美国国家公共电台 NPR Interview: Patterson Hood Of Drive-By Truckers On 'The Unrave

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The band Drive-By Truckers has come a long way from its earliest days when fans could rock to albums with slyly Southern titles - "Pizza Deliverance," "Alabama Ass¹ Whuppin'" - offering profane² and smile-worthy songs like "Too Much Sex, Too Little Jesus." But the band broke through some 20 years ago with songs staring down the South's racial history by reflecting on what it means to be a Southerner, and it never looked back. A pile of albums later, the band is just out with "The Unraveling," an album that directly confronts America's most politically charged issues - church shootings, opioids and overdoses, racial violence, extremism, songs dark - drawing you in.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSEMARY WITH A BIBLE AND A GUN")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) Strong as the day was long, Rosemary would sing along - wheels rolling steady down the way.

MONTAGNE: Patterson Hood³ helped found Drive-By Truckers. And he joins us to talk about their latest album. Thanks for joining us.

PATTERSON HOOD: Thanks for having me.

MONTAGNE: Now, you start with what we're hearing, which is - I would call it a pretty song. "Rosemary With A Bible And A Gun" is its title. Is it possible that it's nearly a love song?

HOOD: I mean, it's almost like a love song to Memphis in a way and - which is sort of a long, love-hate kind of thing because Memphis and I have a long, sordid⁴ history together. And - but we also ended on a really high note because we recorded our record there.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROSEMARY WITH A BIBLE AND A GUN")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) This rollercoaster highway can't compare to the fun of the Memphis saturated⁵ in decay and on the run.

HOOD: I lived in Memphis briefly⁶ in 1991 during a really dark time in my life. And Mike Cooley and I, the Drive-By Truckers - we've played together for 35 years this summer. And we were living there. And it was - the city was going through some really terrible racial strife⁷. So there's always been kind of that cloud about Memphis, which is also a city that I've always really loved because it's where, to me, rock 'n' roll was born. And I'm a huge Sam Phillips fan. And so we knew we were going to make this record at Sam Phillips' recording⁸ studio - kind of knew also that confronting those demons⁹ from the past, hopefully in a positive way, might be kind of part of the equation of making this record.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEROIN¹⁰ AGAIN")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) Losing your joy, playing with dangerous toys...

MONTAGNE: One of the songs that might be more typical of the album is "Heroin Again."

HOOD: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEROIN AGAIN")

HOOD: (Singing) Silly, young man, why you using heroin - thought you knew better than that.

MONTAGNE: We hear in this song that line, I thought you knew better than that. And people don't.

HOOD: I mean, for sure, you know? And in these dark times, you know, it's certainly as tempting¹¹ as ever to want to tune¹² out and turn off and find something that numbs¹³ it. And I think that's part of feeding into this opioid crisis that we're having. But at the same time, by numbing¹⁴ yourself to life, you're kind of dying a little bit, too. And, of course, you know, on a personal note, too, you know, we all know people. We've all lost people we love through that. And I know I certainly have.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HEROIN AGAIN")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) Never quite captured me - always just turned away.

MONTAGNE: This album has a combination of a bit of hope but a lot of horror and especially with a song like "Grievance¹⁵ Merchants," which really goes at extremism.

HOOD: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRIEVANCE MERCHANTS")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) When money and respect seem to elude¹⁶ him, being wild, oh, don't make a lady swoon. There's no shortage when it comes to hearing voices telling him it's him that's done a tune (ph).

HOOD: "Grievance Merchants" was a - you know, it's one of Mike Cooley's songs, and I'm particularly proud of that song. I think it's - I mean, it talks really directly about kind of the roots of white supremacy¹⁷.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GRIEVANCE MERCHANTS")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) There's just outside forces turning them against him, a conspiracy¹⁸ to water down his blood.

MONTAGNE: A conspiracy to water down his blood, and it's all the fault of it or them or they. Give a boy a target for his grievance, and he might get it in his head they need to pay.

HOOD: Terrifying. It's terrifying stuff. And, you know, and it's happening. I mean, I - I live in Portland, Ore., now, and - which is at least thought of as one of the more liberal, kind of progressive-minded cities in America, you know? And we have white supremacists marching in our streets there (laughter), you know? We have - and it's - our children's babysitter's best friend was murdered in a incident, a white supremacy incident that happened on the train in beautiful Portland a couple of years ago. So it's the political becomes personal really quickly (laughter), you know?

