Lesson 1 Rock Superstars:
What Do They Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society?
Rock is the music of teenager rebellion. ——John Rockwell, rock music critic
By a man’s heroes ye shall know him.——Robert Penn Warren, Novelist
It was mid-June, 1972, the Chicago Amphitheater was packed, sweltering, rocking. Onstage, Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was singing “Midnight Rambler.” Critic Don Heckman was there when the song ended. “Jagger,” he said, “grabs a half-gallon jug of water and runs along the front platform, sprinkling is contents over the first few rows of sweltering listeners. They surge to follow him, eager to touched by a few baptismal drops.”他描述道:“Jagger抓起一个装有半加仑水的罐子,沿着舞台前沿跑,边跑边把里面的水洒向前几排大汗淋漓的观众。粉丝们蜂拥向前,急切的希望能沾上几滴洗礼的圣水(好像这样就会被他们的英雄接受为他的虔诚的追随者)。
It was later December, 1973. Some 14,000 screaming fans was crunching up to the front of the stage at Capital Center, outside Washington, D.C. Alice Cooper, American singing ghoul, was ending his act. He ends it by pretending to end his life----with a guillotine. His “head” drops into a straw basket. “Ooh,” gasped a girl dressed in black, “Oh, isn’t that marvelous?” Fourteen-year-old Mike Perlie was there too, but his parents weren’t. “They think he’s sick, sick, sick,” Mike said, “they said to me, ‘how can you stand that stuff?’”
It was later January,1974. Inside the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, Bob Dylan and The Band was tuning for a concert. Outside in the pouring rain, Fan Chris Singer was waiting to get in. “This is pilgrimage,” Chris said, “I ought to be crawling on my knees.”
How do you feel about these adulationand hero worship? When Mick Jagger’s fans look at him as a high priest or a god? Are you with them or against them? Do you share Chris Singer’s almost religious reverence for Bob Dylan? Do you think he----or Dylan---is misguided? Do you reject Alice Cooper as sick? Or are you drawn somehow to this strange clown, perhaps because he acts out your wildest fantasies?对于所有这些溢美之词及从偶像崇拜,你怎么看?当Mick Jagger的崇拜者们视他为上帝的最高代表或是一个神时,你是赞成还是反对?你也和Chris Singer一样对Bob Dylan怀有几乎是宗教般的崇拜吗?你认为他或者Dylan是步入歧途了吗?你也认为Alice Cooper令人恶心而拒绝接受吗?还是说你莫名其妙的被这个奇怪的小丑所吸引,也许是因为他表现了你最疯狂的幻想。
These aren’t idle questions. Some sociologist says that your answers to them could explain a lot about what you’re thinking and about what your society is thinking----in other words, about where you and your society are. “Music expresses its times,” says sociologist Irving Horowitz. Horowitz sees the rock music arena as a sort of debating forum, a placewhere ideas clash and crash. He sees it as a placewhere American society struggles to define and redefine its feeling and beliefs. “the redefinition,” Horowitz says, “is a task uniquely performed by the young. It is they alone who combine invention and exaggeration, reason and motion, word and sound, music and politics.”社会学家Irving Horowitz说:“音乐表现其时代。”Horowitz把摇滚乐的舞台视为一种辩论的论坛、一个各种思想交锋的场所。他把它看作一个美国社会努力为自己的情感即信仰进行解释及再解释的地方,他说“再解释”是一项只有青年人才能执行的任务。只有他们才能把创造与夸张、理性与运动、言辞与声音、音乐与政治结合起来。
Todd Rundgren, the composer and singer, agrees. “Rock music,” he says, “is really a sociological expression rather than a musical force, Even Elvis Presley wasn’t really a great musical force. It just that Elvis managed to embody the frustrated teenagers spirit of 1950s.” Of course Presley horrified adult America. Newspapers editorialized against him, and TV networks banned him. But Elvis may have proved that Horowitz and Rundgren believe. When he appeared on the Ed. Sullivan Sunday Night variety show埃德·沙利文星期日晚间综艺节目in front millions, a kind of “debate” took place. Most of the older viewers frowned, while most of the younger views applauded.
