| Titulo de articulo: Culture Music Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Cocker: 'Music has changed. It's not as central, it's more like a scented candle' | Fecha de creacion:
05/28/2012 | Ultima actualizacion:
05/28/2012 | Idioma:
English | Categoria:
Translation | Rango de TranslatorPub.Com:
176 | Vistas:
3903 | Comentarios:
0 | Valoracion:
0, Puntaje promedio: 0 (10 Max)
| Texto:
the following is not the entire article due to the limitation of the word count here.
Anyone trying to spot the pop star in a Sheffield comprehensive school staff room 10 days ago would have been unlikely to choose the lanky, middle-aged man in a tweed jacket and thick spectacles. Even back in the 90s, when Jarvis Cocker was the star of the Britpop band Pulp, everyone used to say he looked like a geography teacher – and he certainly looks less like a pop star than some of the teachers crowding round him in the staff room.
就在十天前，對每個想看到薛佛綜合學校最受歡迎的明星的人來說，應該都很難想像他們想見到的超級巨星是那位 身形清瘦，穿著花呢套裝，戴著褪流行的舊式眼鏡的中年男子。即使回到90年代，賈維斯科克是當時英國流行樂界裡那個名為果漿樂團的巨星。過去很多人說他看 起來比較像地理老師 ─的確，比起教職員辦工室中的老師，他們或許比科克看起來還要像個樂團巨星。
Cocker had returned to his old school to launch his book, Mother, Brother, Lover – a compilation of song lyrics spanning 30 years. In the assembly hall he stood on the stage where Pulp – then a bunch of schoolmates he'd harangued into forming a band – performed their very first gig in 1978. Because the band was his idea, he explained, he had been lumbered with writing the lyrics, and he sang a pretty dreadful early example – "She said, To be or not to be? Shakespeare rock, Shakespeare roll. Shakespeare rock, Shakespeare roll." A hall full of teenagers tittered with embarrassment.
科克回到他的母校重拾起書本，一本跨越三十年間的歌詞大全 ─『母親，兄弟，愛人』。在集會大廳裡，他站在當年經過他大力說服同學而組成的果漿樂團當時在1978年第一次出場的舞台上。由於樂團是因他而誕生的，他 說道，所以當時他負責歌詞創作的部份，以生澀的創作技巧作了些歌詞創作。在這場觀眾不太捧場的表演中，他唱道─『她說，要這樣還是不要呢?莎士比亞搖阿， 莎士比亞滾阿，莎士比亞搖阿，莎士比亞滾阿』當時整個廳內的青少年們無一不竊笑著他那難堪的演出。
Writing songs, he agreed, can be embarrassing. "So you either try to make people laugh, and make out you don't really mean it – or you try to sum up the entire universe in a single song." But all you really need to do, he said, is write about your own experience. The everyday lives of Sheffield schoolchildren are just as rich and interesting as anything they see on TV or get off the internet. "And that's my main message, really. Don't think that the things around you don't count, because they do."
寫歌本身就是件會令人難堪的事，他如此認為。『你要就讓群眾對著你的作品大笑然後搞懂那不是你所追求的效果，不然就有那個本事把 整個宇宙間的一切都寫到一首歌裡。』但你真正需要做的，其實是寫出你所經歷的一切，他說道。對薛佛的學生來說，每天的日子就像任何你能從電視上或網路上看 到的一切一樣華麗又有趣。『而這就是我主要想傳達的，真的。不要以為你週遭一直在發生的一切沒什麼，其實它們是相當富有意義的。』
Afterwards, staff queued up with their old Pulp CDs for him to sign. One had an original copy of the Sorted for E's and Wizz hit single, whose infamous sleeve featured instructions on how to fold a wrap to keep drugs in. I'd clean forgotten Cocker was once the voice of youth drug culture – and I suspect the kids he'd just addressed would be astonished – for these days he's more like the heir to Alan Bennett. He has curated a cultural festival at the Southbank Centre, made field recordings for the National Trust, appeared on Question Time, hosted a Channel 4 arts series, and currently presents an unusually cerebral Sunday show on BBC's 6 Music, whose recent escape from closure owed much to Cocker's advocacy. This summer Pulp reformed to play at a few festivals, where they were received like royalty, and last week his publisher, Faber & Faber, announced his appointment as editor-at-large, confirming his quiet evolution from drug-gobbling pop star to Renaissance man of arts.
