格莱美宠儿约翰•梅尔

英语学习杂志 2013-01-10 17:50

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他七次赢得格莱美大奖,四度荣登最佳流行男歌手的宝座,拥有“新吉他之神”的美誉,他是美国流行乐坛集民谣、乡村、布鲁斯、摇滚于一身的当红创作型歌手,他就是约翰•梅尔。他的成名之路你知道多少?

格莱美宠儿约翰•梅尔

By William Ketton

左云慧 选 郭小华 译

One of the most successful pop singers of the 2000s, John Mayer was pigeonholed early as a soft, sensitive songwriter, and has since put much of his energy into defying that label. In four years, he won five Grammy Awards, including three for best male pop vocal performance. Three of his major-label studio albums have gone platinum or multi-platinum. He established him as a romantic heartthrob, but when the most sentimental song on his second album, “Daughters,” was released as a single despite his objections and became a huge hit, Mayer decided to alter his career by emphasizing his work as a blues guitarist. He collaborated with several blues legends and began recording with a tight trio. Though such a move generated some predictable criticism, given his musical reputation and middle-class upbringing, his recordings with the trio have earned him a measure of critical respect as well as continued commercial success.

Mayer grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, where he became a fan of classic blues guitarists. “I was 15 years old, with my room plastered with posters of Stevie Ray Vaughan and as many Albert King photos as I could have, which wasn’t many,” he told Entertainment Weekly. He briefly attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where an overdose of intense guitar performances drove him to explore soft, melodic ballads. In 1998, after he dropped out, he moved to Atlanta, where he became a frequent performer at music clubs. “Atlanta’s my musical home,” he says in 2003. “It really was the place where I really came alive.”

While in Atlanta, Mayer released his first album, Inside Wants Out. He appeared at the prestigious South by Southwest Music Festival in March of 2000, and his performance there won him a contract with the Columbia Records’ Aware Records. He went into the studio in late 2000 to record his major-label debut.

The new album, Room For Squares, included re-recordings of some songs from Inside Wants Out with more punch and instrumentation. The album, released in September of 2001. The first song, “No Such Thing”, with an alienated teenager defying the expectations of “prom kings” and “drama queens” and imagining a sort of emotional revenge at his ten-year high school reunion, appealed to a wide audience of young, lonely misfits.

Mayer’s popularity grew steadily throughout 2002. Room For Squares was certified platinum by that summer, on the way to going double platinum. Mayer spent much of 2002 touring nationwide to promote the album, selling out concert halls with as many as 10,000 seats. Columbia/Alive re-released Inside Wants Out to satiate fans’ appetite for new Mayer songs. The following February, he won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Room For Squares, Mayer told Entertainment Weekly, was his attempt “to make the most mature-sounding immature record in the world,” that is, an album with lyrics from a youthful perspective but music inspired by sophisticated influences. “A lot of young artists right now are drawing from an incredibly shallow pool of inspiration,” he complained.

Another aspect of Mayer’s success was, undeniably, his good looks—his “deep, searching brown eyes” and “luscious, curly brown hair,” as USA Weekend described. Combined with his romantic lyrics, his looks and 6-foot-3 frame quickly led him to heartthrob status. That seemed to surprise Mayer. “If you can see inside my brain and what I’m trying to do onstage, the last thing that comes to mind is [to] make people swoon,” he said.

Though Mayer titled his follow-up album Heavier Thing , critics dubbed it another soft, pleasant, but not edgy affair. Mayer said the album showed him at his most emotionally honest. The record company chose the song “Daughters” as the single from the album, over Mayer’s strong opposition. It was the softest, most sentimental song on the album, and Mayer feared it would forever pigeonhole him as a sensitive guy. “I saw that as career death,” he later told Rolling Stone . Meanwhile, the record company proved to be right that the song would be a strong single: “Daughters” won Mayer his second Grammy, for Song of the Year.

After that, Mayer began to resist the sensitive singer-songwriter tag. “I got pigeonholed,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “Everybody [was going], ‘You’re doing good,’ but I felt terrible. They had the wrong man. So I had to jam the door open.” To change his career path, Mayer formed the John Mayer Trio, a band that included bassist Pino Palladino, and drummer Steve Jordan, who had recorded sessions with Clapton and Bob Dylan. They embarked on a tour of small theaters that sold out around the country. The move pushed Mayer to test the limits of his musicianship.

Meanwhile, Mayer also began working as a guest musician with several legendary and popular musicians. His insistence in interviews that he was a bluesman upset some critics. But when the trio released a live album, Try! John Mayer Trio Live in Concert in 2005, People reviewer Chuck Arnold, called the live album “exciting,” praising Mayer’s “surprising new blues, funk, and jazz colors.”

