当流行音乐遇到——歌手与家的纠葛:Born in the USA丨老歌故事-广西壮歌分享交流群

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Bruce Springsteen借一位越战退伍军人的口吻，讲述了当年美国蓝领阶级的不被认同、重重困难。，通常是相当危险，但这首歌却和总统竞选总是有着“不解之缘”。

Bruce Springsteen，1949年9月23日出生于新泽西州的费里霍尔德，美国摇滚歌手、词曲作者。

Springsteen一方面明显地受到猫王、伍迪·格思里、皮特·西格、埃迪·科克伦与鲍勃·迪伦的影响，而另一方面也受到60年代以来的摇滚乐与Rap&blues的熏陶，Springsteen的音乐也被称作“heartland rock”，带着流行的风味，诗人般的歌词，与美国爱国主义情结，尤其是以他的家乡新泽西核心来创作。

他致力于表达一般中下阶层民众的生活，不仅是发自内心的诚恳，更有着悦耳动听的旋律以及辛辣直截的批判，这让他得到了数座格莱美奖、一个奥斯卡小金人，并进入摇滚名人堂。2004年滚石杂志将他排名为有史以来最伟大的艺术家第23名。

In September 1984, Ronald Reagan was coasting towards re-election as president of the US. Addressing a crowd in Hammonton, New Jersey, he paid tribute to a local hero. “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts; it rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen. And helping you make those dreams come true is what this job of mine is all about.”

1984年的九月，。在新泽西州哈蒙顿的人群中演讲时，他称赞了一位当地人的英雄。“美国的未来在于你们心中的上千个梦想；在于众多美国年轻人仰慕的歌手的歌声中传递希望的信息：新泽西人自己的Bruce Springsteen。帮助你们实现梦想就是我工作的全部内容。”

Bruce Springsteen Photo credit: Getty Images

Springsteen was not pleased. “The president,” he noted drily at his next show, “was mentioning my name the other day and I kinda got to wondering what his favourite album musta been. I don’t think he’s been listening to this one.” And he launched into “Johnny 99”, a stark ballad from the incomparably bleak Nebraska, sung from the viewpoint of a multiple murderer.

Springsteen对此感到不悦。“总统先生”，他在下一场演出中冷冰冰地提到，“曾在几天前提起我的名字。我有点好奇他最喜欢的专辑是哪张。我觉得他肯定没听过这张”。之后他开始唱“Johnny 99”，这首质朴的歌谣来自无比阴郁的专辑“内布拉斯加”，是以一个连环杀手的视角演唱的。

Assuming Reagan was not a secret fan of Nebraska, he had probably been pointed towards Springsteen by the columnist George Will, who had recently praised Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA” for its “grand, cheerful affirmation”. In fact, “Born in the USA” tells the story of a minor criminal who gets “in a little home-town jam” and is shipped off to Vietnam, only to return with PTSD, unable to find employment.

就算里根并不是“内布拉斯加”的秘密歌迷，他大概也能从专栏作家George Will对Springsteen的介绍里知道他。George Will最近赞扬了Springsteen的歌“Born in the USA”中“宏伟、欢乐的坚强”。实际上，“Born in the USA”讲述了一个未成年罪犯面临“Home-town jam”（指被逮捕的罪犯可以通过参军来免除服刑），并登上了去往越南的船，回来却患上了创伤后应激障碍，找不到工作。

As originally recorded, Springsteen alone with a guitar, the song’s anger is transparent. The chorus is flat, affectless. But when he and the E Street Band came to re-record it for the album, they pumped it up. The melody is pushed to the top of Springsteen’s vocal range so that the whole song sounds like its own climax.

最初版中，只有Springsteen和吉他的声音，歌声中的愤怒十分鲜明，副歌部分冷淡无情。但当E Street乐队和他一起为制作专辑而重录这首歌时，这首歌的旋律被推到了Springsteen音域的极限，整首歌听起来像是一直在高潮部分。

Bruce Springsteen Photo credit: Getty Images

Many excellent songs have come out of mixing pop and politics; the dangerous combination is mixing pop and politicians. Donald Trump’s playlist of campaign songs has had their singers rushing to distance themselves from him, from REM to Adele. He entered the Republican convention in July to the strains of “We Are the Champions”, over protests from Queen’s Brian May.

；。唐纳德·特朗普的竞选歌单包括了从REM到Adele等多位歌手，而歌单上的歌手争先恐后地与他划清距离。他在7月的共和党大会上随着“We Are the Champions”的旋律入场，皇后乐队的Brian May因此强烈抗议。

British politicians have had an equally uneasy relationship with pop, from Harold Wilson courting The Beatles with OBEs, to Tony Blair wooing and being snubbed by everyone from David Bowie to Noel Gallagher. Another former prime minister’s penchant for early 1980s Mancunian indie earned him a rebuke from Johnny Marr: “David Cameron, stop saying you like the Smiths, no you don’t. I forbid you to like it.”

：哈罗德·约翰逊追着授予The Beatles大英帝国勋章， Bowie到Noel Gallagher的每一位歌手，却是落花有意，流水无情。另一位前首相因喜爱20世纪80年代早期曼彻斯特独立音乐而受到了Johnny Marr的责备：“戴维·卡梅伦，别再说你喜欢the Smiths了，你不喜欢。我禁止你喜欢。”

According to the moral foundations theory propounded by the American psychologist Jonathan Haidt, political progressives stress “care and fairness” while libertarians favour “liberty and fairness”, whereas conservatives also respond to “loyalty, authority and sanctity”. Examining “Born in the USA” through this lens is revealing. Springsteen is famously progressive, and all rock musicians are secretly libertarian, so “fairness” resonates throughout the song. But the chorus also sounds like an appeal to in-group loyalty, and the music is stamped with authority. No wonder conservatives — including Donald Trump, who has of course played it at his rallies — also respond to it.

根据美国心理学家Jonathan Haidt提出的道德基础理论，，自由派喜欢“自由和公平”，而保守派倾向于“忠诚、权威和神圣”。从这个角度审视“Born in the USA”发人深省。Springsteen的进步立场广为人知，而所有摇滚音乐家暗地里都是自由派，因此整首歌都回响着“公平”的呼吁。但它的副歌部分听起来也像是在呼唤群体内部的忠诚，音乐也有着权威的烙印。难怪保守派——包括理所当然地在集会上放这首歌的唐纳德·特朗普——也与这首歌有共鸣。

Bruce Springsteen Photo credit: Getty Images

Springsteen is still infuriating politicians: in the spring he cancelled a concert in North Carolina in response to the state’s new law on transgender access to bathrooms. He does still perform “Born in the USA”, but nowadays it comes with curled, bent acoustic guitar notes, as if Woody Guthrie were performing it in the 1950s. Harder, now, to miss the message. Even for a politician.

：春天，他对北卡罗莱那州的关于跨性别者使用厕所的新法作出回应，取消了在该州的演唱会。他仍然演唱“Born in the USA”，但如今的版本中吉他的旋律更加蜿蜒婉转，如同20世纪50年代的Woody Guthrie在演奏。现在，歌曲传递的信息更不加掩饰，。

当流行音乐遇到——歌手与家的纠葛:Born in the USA丨老歌故事

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