不久之後，所有的教職員拿著他們的果漿樂團專輯排成一列等科克簽名。其中有一個人手上拿著一張原版『井然有序的 e藥世代』單曲，是當年他們發行的一張套子特別被設計成依操作指示即可做成裝吸食毒品的藥袋的唱片。我幾乎快忘了科克當年曾是青少年吸毒文化的核心人物。 我想剛才跟他說話的那孩子應該會對科克的轉變感到很錯厄，因為這些日子以來科克已轉變成像名作家愛倫班尼特那樣擁有社會地位的人物。他最近才在倫敦著名的 藝文聚集地南方沙洲中心籌備一個文化祭的活動，還為英國國民託管組織錄製了一張以大自然的音樂為主的專輯，並在"資詢時間"這個節目中播出。科克同時主持 了第四頻道的藝文影集，此節目現在正在英國廣播公司週日的一個非常益智節目中播放，因科克的貢獻使此節目出現全新的轉機而免於被停播的危機。這個夏天，果 漿樂團再次復出並在幾個重要的節日裡參予演出，演出的行程裡樂團受到如皇室般的禮遇。就在上週，果漿樂團的所屬公司─『菲博與菲博』宣告科克將擔任該公司 最主要的總編輯，這樣的成就同時確定了科克從當年那位重度毒品吸食者的搖滾明星逐漸脫胎換骨為一個全新的藝文界人士。
When we get on the train back to London, he looks tired. "I haven't slept for the last few nights," he admits, on account of nerves about going back to school. "I was super nervous, yeah. I'm always nervous when I perform anyway. But you know, we all regress when we go back to school – you've got lots of weird memories of school. I wasn't bullied, but it was fairly – well, a bit rough."
在我們回倫敦的火車上，科克看起來相當疲累。『我過去幾晚都沒睡到 覺。』他坦承因為再度回到母校的壓力讓他睡不好。『是阿，我超緊張的。每次要在大家面前表演我就會變得無比緊張。但你知道的，每當你要回到曾經待過的學校 就會像走回歷史中似的想起許多當年很怪的回憶，我那時並沒受到欺負，回憶裡那是個氣氛相當公正的校園…好吧，其實多少還是有點難熬的。』
His smile is slow and so shy as to seem almost sly, and he speaks softly, making little eye contact. He has a habit of half rolling his eyes back as he shakes his fringe off his forehead, which I suspect is an affectation he adopted long ago to disguise awkwardness, and he still seems slightly uneasy at being interviewed. "Well it's a while since I have been," he grins – but once we start talking about his book he begins to relax.
科克的笑容看起來相當緩和羞怯，甚至帶有幾分孩子氣，他一邊輕聲說話一邊用眼神與我們交會著。他有個小習 慣是當他把額頭上的瀏海往旁甩開時會同時轉動眼球半圈，我想這應該是他長期以來試著掩飾內心羞怯時故作鎮定的小動作，然而在訪問期間他看起來還是有些不自 在。『嗯..其實離那時也已有一段時間了。』他張嘴笑道，直到我們開始談論他的書他才開始慢慢放鬆。
Lyrics, he says, aren't actually all that important to songs. "Words are important to me, but a song can work and function and be a good song with words that are fairly standard. But really great lyrics can't rescue a dog of a song. I find that quite a lot now that I'm doing the radio show. I get sent quite a lot of records and if I'm on the way back from the programme sometimes there's a lyric sheet, and I'll read something and think, oh, that sounds pretty good, and I get quite excited about listening to it when I get home. And then I'll put it on and I'll be like – eurghhh."
他說道，歌詞本身對歌曲來說並不那麼重要。『歌詞對我來說是重要的，一首歌將因為加進了很棒的歌詞而產生 很棒的效果成為很棒的音樂。然而當一首歌本身就是個垃圾時，再好的歌詞都挽救不了它的品質，這是在我做電台廣播節目的期間深刻感受到的事實。那時我常收到 很多外界寄來的音樂作品，有時我在從電返家的路上會拿起其中附上的歌詞來看，然後想著這聽起來應該相當不錯，然後很期待當我回到家時會聽到怎麼的歌曲。可 是等我開始聽它時，我的反應卻是『呃…….』
Cocker's own lyric writing has always been anchored in the narrative of his everyday life, finding wit and drama in the mundane details of an overheard conversation, say, or a rainy bus ride. But pop has moved on a long way since Pulp's 1995 hit Common People – the mocking tale of a rich girl who enjoys pretending to be poor – became what music critics like to call the anthem of the Britpop generation. So I show him the lyrics of the current top three singles, to see what he makes of this generation's.
