天鵝絨的早晨，謎一樣的早晨：老歌Some Velvet Morning

這首歌出自Lee Hazlewood之手，他幾乎制作了所有Nancy Sinatra的歌，偶爾還與她合作二重唱作品。Lee Hazlewood低沉的嗓音，迷人的才華，無疑給這首歌又增添了韻味?！禨ome Velvet Morning》就如它的歌名，是首充滿夢幻意味又讓人不知它到底在說些什么的曲子。

There's a glissando of strings, like waves breaking on a shore, then a man's voice, rich and dark, intones the most enigmatic opening lines in pop history：“Some velvet morning when I'm straight/I'm gonna open up your gate/And maybe tell you 'bout Phaedra/And how she gave me life/And how she made it end/Some velvet morning when I'm straight.”

首先有一個琴弦的滑奏，仿佛是波浪沖擊著海岸。接下來是一個男人的聲音，深厚而低沉，吟詠著流行音樂史上最神秘的歌曲開頭：“Some velvet morning when I'm straight/I'm gonna open up your gate/And maybe tell you 'bout Phaedra/And how she gave me life/And how she made it end/Some velvet morning when I'm straight.”

In response, a woman's voice, light as a summer's breeze, chants an invocation：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

一個女子的聲音回應著，輕如夏日的微風，唱著祈禱詞：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

Lee Hazlewood

Photo Credit：The official website of singer, songwriter and producer Barton Lee Hazlewood

The year is 1967, the setting is Hollywood.The bass voice belongs to writer/producer Lee Hazlewood, the soprano to his protégée, Nancy Sinatra.The legend they have just spun in vinyl, part rugged country, part fey folk, cloaked in psychedelia by Billy Strange's haunting orchestration, will echo down the years, the puzzle of its lyrics and otherworldly beauty of its sound offering seemingly endless interpretations.

那是1967年，所在地是好萊塢。男低音是歌曲作家、制作人Lee Hazlewood，女高音是他的女門徒，Nancy Sinatra。他們剛剛完成的黑膠唱片創(chuàng)造了傳奇，其中部分是起伏的鄉(xiāng)村音樂，部分是神秘的民間音樂，隱匿在Billy Strange管弦樂的迷幻感中，久久回蕩，歌曲與年代呼應。歌詞的神秘色彩和聲音的超塵脫俗給人們更多解讀的空間。

It first appeared on the album of Nancy Sinatra's TV special Movin'With Nancy, was then released as a single and finally placed in its most majestic setting, the 1968 Reprise LP Nancy & Lee.It crystallises a moment between the optimism of the Summer of Love and the darkness on the desert horizon, manifested in rogue hippy Charles Manson.Not for nothing was it voted the best duet of all time by British music critics in 2003.

在Nancy Sinatra的電視特輯專輯《Movin' With Nancy》中，這首歌首次面世。接下來，這首歌作為單曲發(fā)行；并最終在1968年具有紀念性的重奏唱片《Nancy & Lee》中發(fā)布。這首歌曲描述了一個中間狀態(tài)——愛之夏（嬉皮士運動）主張的樂觀與以流氓嬉皮士Charles Manson為代表的蠻荒的陰暗之間，以Charles Manson暴戾的嬉皮風展現(xiàn)出來。2003年這首歌被英國音樂評論家評為最佳二重唱，實至名歸。

Some Velvet Morning

Barton Lee Hazlewood was born in Oklahoma in 1929, the son of an itinerant oilman, whose wanderings across the south imbued his son with a taste for the cowboy lifestyle and its music.Having served his country in Korea, Lee began working as a songwriter and producer for rockabillies Sanford Clark and Duane Eddy in 1956, hitting upon the novel idea of recording the latter's twanging guitar inside a grain silo.

Barton Lee Hazlewood 1929年生于俄克拉荷馬州，他的爸爸是一個流動的石油散工，常年漂在南部。Lee受此影響，喜歡上牛仔的生活方式和音樂。韓國服完兵役歸來后，1956年，他開始成為作曲家、制作人，為鄉(xiāng)村搖滾樂人Sanford Clark和Duane Eddy制作音樂。Lee偶然想出了一個新點子，在谷倉中為Duane Eddy錄制吉他表演。

In 1965, after bonding with Dean Martin over the song “Houston” and a mutual love of whiskey, Lee was asked by Frank Sinatra to come to the rescue of his daughter's career.Hazlewood duly delivered the smash “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'”, having issued his ingénue with the instructions：“You can't sing like Nancy Nice Lady any more.You have to sing for the truckers.” Thus recast, Nancy staked her claim to pop immortality and would record another album with the man she described as “part Henry Higgins and part Sigmund Freud”, Nancy & Lee Again in 1971.

