皮特·西格，抗議的歌聲從未停
皮特·西格，抗議的歌聲從未停
Pete Seeger sang until his voice wore out, and then he kept on singing, decade upon decade. Mr. Seeger, who died on Monday at 94, sang for children, folk-music devotees, union members, civil-rights marchers, antiwar protesters, environmentalists and everyone else drawn to a repertoire that extended from ancient ballads to brand-new songs about every cause that moved him. But it wasn’t his own voice he wanted to hear. He wanted everyone to sing along.
直到聲音嘶啞，皮特·西格(Pete Seeger)還在繼續(xù)歌唱，幾十年來從未停息。西格先生于周一(1月27日)逝世，享年94歲，生前他為孩子們、民歌愛好者、工會成員、民權(quán)運動中的游行者、反戰(zhàn)抗議者、環(huán)保主義者們高歌。他的曲目中既有古老的民歌，也有嶄新的歌曲，取材自一切感動他的東西，他為任何喜愛他歌曲的人而歌，但他不愿只聽到自己一個人的聲音，他希望所有人都能夠跟他一起唱。
Although Mr. Seeger summed up Vietnam-era frustration when he wrote “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” and created a lasting antiwar parable with “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” he wasn’t simply a protest singer or propagandist. Like his father, the musicologist Charles Seeger, and his colleague the ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger was devoted to songs that had been passed on through generations of people singing and playing together. He was determined — in an era when recording was rarer and broadcasting limited — to get those songs heard and sung anew, lest they disappear.
西格在《深陷泥潭》(Waist Deep in the Big Muddy)中概述了越戰(zhàn)時期的沮喪之感，并創(chuàng)作了《花兒都到哪兒去了?》(Where Have All the Flowers Gone?)這首長盛不衰的反戰(zhàn)寓言，但他并不僅僅是一個抗議歌手或宣傳者。他的父親查爾斯·西格(Charles Seeger)是一位音樂學(xué)者，他的伙伴艾倫·洛馬克斯(Alan Lomax)則是一位人種音樂學(xué)家，皮特·西格和他們一樣，熱愛那些由人們在一起歌唱和演奏，并且代代相傳的歌曲。在那個錄音尚不發(fā)達(dá)，廣播十分有限的年代，他下定決心，要讓這些歌曲重新被歌唱和傾聽，不讓它們湮滅。
That put him at the center of the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, in all its idealism, earnestness and contradictions. Collectors found songs that had archetypal resonance, sung in unpretty voices and played with regional quirks, and transcribed them to be learned from sheet music. The folk revival prized authenticity — the work song recorded in prison, the fiddle tune recorded on a back porch — and then diluted it as the making of amateur collegiate strum-alongs. Mr. Seeger and his fellow folk revivalists freely adapted old songs to new occasions, using durable old tunes to carry topical thoughts, speaking of a “folk tradition” of communal authorship and inevitable change. They would warp a song to preserve it. (In succeeding years, copyright problems could and did ensue.)
因此，他在20世紀(jì)50到60年代位于民謠復(fù)興運動的中心，這場運動充滿理想主義與熱忱，也充滿種種矛盾。民謠收集者們收集具備原型共鳴、以不加修飾的聲音歌唱，帶有地域特色的歌曲，把它們記錄下來，以便人們可以通過樂譜學(xué)習(xí)這些歌曲。民謠復(fù)興運動注重真實性，他們搜集那些在監(jiān)獄錄制的歌曲，在家中后門廊錄制的小提琴曲調(diào)，之后用大學(xué)生式的業(yè)余弦樂伴奏進(jìn)行修葺。西格和其他民謠復(fù)興運動者們大量改編老歌，以適應(yīng)新環(huán)境，用那些經(jīng)久不衰的老調(diào)承載新的時事主題，把“民謠傳統(tǒng)”闡釋為集體創(chuàng)作和不可避免的改編。他們會通過改編一首歌的方式來保存它(在其后的年代里，版權(quán)問題確實接踵而至)。
It was an era of purists generating the impure, and, sloppy or saccharine as it could be, it turned out well. Folk-revival ditties pointed their more dedicated listeners — particularly musicians — back to original versions, extending the reach of regional styles. The hootenanny movement spurred people to play music instead of passively consume it, and the noncommercial, do-it-yourself spirit — though not the sound of banjos and acoustic guitars — would resound in punk-rock, which had its own kind of protest songs.
那是個純粹主義者的時代，雖然從中亦產(chǎn)生出種種不純粹的、多愁善感與過分甜膩的東西，但結(jié)果卻是好的。民謠復(fù)興的小曲令更加忠誠的聽眾們(特別是音樂家們)回歸這些歌最初的本源，拓展地域風(fēng)格的邊界。民謠合唱會活動鼓勵人們自己演奏音樂，而不僅僅是被動地消費它，而這種非商業(yè)化、自己動手的精神——雖然不再局限于班卓琴與木吉他——亦在后世的朋克音樂中回響，誕生出朋克時代自己的抗議歌曲。
Even more important, the folk revival, with Mr. Seeger as one of its prime movers, introduced American pop to a different America: the one outside Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood, where a volunteer gospel choir could sing with more gumption than a studio chorus, and where a decades-old song about hard times could speak directly to the present. The folk revival reminded the pop world that songs could be about something more than romance — a notion that the revival’s greatest student and transformer, Bob Dylan, would run with. Mr. Seeger also learned and performed songs from abroad; there were folks there, too.
