物物都聯(lián)網(wǎng)，會是人類給自己布下的陷阱嗎？

FLEETWOOD MAC是一個老牌搖滾樂團，成立于60年代末，樂隊風格幾經(jīng)變革，最終創(chuàng)造出一種成熟而富有感情的軟搖滾音樂風格，于1993年入駐搖滾名人堂。“The Chain”被認為是其高水平的代表作，后被多位鄉(xiāng)村民謠和hip-hop歌手翻唱。

FLEETWOOD MAC樂隊

In early 1975, two Americans, Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend Stevie Nicks, had just joined a once-famous British blues band now down on its uppers.Buckingham, a perfectionist, buzzed around showing the other members how to play their parts on the songs he was bringing to the project.The bassist was unimpressed.

1975年初，兩個美國人——Lindsey Buckingham和他的女友Stevie Nicks加入了名噪一時、如今沒落的英國藍調(diào)樂隊。在排練他為樂隊創(chuàng)作的曲目時，身為完美主義者的Buckingham在成員中間轉(zhuǎn)來轉(zhuǎn)去，向他們演示如何演奏好各自的聲部。貝斯手卻不以為然。

“The band you're in is Fleetwood Mac,” John McVie told him.“I'm the Mac.And I play the bass.”And that—as Mick Fleetwood, who was the Fleetwood, records in his autobiography—was that.

“你在的這個樂隊，叫Fleetwood Mac”，John McVie告訴他，“我是Fleetwood Mac名字里的‘Mac’，我才是貝斯手”。Mick Fleetwood（也就是Fleetwood Mac里的“Fleetwood”）在他的自傳中如是記錄道。

John McVie.

A couple of years later Buckingham and Nicks had been integrated into the band, and the new line-up had a successful album under their belt.It was now Fleetwood and McVie together who laid down the signature bass-and-drums riff that would define what was （with all due deference to former members Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch） the high water mark of Fleetwood Mac：“The Chain”, from their globe-conquering album Rumours.

幾年后，Buckingham和Nicks融入了樂隊。這一全新陣容推出了一張成功的專輯。在這張風靡全球的專輯《Rumours》之中的歌曲“The Chain”里，F(xiàn)leetwood和McVie共同演繹了標志性的貝斯和鼓點的反復樂節(jié)，這成為了Fleetwood Mac當紅時期的模樣（同時也要向前成員Peter Green、Jeremy Spencer、Danny Kirwan和Bob Welch致敬）。

Fleetwood Mac were in the throes of romantic geometry so complex it would have bemused the Bloomsbury Group, and recording in a Sausalito studio in a blizzard of liquor and cocaine.All of them were writing bitter songs about each other.Stevie Nicks essayed a song she called “The Chain”.“I'm down on my knees/begging you please/baby don't leave me/”, she sang—presumably to Buckingham.In demo form, at least, the song is pretty but abject.

Fleetwood Mac那時陷入了情情愛愛的苦苦掙扎中，甚至影響了布盧姆斯伯里文化圈。當時他們沉溺于酒精和可卡因中，在索薩利托的錄音棚里灌錄音樂。他們?nèi)荚趧?chuàng)作有關(guān)彼此的苦澀的歌曲。Stevie Nicks寫了一首歌，她稱之為“The Chain”?！癐'm down on my knees/begging you please/baby don't leave me”（我跪下，向你乞求，親愛的不要離開我），她這樣唱道。這或許是唱給Buckingham的。至少在demo里，這首歌是動聽卻又卑微的。

Stevie Nicks

At the same time, Christine McVie, John's by now former wife, was working on “Keep Me There”, a throwback melodically to her solo album of a few years previously.The opening may have been nugatory, but the chord progression up into the chorus had a driving tension.And three minutes in, her ex-husband let fly with that 10-note bass riff and the song raced through an extended coda, with Christine McVie playing jazzy electric piano.

與此同時，John McVie如今的前妻Christine McVie正鉆研一首名叫“Keep Me There”的歌。這首歌有她幾年前的個人專輯的遺風。開頭部分可能平淡無奇，但是切入到副歌的和弦部分有強勁的張力。前三分鐘，她前夫棄用了10個音符的貝斯反復樂節(jié)，隨著Christine McVie奏起爵士風格的電子琴聲，歌曲匆匆來到綿延的尾聲。

Nearly all the elements were there.The two songs were forged together.New lyrics emerged, turning the submission into defiance.“Damn your love, damn your lies”, Nicks now sang.The sound-world of the song became bleaker.McVie's keyboards were toned down.To knit the whole thing together, Buckingham recycled the instrumental guitar passage that opens “Lola （My Love）” from his and Nicks's earlier Buckingham Nicks album.

幾乎所有的元素都在那里了。這兩首歌被熔合在一起。新的歌詞應運而生，從屈服轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榭範帯！癉amn your love, damn your lies”（去你的愛情，去你的謊言），Nicks如今這么唱。這首歌描繪的音樂世界變得更加黯然冷酷。McVie的鍵盤演奏進行了降調(diào)。為了把所有的東西全部編織在一起，Buckingham再次使用了他和Nicks之前專輯《Buckingham Nicks》中“Lola （My Love）”的開篇吉他樂章。

The resulting amalgam simultaneously hymned the pain of personal separation and the strength of community within the band.“I can still hear you saying/you would never break the chain.” It was the only song from this line-up credited to all five members of the band.

