PBS高端访谈:格雷格·奥尔曼的艰辛摇滚生涯

 　　JEFFREY BROWN: And next: a hard-lived life amid the sound, success and sorrow of rock 'n roll.

　　MAN: One, two, one, two, three.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: From the bench behind his Hammond B-3 organ, Gregg Allman has been belting out the rock 'n roll blues¹ for more than 40 years.

　　The band he co-founded with his late brother Duane Allman, the Allman Brothers, is one of the most renowned² in rock history, famed for its hard-driving live performances and hits like "Ramblin' Man," and "Melissa."

　　Beginning in the late '60s, the band grabbed audiences with a sound that brought together the Southern blues and electrified³ rock 'n roll that Gregg and Duane Allman had embraced.

　　GREGG ALLMAN, Musician: It was our two loves music. He sort of leaned towards the country blues, which is un-electrified, like Robert Johnson, Elmore James. And I was really into Bobby Bland⁴, James Brown, you know, people like Curtis Mayfield.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Now Gregg Allman has told of the musical voyage and a life of triumph and a great deal of travail⁵ in his new memoir⁶ "My Cross to Bear."

　　Allman was born in Nashville in 1947, a year and 18 days after his brother, Duane. When he was just 2, his father, who had fought at Normandy, was shot dead by a hitchhiker while on home leave from Korea. As youngsters, the boys were sent to military school while their mother finished her degree. They all eventually moved to Florida.

　　It was one night in 1960, Allman says, that changed everything.

　　You went to a concert and you heard Otis Redding and others play. What did you hear? What changed? What happened?

　　GREGG ALLMAN: It was one of those reviews that they don't have anymore.

　　And Otis took it, by the way. I mean, he would run back and forth⁷ across this just quarter-mile long stage. And he was about 7'2". And was built, my God.

　　And my brother, I remember him going, you know, like, hey, man—your jaw⁸ is open. And I—he said, man. And the music was going. And he says something like, I have got to have me some of this, you know?

　　JEFFREY BROWN: There was, however, a realistic streak⁹ in young Gregg Allman. He writes that he had actually intended to go to college and medical school.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: I mean no pun, but everybody and their brother had a damn rock 'n roll band.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: So you're looking around saying...

　　GREGG ALLMAN: I am, yes.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: We're not going to make it here.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: We're not going to make rent doing this. My brother said, but, no, man, we're going to be the best. We're going to be number one.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: There would be several intervening years and bands with names like The Hour Glass, even one called the Allman Joys.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: I didn't name the band. I didn't name have anything to do with that.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: It was Duane who gained fame first, an astounding¹⁰ lead guitarist who played on famous recordings¹¹ by Aretha Franklin and other stars. Years later, he would be named the second greatest rock guitarist of all time by "Rolling Stone" magazine, just behind Jimi Hendrix, ahead of B.B. King and Eric Clapton.

　　What did he have? What made him different?

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Oh, man, it was there from the start. He had this like—it was like some kind of a thread woven into what came out of his guitar. But it made all the riffs like a continuous story.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The Allman Brothers Band came together and brought out its self-titled debut¹² in 1969. They were seen as leaders in a new style of Southern rock, a tag Allman never liked.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Rock 'n roll was born in the South, man. It's like saying rock-rock.

　　(LAUGHTER)

　　JEFFREY BROWN: You mean, it was born from that—from bringing together that...

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Four kings of white and rock, two white, two black, Elvis Aaron Presley, Tupelo, Miss., Jerry Lee Lewis, Ferriday, La. Little Richard Penniman, Macon, Ga., Chuck Berry, Saint Louis, Mo.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: In 1971, the Allmans recorded what is widely considered the finest live album ever made, "At Fillmore East."

　　It would be their ticket to stardom. But just three months after its release, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash in their adopted home of Macon, Ga.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Well, my brother died. And then it just started raining money. And, at first, you know, I screamed and yelled and shook my fist at the sky and yelled, shortchanged.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The band members debated whether to continue.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: I told them, I said, we're going to be the wind-up bunch of street junkies, or we can forget all that crap and go back to business as usual. And it was pretty much a landslide¹³. Well, it was.

　　(LAUGHTER)

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Yes.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The decision to just do it?

　　GREGG ALLMAN: Well, after hearing what the alternative is.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: But there was still more tragedy on the way. A year later, bassist Berry Oakley died in an eerily¹⁴ similar motorcycle accident near the spot where Duane was killed.

　　And all that raining money led to a torrent¹⁵ of problems for the band and Gregg Allman in particular through the '70s and beyond, alcohol abuse, drug addiction¹⁶, broken marriages, most famously to Cher.

　　Interestingly, this man who has lived life so loudly and publicly sees himself as quite the opposite.

　　You write about yourself. And even talking to you here, almost—you're a shy person. Is that right?

　　GREGG ALLMAN: That's right.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: And yet you get up on stage and you perform for thousands, hundreds of thousands of people.

　　GREGG ALLMAN: If I really looked out there and just scanned them, you know, I would probably go running off the stage, man.

　　(LAUGHTER)

　　GREGG ALLMAN: No, if I gave it serious thought, you know, I probably wouldn't. Poof, disappear.

　　(LAUGHTER)

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Gregg Allman is now 64 and sober 17 years. He was granted a new lease on life after a liver transplant two years ago. And he and the band, including the two original drummers, are still on the road all these years later.

1 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

2 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

3 electrified   

v.使电气化( electrify的过去式和过去分词 )；使兴奋

参考例句：

• The railway line was electrified in the 1950s. 这条铁路线在20世纪50年代就实现了电气化。
• The national railway system has nearly all been electrified. 全国的铁路系统几乎全部实现了电气化。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。

5 travail   

n.阵痛；努力

参考例句：

• Mothers know the travail of giving birth to a child.母亲们了解分娩时的痛苦。
• He gained the medal through his painful travail.他通过艰辛的努力获得了奖牌。

6 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。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

9 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

10 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

12 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

13 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

14 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

15 torrent   

n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发

参考例句：

• The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
• Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。

16 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。