更重要的是，以西格為先驅(qū)之一的民謠復(fù)興運動把美國流行文化引入了另一個美國，一個與“錫鍋巷”(Tin Pan Alley)和好萊塢完全不同的世界，在這里，由志愿者組成的福音合唱團(tuán)可能比錄音室里的合唱團(tuán)更有勇氣，歌唱艱難時世的老歌雖然歷經(jīng)幾十年的歷史，卻依然可以針砭時弊。民謠復(fù)興運動提醒流行世界，歌曲可以不僅僅局限于歌唱浪漫愛情——這個概念后來由民謠復(fù)興運動最偉大的學(xué)生與改革者鮑勃·迪倫發(fā)揚光大。西格亦學(xué)習(xí)和演唱外國歌曲，因為那里也有民謠的歌聲。
Mr. Seeger’s discography runs to dozens of albums: topical songs, Mother Goose rhymes, banjo instruction, African songs, lullabies, blues, Civil War songs, Spanish Civil War songs and far more. His canon was selective but not exclusive; he wanted all those songs to get more chances. His cultural mission was democratic.
西格一生錄制了數(shù)十張唱片：時事歌曲、童謠、班卓琴演奏、非洲歌曲、搖籃曲、布魯斯、南北戰(zhàn)爭時期的歌曲、西班牙內(nèi)戰(zhàn)歌曲等等。他的準(zhǔn)則是：精挑細(xì)選但絕不排外;他希望所有這些歌曲都能得到更多機(jī)會。他的文化使命是民主主義的。
His mission was political too, of course. In 2012, Mr. Seeger told an interviewer on WNYC how he would like to be remembered: “He made up songs to try and persuade people to do something,” not just say something. As the 1940s began, he recorded songs reflecting the Communist party line; accusations of Communist Party affiliations got him questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee and blacklisted during the McCarthy era. More felicitously, Mr. Seeger recast traditional songs to rally unions, civil-rights groups, Vietnam War protesters and environmentalists. Mr. Seeger was a longtime mentor for topical songwriters. The best of his own songs, like the biblical “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” reach for cycles and archetypes, not ephemeral complaints.
當(dāng)然，他的使命也帶有政治色彩。2012年，WNYC電臺在采訪西格時問他，希望以怎樣的方式被世人銘記，西格答道：“他寫了一些歌，希望能勸說人們?nèi)プ鲂┦裁矗?rdquo;——而不僅僅是去說些什么。在20世紀(jì)40年代初，他曾經(jīng)錄過一些歌曲，反映共產(chǎn)黨的路線;他被指控與共產(chǎn)黨有關(guān)，因此在麥卡錫時期受到“非美委員會”(House Un-American Activities Committee)質(zhì)詢，上了黑名單。更準(zhǔn)確地說，西格重塑了傳統(tǒng)歌曲，以此團(tuán)結(jié)工會、民權(quán)運動小組、反越戰(zhàn)抗議者與環(huán)保主義者們。他是時事歌曲創(chuàng)作者們的長期導(dǎo)師。而他最出色的歌曲包括引用圣經(jīng)的《轉(zhuǎn)!轉(zhuǎn)!轉(zhuǎn)!》(Turn! Turn! Turn!)和《花兒都到哪兒去了?》，它們都觸及生命的循環(huán)與原型，而不僅僅是轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝的控訴。
Pop tastes quickly turned away from the folk revival; the Beatles were more fun. In the 21st century, folky protest and topical songs have generally been shunted to the far sidelines. Although Bruce Springsteen has taken songs from Mr. Seeger’s repertory to arenas, social consciousness is now disseminated more widely through metal and hip-hop. Yet the plink of acoustic instruments is still a token of sincerity. The banjo has resurfaced in groups like Mumford & Sons, while fascination with the folk-revival era animates the Coen brothers film “Inside Llewyn Davis.”
流行品位很快就拋棄了民謠復(fù)興運動，“披頭士”(Beatles)更加有趣。到了21世紀(jì)，民謠抗議與時事歌曲大體上成為遙遠(yuǎn)的分支。盡管布魯斯·斯普林斯汀(Bruce Springsteen)曾經(jīng)在大型體育場翻唱過西格的曲目，然而如今社會意識更多是通過金屬樂與嘻哈樂廣泛傳播。不過，原聲樂器的彈撥在如今依然是真誠的象征。班卓琴重新在“芒福德與兒子”(Mumford & Sons)之類樂隊中浮出水面，而科恩兄弟(Coen brothers)的新片，《醉鄉(xiāng)民謠》(Inside Llewyn Davis)亦展示了民謠復(fù)興運動時期的魅力。
Yet Mr. Seeger wasn’t aiming for pop celebrity anyway. He had all the audiences he needed: at Carnegie Hall or at Barack Obama’s inauguration or at a local coffeehouse, in a high-school classroom or at a union meeting. He had the kindly demeanor of a favorite uncle and the encouraging tone of a secular preacher as he picked his banjo and taught another chorus to yet another audience, beaming as the singalong grew louder and more confident, turning one more group of folks into a community.
但西格并不想成為流行文化名人。他已擁有了自己想要的聽眾：在卡耐基大廳、在貝拉克·奧巴馬的就職儀式，抑或是在當(dāng)?shù)氐目Х任荨⒅袑W(xué)教室或工會集會。他那親切的舉止如同一位受人喜愛的叔叔，鼓舞人心的歌喉又像一位世俗的布道者。他拿起班卓琴，教一位又一位聽眾唱起一段又一段合唱。聽到人群的聲音愈來愈響亮，愈來愈自信，從一群人傳到另一群人，直至響徹整個社區(qū)，他的臉上不禁露出喜悅的笑容。
