 |
| Bush likes using
his 'iPod One' to listen to music while he pedals around his
Texas ranch on a mountain
bike | |
The music tastes of U.S. President George W. Bush have come under scrutiny after an aide revealed the
playlist of his new iPod player.
The portable digital device, given to Bush by his daughters Jenna and
Barbara last July, contains much country music, but also songs by Joni
Mitchell, Van Morrison and the Knack.
The MP3 player, which can store up to 10,000 songs, only contains about
250, according to the New York Times, which first reported the story.
"iPod One," as the player has been dubbed, is used by Bush while he
pedals around his Texas ranch on a mountain bike, presidential media
adviser Mark McKinnon told the newspaper.
The task of downloading the music falls to the 58-year-old president's
personal aide, Blake Gottesman, who buys individual songs and albums from
the iTunes music store.
Not every track is "on-message." The playlist -- regarded by many as a
mirror to the soul -- includes musicians who campaigned against Bush, such
as John Fogerty. Also on the iPod is the 1979 song "My Sharona" by the
Knack, about a man pursuing a much younger woman.
One of that song's lyrics, "Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the
touch of the younger kind," prompted Spin magazine editor Dave Itzkoff to
comment: "This wouldn't be consistent with Bush's image as protector of
conservative values."
Bush, who quit drinking after his 40th birthday, also listens to
recovering alcoholic George Jones, a country singer who sings about
heartbreak and drinking. Joe Levy, deputy editor of Rolling Stone
magazine, said this indicated "a little bit of taste for hard core and honky-tonk ."
McKinnon advised though against too much analysis of the playlist. "The
fact is that any president who would limit themselves to pro-establishment
musicians would have a pretty slim collection.
"No one should psychoanalyze the song selection. It's music to get over
the next hill," he told the New York Times.
The playlist does reveal a rather narrow range of babyboomer tunes.
Writing in the London Times, Caitlin Moran noted: "No black artists, no
gay artists, no world music ,
only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles."
Levy agreed, telling the New York Times: "What we're talking about is a
lot of great artists from the '60s and '70s and more modern artists who
sound like great artists from the '60s and '70s.
"This is basically boomer rock 'n' roll and more recent music out of
Nashville made for boomers. It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving. What I
mean to say is, it's feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's
not."
（Agencies) |
自從美國總統(tǒng)喬治·布什的新款iPod音樂播放器里的歌單被一位助手“泄露”之后，人們就開始仔細研究他的音樂品味。
布什的iPod便攜式數(shù)碼音樂播放器是他的雙胞胎女兒詹娜和芭芭拉去年七月份送給他的，這款音樂播放器中存了很多鄉(xiāng)村音樂，還有喬妮·米切爾、范·莫里森和Knack樂隊的歌曲。
據(jù)最早披露此事的《紐約時報》報道，布什的這款MP3播放器可儲存一萬首歌，但現(xiàn)在只存了大約250首。
布什總統(tǒng)的媒體顧問馬克·麥欽倫告訴《紐約時報》說，布什用的這款播放器被稱為“第一iPod”，布什繞著德州農(nóng)場騎山地車時用它來聽音樂。
下載音樂的任務(wù)就全交給了總統(tǒng)的私人助手、58歲的布萊克·戈特斯曼。他經(jīng)常從iTunes音樂商店購買個人唱片和專輯。
并不是每一段音樂都能恰如其分地反映布什的想法。布什的歌單中包括一些在大選中反對布什的音樂家，比如約翰·福格蒂，在很多人眼里歌單就是“心靈的一面鏡子”。布什的iPod里還有Knack樂隊1979年的一首老歌《我的莎羅娜》，這首歌講述了一個男人追求一個比他年輕很多的女人的故事。
這首歌有一句歌詞是這樣的：“這是一顆多么骯臟的心靈啊，總會因為與更年輕的心靈接觸而蠢蠢欲動。”《Spin》雜志的編輯大衛(wèi)·特則克夫評論說：“這和布什一貫的保守形象不太相符。”
布什在過了40歲生日之后就戒了酒，但是他還聽鄉(xiāng)村歌手喬治·瓊斯的歌，后者可是一位酒癮復(fù)發(fā)者，老唱一些有關(guān)借酒澆愁的悲苦情歌。《滾石》雜志的副主編喬·利維說，這暗示著“布什對硬核音樂和酒吧音樂還是有一點感覺的”。
但是，麥欽倫建議人們不要過多地分析研究布什的歌單，他說：“事實上，對任何一位總統(tǒng)來說，如果他只選擇聽那些追隨主流的音樂家的音樂，那他的音樂庫就會非常貧乏。”
他告訴《紐約時報》說：“人們不應(yīng)該通過某人聽的音樂去對他作心理分析。那些音樂不過是幫助（他）翻越一個又一個小山坡的助力器而已。”
這份歌單的確反映了“嬰兒潮一代”相對狹窄的音樂選擇。凱特琳·摩倫在倫敦《泰晤士報》上發(fā)表文章指出：“（歌單上）沒有黑人和同性戀音樂家，沒有流行音樂，只有一位女歌手的音樂，沒有年紀(jì)在25歲以下的音樂流派，也沒有甲克蟲樂隊的歌。”
利維對此觀點表示認可，他對《紐約時報》說：“我們談?wù)摰氖橇呤甏囊慌鷤ゴ笏囆g(shù)家，以及和他們風(fēng)格相似的現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)家們。”
“（布什的歌單里）基本上都是嬰兒潮一代喜歡的搖滾樂，還有些年代稍晚的音樂，來自專為他們量身定制的歌舞電影《納什維爾》（1975）。這些歌曲安全、可靠、深情，我想說的是--它們是一些聽上去感覺非常好的音樂。不過Sex
Pistols樂隊不在其列。”
（中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2005-04-14 10:08
