 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，身为囚犯的詹姆斯·卡特正在密西西比河畔服劳役。当时一位名叫Neil Lomax的民俗学家正在研究记录美国南部地区的风土人情，他偶然录下了卡特和他的狱友顶着炎炎烈日在密西西比河畔劳作时哼唱的他们自己创作的歌曲。 这首名为"Po Lazarus"的歌曲，实际上更像是一段节奏鲜明，让人难以忘怀的说唱旋律，它讲述了一个逃犯在触犯法律后亡命天涯的故事。 然而43年前录制这首歌的时候，卡特可能绝对没有想到这首歌能够在这么多年后赢得2万美元的版税和6项葛莱美大奖。 尘封已久的歌曲 Neil Lomax录制完这首歌后便将它放进了自己所在的基金会的档案资料中。大约5年前，一位名叫T-Bone Burnett的音乐制作人在翻阅这些档案资料的时候第一次听到了这首歌。几年之后，Burnett被委托为科恩兄弟的电影《老兄，你在哪儿？》（又名《霹雳高手》）配乐，（Burnett使用了这首歌。） 在这张电影音乐专辑中，"Po Lazarus"只草草地署上了"詹姆斯·卡特和他的狱友"这样的名字。其实，直到一个月前，这部电影的所有制作人员没有一个知道詹姆斯·卡特身在何处，甚至不清楚他是否尚在人世。 Burnett是Lomax基金会的一名编辑兼《萨拉索塔先驱论坛报》的记者，他通过搜索该报的数据库，终于发现了有关卡特的记录。 卡特曾经在密西西比州四次被判入狱，其中两次是因为偷窃，一次是因为违誓（假释期间犯新罪或逾期不返回监狱），还有一次是因为假释期间非法私藏武器。 Burnett他们在芝加哥找到了卡特。卡特最后一次出狱后，作了一名运务员，自1967年起就一直住在芝加哥。 击败乐坛天王、天后 如今的卡特已经是76岁高龄，健康状况不是很好，但是依旧嗜烟如命。他看上去让人很难联想到仅凭借一首歌曲四次荣登白金唱片榜的人。他的这张专辑销量甚至超过了乐坛天后马莉亚·凯莉和天王迈克·杰克逊的最新专辑。 这个星期卡特拿到了他的第一次版税支票后非常高兴。他说："这是最让人高兴的一件事了。" 尽管现在卡特已经不大出门了，但是上周，这张专辑的制作人还是说服了他和他的家人到洛杉矶出席了葛莱美颁奖典礼。 这部收录了他的歌曲的电影在剧情上和卡特的一连串令人难以置信的经历惊人的相似。 在影片中，乔治·克鲁尼扮演的囚犯带领另外两名囚犯越狱逃跑。在逃亡的路上，他们在一个小电台里录制了一首歌曲。谁知就在他们逃亡的途中，这首歌成为了热门歌曲。然而这三名逃犯直到影片结束的时候才得知他们这首歌获得了成功。 由于有着相似的经历，詹姆斯·卡特非常能够体会到影片中人物的感受。如今成百万的人都听到了他的声音，尽管这个时刻让他等待了43年之久。 (中国日报网站译) |
Updated: 2002-03-06 01:00
