恶人谷

恩，我老人家听了两天低自尊之后，觉得得换个向上的，乃从典藏CD里翻出来一张很老的盘，Louis Armstrong和Ella Fitzgerald合唱的一张盘。开篇很轻松愉快的你说特没头，我说特码头，然后就是经典情歌曲目，我还是要说20，30年代（？）的cheesy歌词儿，难为他们唱出来是感情充沛而不让人尴尬。其中最喜欢的就是这首夏日，歌词儿听上去是哄睡歌儿，调子却悠长。听过很多个版本的，janis joplin的蓝调版是撕心裂肺的感觉，让人很奇怪那么轻松的歌词儿怎么能给唱得那么绝望；总结的说爵士，蓝调版达到的最愉快境界也就是又苦又甜，然后听了个音乐会版的，那个专业女声一张嘴我就打了个哆嗦赶紧把那个窗口给掐了。昨天晚上找到歌词儿，一看果然是bitter-sweet那种。

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

Louis Armstrong唱的‘有一天早晨，你会起来歌唱，然后展开你的翅膀，向天空飞翔；但是直到那天早晨，你不会受伤，有你的爹娘在你身旁’ 那段儿，这个老黑人的哑嗓儿真是烟酒嗓儿的始祖（据说他吃tar以保持这个音色），唱出来天下父母的心声。

可能因为听的多的这首歌儿版本都是黑人音乐，我还以为这首歌儿其实是民歌，被穷困黑人唱来哄孩子睡觉的。昨天好事一查，居然是一个叫做Geroge Gershwin的布鲁伦人的作品。他的父亲从俄罗斯移民到美国，犹太人。他自己学钢琴出身，写了很多经典爵士。一家兄弟姐妹是艺术家，刚发现they cannot take that away from me居然是他写给他哥的某片子的！真奇怪这么白的一个人，居然能写出那么黑的音乐来。或者艺术是真正不分颜色的。

the end

居然是一个叫做Geroge Gershwin的布鲁伦人的作品

Cough, cough. Rhapsody in Blue? An American in Paris?

White American popular music has been ripping off black music from Gershwin to today. Jazz, blues, rock and roll, hip hop. The whole lot of it. I'm no expert, but someone with knowledge about American music history should be able to explain. Even bluegrass has some influence of black music.

It is fair to say that without African slaves there would not be modern American music.

啥意思？你是说黑人音乐rip off Gershwin，然后再被rip off ? 还是说Gershwin rip off 黑人音乐？

我假装没看见那俩reference

White American music, INCLUDING GERSHWIN, has been ripping off the kind of music African slaves brought with them and developed on plantations.

(I don't mean to condemn the ripping off in itself. This is how art styles and ideas mix and blend with each other.)

Gershwin was one of the first musicians to introduce black music (mostly jazz) to "serious" high-brow music.

The identity of American music (versus the "old world") is almost entirely built on black slave music with other influences blended in. <-- OK, I'm not responsible for the accuracy of this opinion. Just from seemingly authoritative stuff I read and heard before.

可是这家伙应该在东岸出没啊？这个是让我完全迷惑的地方。尤其是他那歌词：生活容易，鱼儿在跳，棉花正高..... 完全农场景象，所以我一直以为是黑人歌曲

而且非常南方！

Sorry I don't really know anything about Gershwin or music (or music history). Someone with more expertise should be able to answer your question?

你听这歌时手里可有杯酒？

dude, I was driving!

How could I know you were driving?

I was picturing you home alone with a glass of Johnny Walker.

another blow to my ego... I thought everybody paid attention to every word I've written

nah, Johnny Walker is never my thing. Gin and tonic, thanks to huahua, is my drink of choice; that and turquila.

I do want a smoke once in a while, weird. Never given in to that thought though, yet. pat myself

It's summer, very natural to want a smoke. I was in the cigar shop the other day and thinking getting a couple small ones for long summer nights on the patio.

Unless you are talking other types of smoke....

what other type of smoke? asking very much very innocently.

yeah, I know what you mean, but I do not smoke, am not a fan of the after taste of it.

那是个黑人音乐和主流音乐交融的时代. 我向往地说.

well, drinking wine while listening to great songs does bring out the feeling of satisfaction. Ironically, songs referring to those mixed drinks are generally very sad.

there are lines in billy joel's piano man: Its nine oclock on a saturday / The regular crowd shuffles in / Theres an old man sitting next to me / Makin love to his tonic and gin / He says, son, can you play me a memory? / Im not really sure how it goes / But its sad and its sweet and I knew it complete / When I wore a younger mans clothes

don henley's tequila sunrise is equally depressing.

hmm, to be fair, there are indeed some funny songs about drinks. for example, jimmy buffet's margaritaville: sit on front porch, eat sponge cake, smell the boiled shrimp, drink margarita, and beat himself up by saying: I know it's my own damn fault :)


yes, from what i read and heard, the american pop music has been largely shaped by african americans. those white pop icons, from elvis to eminem, have been constantly ripping off black music. i am not saying that they are not talented musicians. but the fact that they are white enables them to reach a much wider audience. even amy winehouse, though she is a british girl, succeeded partly by putting a white face on soul which is very black music.

tiffany wrote:可是这家伙应该在东岸出没啊？这个是让我完全迷惑的地方。尤其是他那歌词：生活容易，鱼儿在跳，棉花正高..... 完全农场景象，所以我一直以为是黑人歌曲

而且非常南方！

Summertime是蓋希文的歌劇"Porgy & Bess"中的名曲。此劇描寫美國南方黑人，所以有農場生活、漁民捕魚的情節。

裡面還有叫作"happy dust"的毒品，沒想到那個時代也有這種東西。販毒吸毒早在上世紀初就是問題啦！

30年代肯定已经是问题了。我记得hammit有篇小说写drug addict的。