Mayer spent a few years recording his next studio album, Continuum. The collection of mostly soul-influenced songs included some radio-friendly pop ballads, but also showed off his blues-guitar skills. He declared the new album his best. “Continuum is kind of like my thesis paper,” he Entertainment Weekly. “It’s the one I feel best about. I’ve finally got it right.”

Mayer has also explored comedy and magazine writing. By 2007, Mayer’s efforts at being taken more seriously were succeeding. In February, he won two more Grammys. “Waiting on the World to Change” won him his third award in four years for best male pop vocal performance, and Continuum won best pop vocal album. Then, in May, Time named him to the Time 100, its list of the world’s most influential people. He spent the rest of the summer of 2007 touring to support Continuum and writing songs for a new album.

Nominated for five awards in 2009, Mayer picked up two trophies at the 51st Grammy Awards: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance. “It’s always been an honor for being a musician,” Mayer said of his win during his acceptance speech. Mayer’s latest studio album, Battle Studies, topped the Billboard albums chart. Rolling Stone praised Mayer in an album review, calling his latest release “a real study in craftsmanship and understated guitar ninja-dom.”

After spending two years out of the spotlight, Mayer returns in 2012 with his latest album, Born and Raised, which tops the Billboard 200 chart making it his third No. 1 album. “I hope people want to receive this music. I have so much that I need to say – I hope I get a chance to say it. I hope people are interested,” he tells NPR of his return to music.

约翰•梅尔是二十一世纪最成功的流行歌手之一,早年被说成是温和、敏感的词曲作者,从那以后,他竭尽全力冲破这一框架。仅在四年时间里,他赢得了五次格莱美大奖,其中有三次荣获“最佳流行男歌手”的称号。他的三张主打录音室专辑获得“白金唱片”和“多白金唱片”认证。他以充满浪漫主义激情著称;他的第二张专辑中最令人感伤的一首《女儿》不顾他的反对作为单曲发行后轰动一时,之后梅尔决定改变他的演艺道路,把工作重心转向成为布鲁斯吉他手。他与多名布鲁斯传奇人物合作,并组成密不可分的三重奏乐队开始录制歌曲。可想而知,这样的转型招致了一些批评,但是,鉴于他在音乐上的口碑和中产阶级的出身,他录制的三重奏专辑为他赢得了一定的评论界的尊重和持续的商业成功。

梅尔在康涅狄格州费尔菲尔德长大,是古典布鲁斯吉他大师的忠实粉丝。“15岁时,我的房间里贴满了斯蒂夫•雷•沃恩的海报以及我所能收集到的阿尔伯特•金的照片,还真是不多,”他对《娱乐周刊》说。他在波士顿伯克利音乐学院学习过一阵,当地过度密集的吉他表演促使他探索轻柔、悦耳的民谣之路。1998年辍学之后,他搬到了亚特兰大,在那里他成为音乐俱乐部的表演常客。“亚特兰大是我的音乐故乡,”2003年他如是说。“正是在这里我才真正活过来了。”

梅尔在亚特兰大发行了第一张专辑《表达自我》。2000年3月他出现在美国音乐盛典“南西南音乐节”上,他在音乐节的首次表演为他赢得了与哥伦比亚唱片公司旗下的Aware唱片公司签约的机会。2000年底他走进录音室录制了他的主打歌首秀。

他的新专辑《发声中心》收录了《表达自我》的一些翻录歌曲,增加了一些重音和配乐。这张专辑于2001年9月发行。第一首单曲《没这回事》讲述一个叛逆的少年拒绝成为“舞会之王”和“戏剧王后”,并想象在他十年后中学同学聚会时迸发的一种雪耻情绪,这首歌吸引了广大年轻、孤独且无法适应环境的听众。

整个2002年,梅尔的知名度稳步上升。那年夏天,《发声中心》获得了“白金唱片”的认证,并且即将成为“双白金唱片”。梅尔把2002年的大部分时间用于在全国巡演宣传这张专辑,万人座音乐厅门票被抢购一空。哥伦比亚唱片公司旗下的Alive唱片公司重新发行了专辑《表达自我》,以满足粉丝对梅尔新歌的渴求。第二年2月,他获得“格莱美最佳流行男歌手”的殊荣。

