哎呀，Paul Simon 一直不是我的菜~ 比如他和 Art Garfunkel 合作的《寂静之声》（The Sound Of Silence）、《斯卡布罗集市》（Scarborough Fair）、《美国曲调》（American Tune）等等，虽说都很经典，但我就是找不到和它们的 connection，可能因为歌太安静了吧。

我也是才知道 Paul Simon（右）和 Art Garfunkel（左）这对 CP 的合作一直不太顺利：留着卷发爆炸头的加芬克尔又高又帅，站在台前负责演唱；但这些歌的创作者其实是西蒙，他只能伴奏并声和~ 更要命的是，西蒙是个其貌不扬的小个子（站着和别人坐着一样高，见图~），在以貌取胜的甜美偶像二人组中处于绝对下风。

直到我发现了这张1986年发行的《雅园》（Graceland）。

先来吹吹它取得的成绩：《雅园》是1986年格莱美年度最佳专辑；1987年格莱美年度最佳制作；Channel 4 频道“史上百佳专辑”排名第84位；Rolling Stone 杂志“史上最伟大500专辑”排名第71位，并称赞它超越世界音乐（world music）的范畴成为整个世界的背景音乐（whole world's soundtrack）；国家唱片则著录它为“文化上、历史上、美学上都很重要”的一张专辑……

《雅园》也是 Paul Simon 单飞之后最成功的专辑，全球累计销售了 16,000,000 张——相当全世界每5人中，就有1人拥有这张专辑（我就是其中之一）！

当然，吸引我去听的不是这些名头啦，而是里面的非洲节奏和旋律——

《她鞋底上的钻石》

第一次听到 Paul Simon Graceland 中的歌，是在追《肥瑞的疯狂日记》（My Mad Fat Diary, S2E05）的时候。剧中肥瑞和闺蜜 Chloe 闹翻之后，Chloe 就不来合唱团排练了，然后肥瑞带着大家打着响指、唱了这首《她鞋底上的钻石》（Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes）。

o kodwa you zo-nge li-sa namhlange

(A-wa a-wa) si-bona kwenze ka kanjani

(A-wa a-wa) amanto mbazane ayeza

开始是一段无伴奏合唱“啊哇啊哇”……

She's a rich girl

她是个富家女

She don't try to hide it

她也不怕露富

Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

她鞋底都上都是钻石

He's a poor boy

他是个穷小伙

Empty as a pocket

口袋空空

Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose

口袋空空 一无所有

Sing ta na na

唱着图呐呐

Ta na na na

图呐呐

……

乐评说歌曲混合了流行、摇滚、阿卡贝拉、黑人舞曲、南非传统合唱，还有祖鲁人的民歌 Blah-blah-blah，反正我喜欢的就是这样动感的节奏，它就是我今夏的肥宅快乐歌啦！还可以放着在家跳舞~

1987年 Graceland 非洲巡演照片。由于当年南非还在实行种族隔离政策，所以联合国对南非实施文化制裁，不允许艺术家在南非举办活动。Paul Simon 算是“顶风作案”，和南非音乐家合作，又在当地录音，在当时引起了不小的争议。30年后回过头看，这一举动也算值得，毕竟留下了这么好的音乐。

《你可以叫我阿尔》

进入80年代，Paul Simon 诸事不顺：离婚；和 Art Garfunkel 重组巡演，最后闹得不欢而散；83年的专辑《刻骨铭心》（Hearts and Bones）收获差评、卖得惨淡。

所以《雅园》中最出名的这首《你可以叫我阿尔》（You Can Call Me Al），就是伴着南非的旋律，唱一个中年危机男人的心境——生活艰难、没有方向、注意力短暂、啤酒肚、失眠……最后只有呼唤上苍 Amen! & Hallelujah!