科克自身的歌詞創作總是跟他每天的生活故事有關，有時他會試著在一些反覆聽過幾次的對話和發言裡，或是一輛在雨中行駛的巴士上找些有趣且戲劇化的通俗細節來 找靈感。然而在1995年果漿樂團的單曲『普通人』，一首關於嘲諷一位家境富裕的女孩總愛偽裝她一貧如洗的單曲，在這首歌被當時的音樂評論家們譽為英國流 行樂界的國歌後，英式流行樂就已改變了很多。於是我拿了三首現在音樂榜上前三名的流行單曲歌詞給他看，看他會對這個年代的音樂作出怎樣的評論。
"Oh, I wouldn't even know what they were," he says at once, apologetically. "I feel bad, because I used to be right into the charts. I stopped when it got too predictable. They killed it when they discovered that formula, where a single would be half price in the week that it was released, so all singles started selling loads in the first week and then dropping off. It stops that thing of a record building – the first week was always the highest – and then it wasn't interesting at all. It's a good picture of what capitalism does. They find a formula that kills off the thing they're trying to make money out of." Does he apply the same rule to – and I was going to say "technology", thinking of iPods and illegal downloading, but he interrupts softly. "Everything. It's what capitalism does to everything."
『喔，我不知道他們是誰。』他一看到歌詞馬上說道， 語氣中帶著些歉意。『我感到很糟糕，過去我總是能很快知道哪些歌曲會很快跑到排行榜上，所以我決定在讓這種情況變成定數前停止。而在人們發現能讓單曲一發 行的第一週就貶為半價的招數後，進榜的重要性就被淹沒了，從此以後所有的單曲只在發行第一週大賣之後就不再熱賣了。這個情況讓過去唱片公司利用進榜來刺激 消費的招數逐漸沒落，發行的第一週總是擁有最高成績，接著一切就玩不下去了。這個情況是資本主義家們的願景。他們找到一個能取代過去他們拿來賺錢的商品的 新招數。』當我心裡正想著他是否也將這樣的情況放在“科技”上，好比ipods這樣的發明還有那些違法的侵權音樂下載，就在我要開口前科克又和緩的接著說 道『對一切來說都不再是過去那個型態了，這就是那些資本主義家們幹下的好事。』
I show him the first lyric sheet – Loca People by Sak Noel, featuring a comic mixture of Spanish and profanity. "So this is No 1, is it? Right." He scans the page. "That's pretty good actually. It's kind of funny. I'd say it was vaguely educational, cos you pick up a little bit of Spanish." Next up is Moves Like Jagger, by Maroon Five.
"As a title it's OK, but that's the only interesting thing in the lyrics, I would say. Maybe they work with the song, but it's all those words – nice, smile, right. There are just certain song words that just work nicely in songs, like heart and stars, they just kind of sound right. So it's just like a list of all those words put together, with a swear word and a reasonable title." He slides it back across the table and grins. "Must try harder."
接著我給他看了夏克諾的作品─“在地人”的第一張歌詞，這是一張結合西班牙人何那些髒話的詼諧作品。『所以這是第一首吧? 嗯對。』他大約掃過了一下。『看起來相當棒。這其實蠻有趣的，我覺得這是富教育意義的作品，因為你可以透過它學到些西班牙文。』接著給科克看的下一首是魔 力紅的“像米克傑格般舞動著身體”『它的名字取得還可以，但我覺得它是歌詞中唯一吸引人的一句。或許他們當初是試著是依著歌曲本身去創作詞的部份，但這首 歌的歌詞充斥著“好極了，笑，對”這樣的字眼。這首歌中的確有些字對歌曲本身來說是相當合適的，像是心跟星這樣的字眼，它們聽起來令人感覺很對。然而整首 歌的歌詞就像只是把這些還不錯的字排列在一塊，再加上一些髒字跟一個令人理解的標題。』科克將這首歌的歌詞輕推到桌子的另一邊，開口笑道『他們或許可以在 這上面再多下點功夫。』 |
|
