VOA常速英语2013--纪念J.J. Cale

 

Remembering J.J. Cale 纪念J.J. Cale

 

Songwriter J.J. Cale was a guitarist who preferred to stay in the background and let others make hits of his songs, such as “After Midnight” and “Call Me The Breeze.”

 

创作歌手J.J.Cale曾是一位吉他手，他甘愿久居幕后并让其他乐手弹奏他的作曲，诸如《After Midnight》（《午夜之后》）和《Call Me The Breeze》（《唤我清风》）。

 

Cale, 74, died on July 26 at a hospital in La Jolla, California. Cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

 

Cale在7月26日因心脏病医治无效在加州史奎普斯纪念医院去世，享年74岁。

 

Cale was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He grew up in what he described as a vibrant¹, boom town. Oil had brought money to Tulsa, and workers from all over the world followed it. Their music came along, too.

 

Cale出生在美国俄克拉荷马州，在俄克拉马州北部城市塔尔萨市长大。用Cale的话描述，他成长在一个充满生气的、繁荣兴旺的小镇上。石油给小镇带来了财源，并使来自世界各地的工人慕名前来。他们的音乐也一起来了。

 

“Tulsa is kind of in the middle of the United States and Rhythm and Blues² and Blues came out of Mississippi and kind of filtered up there and Jazz coming out of the north, Kansas City was a big Jazz hotbed in the ‘50s and late ‘40s, and Western Swing, which is kind of a Country guy’s impression of Swing music of, say, Glenn Miller³ and those kind of guys. So it was kind of a melting pot in there," Cale said. "Then Rock and Roll hit about 1956 or ’54, I guess. And I decided⁴ that was my kind of music.”

 

塔尔萨市坐落于美国中部，韵律蓝调和蓝调源自密西西比河并且在这里过滤，还有来自北方的爵士乐，上世纪四五十年代的堪萨斯州是爵士乐的发源地，还有西方摇摆乐，它也是乡村男士们对摇摆乐的印记，即格伦·米勒（Glenn Miller）和他那些伙伴们。“因此这就有点像在这个地方有一口正在熔化的锅的感觉，”Cale说道。“当时摇滚（Rock and Roll）席卷而来大概在1956或是1954年，我想，并且我决定将其作为我的音乐类型。”

 

Influenced by all those different styles, Cale picked up a guitar and learned to play. After finishing high school, he performed in bands and began working as a recording⁵ engineer.  Cale was friendly with another Tulsa musician, Leon Russell, and the piano player soon convinced him to pack up his guitar and move to Los Angeles. In California, Cale continued working as a guitar player and made his first recordings⁶, but they weren’t hits and he decided to return to Oklahoma.

 

由于受到不同风格的影响，Cale选择了吉他并且学习弹奏。在高中毕业后，他在乐队里演出同时做录音师的工作。Cale和另一位名叫Leon Russell的塔尔萨音乐人相处融洽，这个钢琴演奏者不久说服Cale带上他的吉他移居到洛杉矶。在加利福尼亚，Cale继续当着吉他手并出版了他的第一张唱片，但没有走红随即他决定回到俄克拉荷马州。

 

In those days, Cale saw himself as a guitarist first and an engineer second. Songwriting wasn’t his career. In fact, he said, it wasn’t even something he put a lot of effort into. It was just something you had to do, if you were going to make an album.

 

在那些日子里，Cale首先认为自己是一名吉他手，其次才是一名录音师。音乐创作并不是他的事业。事实上，他说道，有些事并不是倾注了大量努力才成的，它仅仅是有些事你不得不去做，如果还想继续出唱片集的话。

 

In 1970, times were tough for Cale and he was about to give up music altogether. One night he turned on the radio and heard a song he had written, “After Midnight,” being sung by Eric Clapton. And suddenly, Cale was a hit songwriter.

在1970年，Cale生活拮据并且打算完全放弃音乐。一天晚上，他打开收音机，听到了他曾创作的一首歌——《After Midnight》，由埃里克·克拉普顿翻唱的。突然间，Cale成了轰动一时的创作歌手。

“When Eric Clapton cut 'After Midnight,' he sold so many records and it was so big at the time, I decided that I would pursue the songwriting thing." Cale said. "I was 34 years old at that time. I’d been down the pike and back before I had any success at all.”

当埃里克·克拉普顿翻唱《After Midnight》后，他卖出了大量唱片并且红极一时。“我决定我将从事作曲一类的事情。”Cale说道，“我当时34岁，在我有些许的成功之前，我曾被挫折打倒。”

Soon, Cale was in Nashville, cutting “Naturally”, his most successful solo album, and a disc that featured his hit single, “Crazy Mama.”

不久，Cale来到了纳什维尔市，剪辑了《Naturally》专辑，他最成功的独奏唱片集，唱片单曲主打歌《Crazy Mama》。

While he went on to record more than a dozen solo albums and one Grammy-winning duet CD with Eric Clapton, he saw himself as a songwriter first and a performer second.  

当他继续录制了超过一打的独奏唱片以及与埃里克的二重唱CD获得格莱美最佳当代蓝调专辑奖的时候，他首先视自己为一名创作歌手，其次才是一名弹奏者。

“What my whole object was is not to really sell records. I was trying to sell songs," Cale said. "And instead of running around Nashville or New York or Los Angeles, knocking on people’s doors and trying to get them to cut my songs, we thought that making records would get the songs out there farther and it really did. So, my records really didn’t sell, but musicians started picking up on my sound and my songs and cutting my songs and that turned into a gold mine.”  

“我纯粹的目标并不是卖唱片，我一直在努力卖曲谱。”Cale说道。“与在纳什维尔市或是纽约或是在洛杉矶来回跑，挨家挨户敲房门并且试图使他们接受我的作曲这样的做法相反，我们认为做成唱片将使歌曲流传更广，事实也的确如此。这样，我的唱片其实没有售出，但是音乐人们开始挑选我的声音和曲目并进行剪辑，如此得到了一座‘金矿’。”

Other artists covering Cale’s songs include Dionne Warwick, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, and The Band.

其他翻唱Cale歌曲的艺人包括Dionne Warwick、Johnny Cash、Tom Petty、Carlos Santana以及The Band。

If you’re interested in hearing Cale sing his own songs, there is a newly-released boxed set containing five early albums. “The Road To Escondido,” his Grammy- winning blues duet album with Eric Clapton is another good choice. It’s a mix of originals and covers, including their take on the classic “Sporting Life Blues.”

如果你对聆听Cale的原声曲目感兴趣的话，这里有全新盒装版，收录了他早起的唱片。《The Road To Escondido》是他与埃里克的二重唱，获得格莱美最佳当代蓝调专辑奖，也是一个不错的选择。其中混搭有原唱和翻唱，包括他们呈现的经典老歌《Sporting Life Blues》。

 

 

1 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

2 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。

3 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

4 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。

5 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。

6 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