 In 1959, James Carter was working on achain gangin Mississippi. A folklorist who was documenting life in the South, made a recording of Carter leading his fellow inmates in song while they labored under the blazing Mississippi sun.
The song, really more of a rhythmic, haunting chant, is called "Po Lazarus." It's about a fugitive on the run from the law.
On that day 43 years ago, Carter could never have imagined that the song would lead to a ,000 royalty check and six Grammy awards. Found in Archives The song was recorded by Neil Lomax, who kept it in the archives at his foundation. A record producer named T-Bone Burnett first heard it while looking through the archives about five years ago. A few years later, Burnett was commissioned to produce the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? On the album, "Po Lazarus" is attributed simply to "James Carter and the Prisoners." Until a month ago, nobody involved with the movie knew where James Carter was, or if he was even alive. Burnett, a staffer from the Lomax Foundation, and a reporter for the Sarasota Herald Tribune, managed to track down Carter using the newspaper's databases. They found out Carter had been incarcerated in Mississippi four times - twice for stealing, once for violating parole and again for a weapons violation. They traced him to Chicago, where's he's been living since 1967. After prison, Carter worked as a shipping clerk. Outsold Mariah, Michael He's 76 now, and has his share of health problems. He still smokes a lot. But he doesn't act like a man who has a song on an album that's gone platinum four times over - an album that has outsold the latest CDs from Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson. But he was very happy to get his first royalty check this week, indeed he said, "that's the best part of the whole situation." He doesn't get out of the house much these days, but the record's producers convinced him to fly to Los Angeles last week with his family for the Grammys. The rather incredible chain of events in Carter's life has remarkable parallels to the movie that uses his song. In the movie, three convicts, led by the actor George Clooney, escape from a chain gang and end up recording a song in a tiny radio station. While they're on the run, the song becomes a hit. The escapees don't realize their success until the end. James Carter knows how they feel. Millions of people have heard his voice now - although it took him 43 years to be discovered. Note:
chain gang: a group of prisoners chained together for work outside their prison (Agencies) | 1959年，身為囚犯的詹姆斯·卡特正在密西西比河畔服勞役。當(dāng)時(shí)一位名叫Neil Lomax的民俗學(xué)家正在研究記錄美國(guó)南部地區(qū)的風(fēng)土人情，他偶然錄下了卡特和他的獄友頂著炎炎烈日在密西西比河畔勞作時(shí)哼唱的他們自己創(chuàng)作的歌曲。 這首名為"Po Lazarus"的歌曲，實(shí)際上更像是一段節(jié)奏鮮明，讓人難以忘懷的說(shuō)唱旋律，它講述了一個(gè)逃犯在觸犯法律后亡命天涯的故事。 然而43年前錄制這首歌的時(shí)候，卡特可能絕對(duì)沒(méi)有想到這首歌能夠在這么多年后贏得2萬(wàn)美元的版稅和6項(xiàng)葛萊美大獎(jiǎng)。 塵封已久的歌曲 Neil Lomax錄制完這首歌后便將它放進(jìn)了自己所在的基金會(huì)的檔案資料中。大約5年前，一位名叫T-Bone Burnett的音樂(lè)制作人在翻閱這些檔案資料的時(shí)候第一次聽(tīng)到了這首歌。幾年之后，Burnett被委托為科恩兄弟的電影《老兄，你在哪兒？》（又名《霹靂高手》）配樂(lè)，（Burnett使用了這首歌。） 在這張電影音樂(lè)專輯中，"Po Lazarus"只草草地署上了"詹姆斯·卡特和他的獄友"這樣的名字。其實(shí)，直到一個(gè)月前，這部電影的所有制作人員沒(méi)有一個(gè)知道詹姆斯·卡特身在何處，甚至不清楚他是否尚在人世。 Burnett是Lomax基金會(huì)的一名編輯兼《薩拉索塔先驅(qū)論壇報(bào)》的記者，他通過(guò)搜索該報(bào)的數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)，終于發(fā)現(xiàn)了有關(guān)卡特的記錄。 卡特曾經(jīng)在密西西比州四次被判入獄，其中兩次是因?yàn)橥蹈`，一次是因?yàn)檫`誓（假釋期間犯新罪或逾期不返回監(jiān)獄），還有一次是因?yàn)榧籴屍陂g非法私藏武器。 Burnett他們?cè)谥ゼ痈缯业搅丝ㄌ亍？ㄌ刈詈笠淮纬霆z后，作了一名運(yùn)務(wù)員，自1967年起就一直住在芝加哥。 擊敗樂(lè)壇天王、天后 如今的卡特已經(jīng)是76歲高齡，健康狀況不是很好，但是依舊嗜煙如命。他看上去讓人很難聯(lián)想到僅憑借一首歌曲四次榮登白金唱片榜的人。他的這張專輯銷量甚至超過(guò)了樂(lè)壇天后馬莉亞·凱莉和天王邁克·杰克遜的最新專輯。 這個(gè)星期卡特拿到了他的第一次版稅支票后非常高興。他說(shuō)："這是最讓人高興的一件事了。" 盡管現(xiàn)在卡特已經(jīng)不大出門了，但是上周，這張專輯的制作人還是說(shuō)服了他和他的家人到洛杉磯出席了葛萊美頒獎(jiǎng)典禮。 這部收錄了他的歌曲的電影在劇情上和卡特的一連串令人難以置信的經(jīng)歷驚人的相似。 在影片中，喬治·克魯尼扮演的囚犯帶領(lǐng)另外兩名囚犯越獄逃跑。在逃亡的路上，他們?cè)谝粋€(gè)小電臺(tái)里錄制了一首歌曲。誰(shuí)知就在他們逃亡的途中，這首歌成為了熱門歌曲。然而這三名逃犯直到影片結(jié)束的時(shí)候才得知他們這首歌獲得了成功。 由于有著相似的經(jīng)歷，詹姆斯·卡特非常能夠體會(huì)到影片中人物的感受。如今成百萬(wàn)的人都聽(tīng)到了他的聲音，盡管這個(gè)時(shí)刻讓他等待了43年之久。 (中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯) |
Updated: 2002-03-06 01:00