這個集合產(chǎn)物里，既有個人的妥協(xié)之痛，也有樂隊內(nèi)團結(jié)的力量。“I can still hear you saying/you would never break the chain”（我仍然可以聽到你說，你永遠不能掙脫鎖鏈）。這是樂隊唯一一首屬于五個人的歌。

Many songs from Rumours were released as singles, but not “The Chain”.In the UK, though, the song achieved ubiquity when the BBC used it as the theme music for its Formula One coverage—the Doppler rush of the instrumental break perfectly mirroring the head-turning swivel of watching race cars.This must have delighted Fleetwood, at least, a car enthusiast from his youth.

許多《Rumours》專輯內(nèi)的歌曲都以單曲形式發(fā)布，“The Chain”卻不是。不過在英國，在被BBC選作F1賽事報道主題音樂后，這首歌紅遍了大街小巷——（這首歌曲里）樂器的多普勒效應（遠遠近近的聲音）完美地映襯了當時引人注目的賽車觀看熱。至少這首歌一定讓Fleetwood大為開心，因為他從年輕時就是汽車的狂熱愛好者。

John McVie

Cover versions are surprisingly rare.The Saskatchewan hair metal band Kick Axe fuzzed the riff into unintelligibility.Florence + The Machine performed it at Glastonbury in 2010.

這首歌的翻唱版本出人意料得少。薩斯克徹溫省的微金屬樂隊Kick Axe將這首歌的反復樂節(jié)模糊化至難以辨認。搖滾樂隊Florence+The Machine于2010年在英國格拉斯頓伯里表演了這首歌。

US country-folk singer Shawn Colvin, tasked with reproducing the song for a 1998 track-by-track version of Rumours, made “The Chain” slinky and soulful; her take fades out just before the bass riff.By contrast, the Los Angeles punk experimentalists Liars, on Mojo magazine's Rumours Revisited, doubled down on the darkness：their reading is glitchy, murky, obsessive—and again, riffless.

美國鄉(xiāng)村民謠歌手Shawn Colvin在逐一演繹《Rumours》中曲目的項目中被分到翻唱“The Chain”的任務。她讓這首歌變得優(yōu)美且深情。她在貝斯反復樂節(jié)前就逐漸淡出。與此相反的是，洛杉磯朋克實驗主義樂隊Liars在Mojo雜志的《Rumours》回顧專題中，加深了陰郁面：他們的解讀是異常的、陰郁的、固執(zhí)的，并且同樣去掉了反復樂節(jié)。

Photo credit

But the world of hip-hop can tell a powerful riff when it hears one.Cleveland rappers Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's “Wind Blow” is essentially freestyle rap over a more-or-less unchanged middle section of “The Chain”, foregrounding the bass melody.A more ingenious homage came in “Up Your Speed” by the British rapper Sway DaSafo.His song is a tribute to automotive antisocial behaviour, with a video full of souped-up monster cars performing doughnut handbrake turns.

不過在hip-hop的世界，聽到一個反復樂節(jié)他們就可以有力地表達出來。克利夫蘭說唱組合Bone Thugs-n-Harmony的“Wind Blow”本質(zhì)上是在“The Chain”中間部分稍加改變的自由說唱，最顯著的就是貝斯旋律。更有獨創(chuàng)性的致敬是英國說唱歌手Sway DaSafo的“Up Your Speed”。他的歌曲是致敬自發(fā)的反社會行為，整個音樂錄影帶都充斥了馬力十足的改裝汽車，表演剎車擺尾轉(zhuǎn)圈。

Fleetwood Mac themselves fell out, broke up, recruited new members, grew up, and eventually reunited in their five-piece form.The centrepiece of their live sets is still, inevitably, “The Chain”.

Fleetwood Mac經(jīng)歷了爭吵、分裂、招募了新成員、成長，最終五人再次團結(jié)在一起。無可辯駁的是，他們的核心精神仍然在那里——那就是“The Chain”。

詞匯總結(jié)

line-up

n.一排人;一組人;（用途相同的）一批東西;（比賽時）球員的陣容

A couple of years later Buckingham and Nicks had been integrated into the band, and the new line-up had a successful album under their belt.

幾年后，Buckingham和Nicks融入了樂隊。這一全新陣容推出了一張成功的專輯。

geometry[d?i??m?tri]

n.幾何學；幾何形狀；幾何圖形；幾何學著作

Fleetwood Mac were in the throes of romantic geometry so complex it would have bemused the Bloomsbury Group, and recording in a Sausalito studio in a blizzard of liquor and cocaine.

Fleetwood Mac

那時陷入了情情愛愛的苦苦掙扎中，甚至影響了布盧姆斯伯里文化圈。當時他們沉溺于酒精和可卡因中，在索薩利托的錄音棚里灌錄音樂。

throwback[?θr??b?k]

n.大倒退;擲回;挫折;阻止

At the same time, Christine McVie, John's by now former wife, was working on “Keep Me There”, a throwback melodically to her solo album of a few years previously.

與此同時，John McVie如今的前妻Christine McVie正鉆研一首名叫“Keep Me There”的歌。