1965年，Lee與Dean Martin由于共同的愛好—威士忌結緣，并合作了歌曲《Houston》。在此之后，他收到Frank Sinatra的邀請來幫助他女兒的事業(yè)。Hazlewood給這位天真少女做出了如下指導：“你不能再像個害羞小姑娘一樣唱歌了，Nancy。你得唱給卡車司機?！敝笇е?，他適時地推出了走紅歌曲《These Boots Are Made For Walkin'》。做出改變之后，Nancy開始堅持流行歌曲，并于1971年，與她描述為“Henry Higgins和Sigmund Freud結合體”的男人共同錄制了另一張專輯《Nancy & Lee Again》

Her singing on “Some Velvet Morning”, however, is more the voice of an elemental, heightened by the name Phaedra—in mythology, the treacherous wife of Theseus, whose unrequited love for Hippolytus results in his watery death at the hands of Poseidon.Many of Hazlewood's songs, including Nancy & Lee's “Summer Wine”, involve sprite-like beings casting spells on cowboys that result in the loss of senses and spurs, and he based the logo of his record company LHI （Lee Hazlewood Industries） on a classical Greek profile.

她在《Some Velvet Morning》中的演唱則更像是一個四元素小精靈的聲音，歌中Phaedra這個女人名字更添神秘色彩。Phaedra，在神話中，是特修斯奸詐的妻子，她一直單戀著希波呂托斯，卻不幸導致他死于海神波塞冬之手。Hazlewood的許多歌曲，包括《Nancy & Lee》中的《Summer Wine》，都包含有小精靈這樣的生物，它們對牛仔施法導致牛仔失去感知。他的音樂公司LHI（Lee Hazlewood Industries）的標志就是源于一個古希臘人側像。

But, like the contrast between his vocals and hers, there is another, more carnal interpretation of what those lyrics might mean.Hazlewood's sudden move to Sweden in 1971, at the height of his popularity, added to his mystery—had Frank Sinatra really put out a hit on Lee because Lee and Nancy had grown too close, or was Hazlewood just avoiding the taxman?

但是，正如他與她聲音的不同，歌詞的意思還有另外一層世俗的解讀。1971年，在聲名鼎盛之時，Hazlewood突然搬去瑞典，使他變得更加神秘。難道是因為Lee和Nancy走得太近，F(xiàn)rank Sinatra真的試圖暗殺Lee？還是Hazlewood只是企圖避稅？

Nancy Sinatra

This ambiguity has drawn many subsequent artists to their retellings of the myth.Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard made the perfect Gothic coupling on their 1982 single.Bobby Gillespie teamed up with Kate Moss to record a version for Primal Scream's 2002 album Evil Heat, recently re-released on Ace Records' Hazlewood covers compilation, Son-of-a-Gun.Shoegazers Slowdive and proto-grungers Thin White Rope have also taken cracks at the enigma.But most poignant is the final version Lee recorded before his death from cancer in 2007.On his 2005 swansong LP Cake or Death, he duets it with his grand-daughter…Phaedra is her name.

這層撲朔迷離引得隨后許多藝術家重新解讀這個謎。Lydia Lunch 和Rowland S Howard在1982年的單曲中組成了完美的哥特風格組合。Bobby Gillespie與Kate Moss共同錄制了一個版本，發(fā)行在2002年Primal Scream組合的專輯《Evil Heat》中，該版本在近期Ace Records公司發(fā)行的Hazlewood翻唱匯編專輯《Son-of-a-Gun》之中再次發(fā)行。迷幻音樂派Slowdive樂隊以及邋遢搖滾組合Thin White Rope都觸及過這個謎團。最深刻的版本則是Lee在2007年死于癌癥前夕錄制的最后一版。在他2005年發(fā)布的告別演出唱片《Cake or Death》中，他與孫女共同演唱，完成了二重唱。他孫女的名字就叫Phaedra。

Some Velvet Morning

一個絲絨的早晨

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers growing on a hill

Dragonflies and daffodils

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Phaedra is my name

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers are the things we grow

Secrets are the things we know

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Phaedra is my name

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers are the things we grow

Secrets are the things we know

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Look at us but do not touch

Look at us but do not touch

詞匯總結

glissando[gl??s?nd??]

n.滑奏法，滑奏部

There's a glissando of strings, like waves breaking on a shore.

首先有一個琴弦的滑奏，仿佛是波浪沖擊著海岸。

invocation[??nv??ke??n]

n.祈禱;乞求;乞靈;乞求神助

In response, a woman's voice, light as a summer's breeze, chants an invocation：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

一個女子的聲音回應著，輕如夏日的微風，唱著祈禱詞：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

bass[be?s]

n低音歌唱家，低音樂器;[魚]歐洲鱸魚;[植]椴樹，椴屬樹木，美洲椴木

adj.低音的

The bass voice belongs to writer/producer Lee Hazlewood, the soprano to his protégée, Nancy Sinatra.

男低音是歌曲作家、制作人Lee Hazlewood，女高音是他的女門徒，Nancy Sinatra。

treacherous[?tret??r?s]

adj.奸詐的;騙人的;不忠的;不可信的

adv.背信棄義地

n.背信棄義，背叛

Her singing on “Some Velvet Morning”, however, is more the voice of an elemental, heightened by the name Phaedra—in mythology, the treacherous wife of Theseus, whose unrequited love for Hippolytus results in his watery death at the hands of Poseidon.

她在《Some Velvet Morning》中的演唱則更像是一個四元素小精靈的聲音，歌中Phaedra這個女人名字更添神秘色彩。Phaedra，在神話中，是特修斯奸詐的妻子，她一直單戀著希波呂托斯，卻不幸導致他死于海神波塞冬之手。