MV 下面的评论笑死我了~

If you'll be my bodyguard

如果你当我的保镖

I can be your long lost pal

我就当你失散已久的朋友

I can call you Betty

我可以叫你贝蒂

And Betty when you call me

贝蒂 当你叫我的时候

You can call me Al

你可以叫我阿尔

这段无厘头的副歌，来自一场乌龙：一次 Paul Simon 和老婆参加酒会，被一个法国作曲家认错了。他叫 Paul Simon 是 Al，把他的老婆 Peggy 认成 Betty~

《雅园》

第三首歌是专辑的同名歌曲《雅园》（Graceland，本义为“恩赐之地”），Paul Simon 认为这是他写得最好的一首歌。广播里没讲，是因为当时我还没搞清楚，为什么要用猫王故居的名字 Graceland 作为歌名~

《雅园》25周年纪念版，2CD+2DVD，某宝才50-100块钱，看来大家也没发现 Paul Simon 的好啊。CD1 是专辑；CD2 是 demo、早期版本、未收录版本；DVD1 是专辑纪录片、访谈和几个 MV；DVD2 是津巴布韦现场；加上一本画册和一本手写的歌词本，装在麻布面的盒子里。

后来我在这套《雅园》25周年 Box Set 中，找到了一个 Bonus Track《保罗·西蒙讲“雅园”的故事》（Story of Graceland as Told by Paul Simon），我们来听西蒙自己是怎么说的吧，里面他还来了两段 beatbox，模仿鼓点和吉他：

["Graceland" plays] The "Graceland" story is a very interesting story in that it's a very good example of how a collaboration works, even when you're not aware of it occurring. The track is one of the early tracks because I only did five tracks in South Africa. On the sessions that I did with Forere, who is the accordion player - plays on "Boy in the Bubble" - we did a few other tracks. One of the tracks, I said, "You know, I like only the drums on this track. I don't really want anything else. I don't want the accordion or bass. I just want the drums." And the drums were…something like a kind of a traveling rhythm in country music. I'm a big Sun Records fan; early 50's, mid-50's Sun Records, you hear that drum beat a lot. 《雅园》是合作的成果。手风琴手 Forere 随意弹了几首歌，我选中其中一首，去掉手风琴和贝斯，只保留鼓点，有点像乡村音乐中的“旅行节奏”。我是“太阳唱片”（Sun Records）的粉丝，50年代初期到中期，经常能在它们的唱片中听到这种节奏。

[Mimics drums] Like a fast, Johnny Cash type of rhythm. And somewhere later in the week of recording when I had put together a rhythm section of Ray Phiri and Bakithi Kumalo and Isaac Mtshali as the rhythm section. I said to Ray one day, "I like this drum pattern. Take a listen to it and see if it does anything for you. You know it sounds kind of like a country thing to me." So he starts to play his version of American country, Ray, he was in the key of E, and then he was playing, you know - of course he's playing electric - but he'd be up over here, you know, like [plays acoustic guitar] then the drums are going [mimics drums]. Oh, then he went [plays guitar] which is a relative minor chord to that key. 最后定下来的节奏很快，像 Johnny Cash（按：他早期的唱片就是在太阳唱片发行的）的风格。我找来其他南非乐手排演这首歌，让他们尝试美国乡村音乐。

左图：孟菲斯太阳唱片录音室；右图：在太阳唱片一起录音的 Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley 和 Johnny Cash（从左到右）。

[Soloed electric guitar track, drums fade in] I said, "Hey, that's interesting that you played a minor chord," because all the music that I'd been recording with, in South Africa, with the exception of the Sutu music, it was all three-chord major chords. It was never a minor chord. There were times when I'd ask Black Mambazo to sing a minor chord. They couldn't sing a minor chord. They just didn't hear it. So he put in this minor chord, and I said, "That's interesting, why'd you do that?" He said, "I was just imitating the way you write." I said, "Well, play this lick over it:" 本来南非传统音乐里是没有小三和弦、只有大三和弦，我很惊讶吉他手 Ray 竟然用了小三和弦，他说他是在模仿我写歌的方式。

[Sings guitar melody, tracks fade in] ...in an overdub. And he did, and it was a really nice mix, and Bakithi was playing, [sings bass part] [Drum, bass, and guitar parts play] The track has a beautiful emptiness to it. I think that's part of what makes me think that it's something like Sun Records. You know, when it was just a few instruments and nothing really much except slap-back echo and a song. 我喜欢这种空虚的美，只有吉他、贝斯、鼓三种乐器，再加上“山谷回声”的延时效果，就更像太阳唱片出品的歌了。