梅尔告诉《娱乐周刊》,《发声中心》是他“制作世界上听起来最成熟但实际上不成熟的唱片”的一次尝试,换句话说,这是以年轻稚嫩的视角作词,为久经世故的灵感谱曲的一张专辑。“目前许多年轻艺人阅历不深,其灵感之肤浅令人难以置信,”他不无抱怨地说。

毋庸置疑,梅尔取得成功的另一个原因是他俊朗的外形——“深邃、敏锐的褐色眼睛”和“性感、卷曲的褐色头发”,这是《美国周末》对他的描述。俊美的外表和1.93米的身高,再加上浪漫的歌词,很快使他成为万人迷。这似乎让梅尔有些吃惊。“我宁愿你能懂得我的思想,欣赏我在舞台上的表现,最不愿意想到的是我的外表让人迷恋,”他说。

梅尔给他的下一张专辑取名为《甜蜜负荷》,但评论家称其为又一件柔和、悦耳却不够敏锐的作品。梅尔说,这张专辑表现了他最真挚的情感。录音公司不顾梅尔的强烈反对,从这张专辑中选出了《女儿》这首歌作为单曲发行。这是整张专辑中最温柔、最感伤的一首歌,梅尔担心会因此而被打上敏感男孩的烙印。“我认为这是置我的事业于死地,”他后来告诉《滚石》杂志。与此同时,唱片公司用实践证明把这首歌列为单曲是明智之举:《女儿》为梅尔赢得了第二座格莱美金喇叭和“年度最佳单曲”大奖。

此后,梅尔开始抗拒敏感歌手兼词曲作者的标签。他对《娱乐周刊》说:“我被框起来了。每个人都在说‘你很棒’,但我感觉很糟。他们看错人了。所以我得把门卡住,使它开着。”为了改变他的演艺道路,梅尔组成了“约翰•梅尔三重奏”乐队,其他两名成员是贝斯手皮诺•帕拉迪诺和鼓手史蒂夫•乔丹,他们与克莱普顿和鲍勃•迪伦录制了好几场音乐会。他们开始在全国各地的小剧场巡演。这一举动考验了梅尔在音乐才能方面的极限。

同时,梅尔也开始与一些传奇的流行音乐家一起担任音乐嘉宾。他坚持以蓝调歌手的身份接受采访令一些评论家心里不快。但是,当他的三重奏乐队于2005年发行现场录音专辑《试试吧!约翰梅尔三重奏音乐会现场》后,《人物》杂志乐评人查克•阿诺德称该现场录音专辑“非常火爆”,并称赞梅尔表现出“令人惊奇的新布鲁斯、乡土摇滚乐和爵士乐色彩。”

梅尔花了几年的时间灌制下一张录音室专辑《声声不息》。这张专辑收录的大多是穿透心灵的歌曲,包括一些适合在广播电台收听的流行民谣,同时展示了他演奏布鲁斯吉他的技能。他声称这是他最好的一张专辑。“《声声不息》就像我的论文题目,”他对《娱乐周刊》说。“它是我感觉最棒的一张专辑。我终于找到了对的感觉。”

除此之外,梅尔还探索喜剧和杂志写作之路。2007年之前,梅尔希望越来越受重视的努力大获成功。2月,他又赢得了两项格莱美奖。《等待世界改变》使他在四年里第三次获得最佳流行男歌手奖,而《声声不息》则荣获最佳流行专辑奖。5月,《时代周刊》将他列入世界上最有影响力的人物名录“Time 100”。2007年夏天的剩余时间里,他通过巡演宣传《声声不息》专辑,并为一张新专辑写词作曲。

2009年,梅尔被提名了5项大奖,斩获了第51届格莱美奖的两个奖项:最佳流行男歌手和最佳摇滚歌手。“对于一个音乐人来说,这是莫大的荣誉,”梅尔在发表获奖感言时说。梅尔最新的录音室专辑《爱恋守则》高居“公告牌专辑排行榜”榜首。《滚石》在一篇专辑评论中对梅尔大加赞赏,称他最新发行的专辑为“一次真正的音乐技能研究,他是名副其实的吉他忍者大师。”

离开公众的视线两年之后,梅尔于2012年带着他的最新专辑《灵韵重生》强势回归,这张专辑高居“公告牌200排行榜”榜首,并成为他第三张排名第一的专辑。“我希望人们会喜欢这里面的音乐。我有很多话要说——我希望有机会把它说出来。希望大家喜欢,”他对美国国家公共广播电台如是说起他回归音乐的心情。

(来源:英语学习杂志 编辑:丹妮)

Vocabulary:

1. pigeonhole: 把……归类。

2. satiate: (充分)满足。

 

 

 

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