.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

RAY DAVIES: (Singing) Girl, I want to be with you all of the time.

INSKEEP: Ray Davies. His name looks like Davies to Americans. He's riffing on one of the hits he wrote and sang for The Kinks from the '60s to the '90s. His latest solo album captures him musing¹ about a lifetime in music.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

DAVIES: Touring relationships are fine when the hotels take care of the housekeeping and you've got room service. But once you check back into the reality motel, the dust appears on the furniture. The laundry piles up. And there's no room service to clear away the trash.

INSKEEP: The album is called "Americana." It explores this British songwriter's experiences in the U.S. It draws on his memoir² by the same name. Taken together, the book and the album amount to a self portrait of a man whose music flooded American radio.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOLA")

THE KINKS: (Singing) Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls. It's a mixed up, muddled³ up, shook up world except for Lola. La-la-la-la (ph) Lola.

INSKEEP: I want people to know who haven't seen the book that you'll be writing, you'll be giving some narrative⁴, and then suddenly there'll be several verses of a song.

DAVIES: Yeah.

INSKEEP: I'm curious if that's a representation of what actually goes on in your life as you move about. Do lyrics⁵ pop into your head?

DAVIES: Well, they do. I think in song. And I think that's something that's rolled over the years. I got this soundtrack going around in my head. I'll write a song for any kind of situation I'm in. Not a great song but kind of background music to the world.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) People talk about having a soundtrack to their life, and I guess your soundtrack is Ray Davies music.

DAVIES: Yeah. And to your life, Steve, I'm writing one about you right now.

INSKEEP: That's good to know.

DAVIES: It's very atonal⁶ at the moment.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) Sorry to hear that.

DAVIES: No, it's good. It's exciting.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE KINKS SONG, "YOU REALLY GOT ME")

INSKEEP: When I listen to your really early stuff, it's really simple.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU REALLY GOT ME")

THE KINKS: (Singing) Girl, you really got me going. You got me so I don't know what I'm doing.

INSKEEP: It's one thought, maybe repeated 20 times. But if we advance a few years, you have stories with more specific characters and tales being told. And later on, you're writing books. How did that happen?

DAVIES: Well, "You Really Got Me," there's not much research to do that.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) That's my point.

DAVIES: You know, but look. Then I was asked to follow it up with other songs. And I had no real life experience, so I wrote about people I knew in my neighborhood, the well-respected men and dedicated⁷ followers⁹ of fashion.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEDICATED FOLLOWER⁸ OF FASHION")

THE KINKS: (Singing) Eagerly pursuing all the latest fashion trends 'cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion.

DAVIES: I was learning about the craft of writing and it became fun. So the songs I write now, the new songs on this record, are taking writing a step further for me.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICANA")

DAVIES: (Singing) I want to make my home where the buffalo¹⁰ roam in that great panorama¹¹.

INSKEEP: Did you consciously take on the United States as your main subject here?

DAVIES: Well, United States, it's called "Americana" which isn't the United States really. It's an emotion. It deals with history in America which as you know, may not know, is kind of fluctuating between good and bad.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMERICANA")

DAVIES: (Singing) Running high on inspiration taken from those Wild West heroes full of expectations of the road.

INSKEEP: In the 1960s, The Kinks were effectively banned from performing in the United States because of alleged¹² misbehavior onstage. Once Ray Davies made it back in, he reveled in America, even living in New Orleans for a while. But it ended unhappily in 2004, when he became the victim of a crime.

How did you get shot?

DAVIES: With a gun.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) As people tend to be.

DAVIES: Yeah. Yeah. It's well recounted in the book, and I suggest you read it.

INSKEEP: I want people to hear a little bit of this though. Where were you in New Orleans?

DAVIES: I'm not going to answer that question. I was just west of the French Quarter.

INSKEEP: And what time of day was it?

DAVIES: It was a really beautiful day. They had a football game in town. And the police were occupied looking after the crowds. Just an empty street. And suddenly somebody came along, shoved a gun in me face. And I chased him down the street. He got in the car, turned around and shot me. Need I say more?

INSKEEP: You didn't want the guy to get away with it. You went after him.

DAVIES: Well, it's a flight or fight situation. You never know how you're going to react when you get there. My instinct said get the guy and bring him down.

INSKEEP: I think you've been kind enough to tell me a little bit of a story that it sounds like you really don't like telling even more than a decade later.

DAVIES: Yeah. It's one of those moments that sticks with you because the summation¹³ of lots of things happening in my life - leaving England and changing my life in many respects - that brought it to a halt and made me reevaluate everything.

INSKEEP: He later wrote about that moment in the emergency room when you're not sure if you'll live or die.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MYSTERY ROOM")

DAVIES: (Singing) Now I'm faced with mortality. Yeah.

INSKEEP: It was just one experience for Ray Davies in a country he says he loves.

DAVIES: But I still don't know it. It's such a giant space. You're going around, you go to the Midwest, and you go to LA, Northwest, they're like countries in their own right. That's what I find fascinating about it, not like Britain which is tiny. It's the ability, I think, in America it's the ability you can get lost there.

INSKEEP: When you talk about different nations in different regions, there actually have been cultural anthropologists who've written books and tried to divide the United States into ethnic¹⁴ nations, that the Deep South is a different place than Appalachia, which is a different place than the Pacific coast. It sounds like that's the experience you've had traveling across this country.

DAVIES: I've had that experience. It's exactly true. But somehow, something pulls America together as one country. That's the joy of it and the scary thing about it because it's so powerful when it merges¹⁵ together as one country. And I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GREAT HIGHWAY")

DAVIES: (Singing) I had this dream. America was always a very special space.

INSKEEP: That's Ray Davies, whose new album is called "Americana."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE GREAT HIGHWAY")

DAVIES: (Singing) Heroes of the great Wild West, Wild Bill Hickok and the rest. The romantic on a reckless chase till reality hit me in the face. Hey. Hey. Hey. I'm riding on the great highway.

1 musing   

n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• "At Tellson's banking-house at nine," he said, with a musing face. “九点在台尔森银行大厦见面，”他想道。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute. 她把那件上衣放到一边，站着沉思了一会儿。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 muddled   

adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子

参考例句：

• He gets muddled when the teacher starts shouting. 老师一喊叫他就心烦意乱。
• I got muddled up and took the wrong turning. 我稀里糊涂地拐错了弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

5 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。

6 atonal   

adj.无调的

参考例句：

• The majority always turn an unfavorable attitude towards atonal composition.大多数人对无调性作品的态度往往是不能接受的。
• People did not accept atonal music at that time.那时，人们还不接受无调性音乐。

7 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

8 follower   

n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒

参考例句：

• He is a faithful follower of his home football team.他是他家乡足球队的忠实拥护者。
• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。

9 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

10 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

11 panorama   

n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置]

参考例句：

• A vast panorama of the valley lay before us.山谷的广阔全景展现在我们面前。
• A flourishing and prosperous panorama spread out before our eyes.一派欣欣向荣的景象展现在我们的眼前。

12 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

13 summation   

n.总和；最后辩论

参考例句：

• The exhibition was a summation of his life's work.这次展览汇集了他一生中典型的作品。
• The defense attorney phrased his summation at last.最后，辩护律师作了辩论总结。

14 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

15 merges   

（使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• The 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Mo Yan"who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary". 2012年诺贝尔文学奖得主为莫言，他“很好地将魔幻现实与民间故事、历史与当代结合在一起”。
• A device that collates, merges, or matches sets of punched cards or other documents. 一种整理、合并或比较一组穿孔卡片或其它文档的设备。