There's also another connection, musically, that's in there, and that is, there's a pedal steel guitar in there. Which is a, of course, a, you know, like a country instrument. But it's also a West African instrument, and the guy who played it, his name was Demola Adepoju. He played with King Sunny Ade's band. You know, I wanted to hear what that lick sounded like [sings lick] - seemed like it would be a very good pedal steel lick. [Pedal steel lick plays] And it was a great pedal steel lick, but it was also a great Ray Phiri performance. [Instrumental track plays] 然后加入踏板滑棒吉他，一种乡村音乐和黑人音乐都会用到的乐器。

To me, what's interesting is that Ray reaches into his memory for some kind of approximation of what he thinks of as American country. And Bakithi plays straight ahead to the African groove. And so, the two, you know, the two musics find a commonality. And the lyric expresses that. Don and Phil Everly came in and sang. I always heard that songs as a perfect Everly Brothers song. 吉他手 Ray 模仿美国乡村音乐，贝斯手 Bakithi 演奏非洲音乐，我最喜欢的白人合唱二人组 The Everly Brothers 负责和声，各种音乐找到某种交流和共鸣。我希望歌词也表达这样的含义。

猫王故居——雅园 Graceland

[Vocals play] I was down in South Africa in, I think, February, maybe early March, and I think I didn't go down to Memphis until maybe May. Brought it home, and I was trying to write to it. I would, you know, sing these lines about Graceland. Graceland, of course I wanted to get rid of the Graceland part because, I mean, what's Graceland got to do with South Africa or anything like that, so that's gotta go. It's a question of what I'm going to replace it with. But then I couldn't replace it with anything. I was always singing that. And finally I said, "I don't know, well maybe I'm supposed to go to Graceland." I've never been, maybe I'm supposed to go on a trip and see what I'm writing about. So I did. And then I began to describe the trip. The Mississippi Delta. 'Cause I was driving up from Louisiana, where I cut the Zydeco track on "Graceland." I was driving from Highway 61. You know, I'm just writing about what the countryside looked like. 回到美国，我开始填词。一开始歌词和“猫王” Elvis Presley（按：第一个唱黑人风味歌曲的白人巨星，把非洲音乐“带回”美国）和“恩赐之地” Graceland 都没有关系，我一直打算换掉它们。但唱着唱着，我也不知道该怎么改了，索性决定去孟菲斯的猫王故居“雅园”看看，之前从来没去过那。一路上，我把看到的景象描绘出来：

The Mississippi delta was shining

密西西比三角州光芒闪耀

Like a national guitar

像一把大吉他

I am following the river

我顺流而下

Down the highway

沿着公路

Through the cradle of the civil war

穿过美国内战的发源地

I'm going to Graceland

我要去恩赐之地

Graceland

恩赐之地

In Memphis, Tennessee

田纳西州的孟菲斯

I'm going to Graceland

我要去恩赐之地

[Song plays] And finally got there, to Graceland, and just made a tour through Graceland. But what's interesting about all of this is that the part of me that had "Graceland" in my head, I think subconsciously was reacting to what I first heard in the drums, which was a kind of Sun Records country/blues amalgam. And what Ray was doing was mixing up his aural recollections of what American country was, and what kind of chord changes I played. [Instrumental track plays] And so the whole song really is just one sound evoking a response. And that eventually became a lyric that evoked instead of being specifically about a South African subject or even a political subject, it became a traveling song, that had to do with the original sound which was the drums, and Sun Records and Graceland. That's really the secret of world music, is people are able to listen to each other and make associations, and play their own music that sounds like it fits into another culture. And that's how it works, and that's how it worked then. The story of Graceland. ["Graceland" plays] 所以，这首歌就是一个声音（太阳唱片的鼓点）引发的回应，歌词也无关南非、无关政治。最后《雅园》变成一首公路之歌，猫王故居和南非音乐产生关联，这就是世界音乐的秘密，这就是“雅园”的故事。

好啦！Paul Simon 终于打卡完成了，真是太开心啦！

｜END｜

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