(SOUNDBITE OF DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SONG, "GRIEVANCE MERCHANTS")

MONTAGNE: In thinking of how you came by your sensibility musically and politically and the lyrics¹⁹ you write, how does that fit in to being raised not just in Alabama but a particular place? - Muscle Shoals, where your father David Hood was part of a legendary²⁰ studio band, and he worked with musicians like Dylan and The Stones and Aretha and Wilson Pickett. Did that rub off on you?

HOOD: Oh, yeah, very much. And I was pretty precocious²¹ about it. I loved - I was obsessed²² with music from a really young age. And, you know, I started collecting records when I was about 7. I started writing songs when I was 8. You know, it's always been what I felt like was my calling to do.

MONTAGNE: Wondering, too, if although not directly politically, did that milieu²³ affect your family or you in a way that made you just a little bit different?

HOOD: Yeah, absolutely. You know, and even though they may not have talked about it on a conscious level, there was a certain feeling of - that they were sort of part of a resistance. I mean, you know, they were these nerdy white guys who made their living in the Deep South during the darkest parts of the civil rights movement happening. They made their living backing up soul artists, backing up Wilson Pickett and Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Bobby Womack and all that, you know?

And I was always really politically aware. I mean, I was the weird²⁴ kid that would come home from third or fourth grade and watch the Watergate hearings on TV. I got in trouble in, I think, fourth grade for writing a little paper about Nixon - how he should be thrown in jail. And my teacher did not appreciate it. And that was actually one time when my parents actually kind of took my side, maybe the only time they took my side in a confrontation²⁵ with a teacher (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AWAITING RESURRECTION")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singing) There's an evil in this world. There's an evil in this world.

HOOD: It really bothered me in the writing process of this record, the extent that it was dark. And by nature, I try not to really be that way. I mean, I'm - as a parent, you know, I don't want to raise my kids to not have hope for a future. And to me, the hope I get comes from the kids, you know? The last line of the song talking about awaiting resurrection, to me, that ties in with the album cover, which has the two little boys standing²⁶ on the beach watching the sunset. I'd like to think that, somehow, that is the ray of hope at the end.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AWAITING RESURRECTION")

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS: (Singin) In the end, we're just standing watching greatness fade. And to darkness, awaiting resurrection.

MONTAGNE: Patterson Hood, co-founder of the band Drive-By Truckers. Their newest album is "The Unraveling." Thanks very much for joining us.

HOOD: Thank you so much for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS SONG, "AWAITING RESURRECTION")

1 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

2 profane   

adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污

参考例句：

• He doesn't dare to profane the name of God.他不敢亵渎上帝之名。
• His profane language annoyed us.他亵渎的言语激怒了我们。

3 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

4 sordid   

adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的

参考例句：

• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively.他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。
• They lived in a sordid apartment.他们住在肮脏的公寓房子里。

5 saturated   

a.饱和的，充满的

参考例句：

• The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
• a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液

6 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

7 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

8 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

9 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

11 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

12 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

13 numbs   

v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Patients inhale a topical anesthetic that numbs their nasal passages and throat. 病人吸入一种局部麻醉药，能够麻醉他们的鼻道和喉部。 来自互联网
• SATIATION-Numbs them out, they feel nurtured by the numbing experience. 满足感-自我麻木，他们希望生活在麻木中。 来自互联网

14 numbing   

adj.使麻木的，使失去感觉的v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Watching television had a numbing effect on his mind. 看电视使他头脑麻木。
• It was numbing work, requiring patience and dedication. 这是一种令人麻木的工作，需要有耐心和忘我精神。 来自辞典例句

15 grievance   

n.怨愤，气恼，委屈

参考例句：

• He will not easily forget his grievance.他不会轻易忘掉他的委屈。
• He had been nursing a grievance against his boss for months.几个月来他对老板一直心怀不满。

16 elude   

v.躲避，困惑

参考例句：

• If you chase it,it will elude you.如果你追逐着它， 它会躲避你。
• I had dared and baffled his fury.I must elude his sorrow.我曾经面对过他的愤怒，并且把它挫败了；现在我必须躲避他的悲哀。

17 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

18 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

19 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。

20 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

21 precocious   

adj.早熟的；较早显出的

参考例句：

• They become precocious experts in tragedy.他们成了一批思想早熟、善写悲剧的能手。
• Margaret was always a precocious child.玛格丽特一直是个早熟的孩子。

22 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。

23 milieu   

n.环境；出身背景；(个人所处的)社会环境

参考例句：

• Foods usually provide a good milieu for the persistence of viruses.食品通常为病毒存续提供了一个良好的栖身所。
• He was born in a social milieu where further education was a luxury.他生在一个受较高教育就被认为是奢侈的社会环境里。

24 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

25 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

26 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。