Between Elvis and Alice, rock critics say, a number of rock stars have helped our society defined its beliefs and attitudes. Bob Dylan touched a nerve of disaffection. He spoke of civil rights, nuclear fallout, and loneliness. He spoke of change and of the bewilderment of an older generation. “Something’s happening here,” he sang, “you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?”摇滚乐评论家们说,从Elvis到Alice,一些摇滚歌星帮助我们这个社会解释了其信仰与态度。Bob Dylan触动了对现状不满的神经,他(的乐曲)唱到民权、核扩散物及孤独感,唱到变革与老一代人的迷茫,他唱到:“这儿正发生着什么事?你却不知道是什么,对吗?琼斯先生?”
Others entered the debate. The Beatles, Horowitz said, urged the peace and party, with humor and maybe a little help from drugs. The Rolling Stones, arrogate street-fighting man, demanded revolution. The Jefferson Airplane’s “We Can Be Together” and “Volunteers(Got a Revolution)” were two further statements of radical youth.
But politics wasn’t the only subject debated in the hard work of the sixties. Feelings, always a part of any musical statement, were a major subject.但政治并不是60年代强硬派摇滚乐所辩论的唯一主题,情感,作为任何音乐表达中常有的部分,也是一个重要的主题。Janis Joplin sang of her sadness. The Beatles showed there was a range of emotions between love and hate. Then came The Band, mixing the more traditional idea of country and western music into the more radical “city” ideas of the hard rock. This country element, Horowitz feels, helps its audience express an urge to “get away from it all,” to “go back to the old days.” One of the best current examples of what Horowitz is talking about its John Denver. His most notable songs---- “Sunshine on My Shoulders”, “Rock Mountain High” and “Country Road”----combined the musical drive and power of the fork rock, While the lyrics celebrate the simple joys of “the good old days.”
The list could go on and on. Like all artists, these rock musicians mirror(像一面明镜一样)feelings and beliefs that help us see and form our own.
What do we give them in return? Applause and praise, of course. In one 1972 national opinion poll, more than 10% of the high school boys and 20% of the girls said their hero was a rock superstar. We also gave them money. “The fastest way to become a millionaire these days,” says Forbes, a business magazine, “is to become a rock ‘n’ roll star.” 我们拿什么来回报他们呢?当然是掌声和赞美。在1972年的一次全国民意测验中,超过10%的高中男生和20%高中女生都说他们的偶像是某个超级摇滚歌星。此外,我们还报之金钱。商业杂志《福布斯》认为,“当今成为百万富翁的最快途径是当摇滚歌星。”
Today’s heroes----some of them, anyway----tell us they enjoy their rewards. “And I laughed to myself at the the men and the ladies. Who never conceived of us billion-dollar babies.” The particular “culture hero” who sings that is Alice Cooper. 今天的英雄们——至少其中一部分——告诉我们,他们很喜欢所得到的报酬。“我暗自嘲笑这些先生们和女士们,他们从没想到过,我们会成为拥有亿万富翁的金娃娃。”那位特别的“文化英雄”Alice Cooper如此唱到。
The big question remains: Why is he a cultural hero? What does he----or any other current rock success----tell us about his fans? About ourselves and our society? Where it is, where it was, where it’s heading?仍然存在一个重大的问题:为什么他是个文化英雄?他或者当今任何其他成功的摇滚歌星——关于他们的歌迷,关于我们自己和我们的社会,现在怎样?过去怎样?将来又将向何处去?他们会告诉我们些什么?
Do You Agree that Rock Is the Music of Teenage Rebellions?
Rock music began in America in the late 1950s, it was not only a new music form, but a forum for the American youth to express their ideas of the world and life.
Music expressed its time. Rock music was a sociological expression rather than a music force. It embodied the frustrated teenager spirit of the 1950s. At that time young people might be dissatisfied with the society or they had some hatred towards the adult world, but they could not protest its openly. So they would use music as an outlet. Then they could get some balance in their minds.
Another aspect is that the young people could make their ideas and beliefs known to the world through music. By music, they could show their feelings and dreams. So all in all, young people combined invention and exaggeration, reason and emotion, world and sound, music and politics as a whole.
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