詹姆斯布朗特来自军人家庭歌手

　 詹姆斯布朗特来自军人家庭歌手

　Some ageing rockstar once said that what he feared most, in a musical sense, was the songwriting well running dry. That's something that's unlikely to ever worry James Blunt. He has, it can be said without1)exaggeration, lived a life that should provide enough material for a dozen albums, with2)sufficient left over for a couple of3)screenplays. This is a4)distinctly different singer-songwriter.

　Take "No Bravery,"the song that closes his debut album, "fack to Bedlam,"for instance: It was written in5)Kosovo in 1999, while James was a6)reconnaissance officer in the British army. On7)patrol around Pristina, he kept his guitar bolted to the outside of his tank. But in quieter moments it came out, as he wrote about life as a 22-year-old8)peacekeeper in the9)aftermath of one of the decade's bloodiest civil wars. The rest of his unit ordered him to keep the noise down as he wrote and sang in the post-midnight10)stillness. But he didn't keep the noise down. 以No Bravery?is the only complete song I wrote in Kosovo. I wrote it lying by my tank in my sleeping bag with my boots on. You had to sleep with your boots on. The song is pretty11)fatalistic. The rest of the album is fatalistic,?he says12)wryly.

　What's odd is that a13)military family like the Blunts-his father, a career14)Colonel, has only recently left the army-should15)spawn someone like James. As he tells it, his16)upbringing was the traditional sort that17)scarcely seems to exist anymore: Born in an army hospital in18)Hampshire, he was sent to boarding school at seven,19)excelled at science and maths, got a pilot's license at 16, did a spell at Bristol University, and then, "because my dad was pushing for it,"joined the army. He eventually made20)Captain, and was the first British officer into Pristina, leading a column of 30,000 peacekeeping21)troops.

　Music, though, has always been his22)mainstay. At 14, he wrote his first song. And he made himself unpopular with the school housemaster, who knew that music23)drifting down the24)corridor late at night could25)invariably be traced to Blunt's room. His teen years were a battle with teachers "who were intent on26)imposing some sort of education, and himself "intent on making music his career.

　Blunt left the army in 2002 to become a full-time musician ("My dad was nervous, because I was leaving a steady job". He went to California in September, 2003, to record his album, and discovered that being a slightly27)scruffy English boy in Los Angeles could be very pleasant. Staying at the home of an actress, he spent his days recording with Rothrock, and his nights researching LA's club scene. "With my naive background, it was like stepping into a devil's28)cauldron,"he says.

　He won't explain what most of his songs are about, though he does admit that the29)deceptively30)bubbly "So Long, Jimmy"was31)inspired by32)Messrs Hendrix and Morrison. As for the rest, he says only, "You can33)get away with murder in a song."

　一位青春渐逝的摇滚明星曾经说过他最害怕的事情，从音乐的角度讲，是歌曲创作灵感日渐枯竭。然而这个问题却似乎从未困扰过詹姆斯?布朗特。可以毫不夸张地说，他的生活经历可以为一打专辑提供足够的素材，剩下的则足以作为几部电影的剧本。这是一位截然不同的作曲歌手。

　　以他的首张专辑《不安于室》的结尾歌曲《没有勇气》为例：这首歌是詹姆斯1999年在科索沃谱写的，当时他是英国军队中的一名侦察军官。在普里什蒂纳巡逻期间，他把吉他挂在坦克外。而在没有战火的时候，他就将22岁的自己作为一名维和官员在十年来最为血腥的内战结束之后的生活谱写成文。当他在夜半的静谧中写歌和唱歌时，部队中的其他军人让他安静下来。但他没有安静下来。他神情漠然地说：“《没有勇气》是我在科索沃时唯一写完的歌曲。我躺在坦克旁的睡袋中谱写这首歌，脚上还套着靴子。你必须穿着靴子睡觉。这首歌颇具宿命论色彩。专辑里的其它歌曲都颇具宿命论色彩。”

　让人备感惊异的地方在于像布朗特家这样的军人家庭―他父亲是刚刚退役的职业陆军上校―居然诞生了詹姆斯这样的人物。正如他所说的，他所接受的教育非常传统，现在几乎不复存在：他出生在汉普郡的军队医院，7岁被送进寄宿学校，数理化成绩突出，16岁获得飞行员执照，入读布里斯托尔大学并且表现优异，之后，“由于我爸爸强行指派”，他入了伍。最后他位居上校，并且是第一个带领3万人的维和部队前往普里什蒂纳的英国军官。

　　然而音乐却始终是他的挚爱。14岁那年，他谱写了第一首歌曲。学校的舍监人员很不喜欢他，因为他们知道深夜里飘荡在走廊间的音乐总是来自他的房间。他的年轻岁月是在与老师们的对战中度过的―后者希望对他灌输某些教育，而他自己却希望以音乐为职业。

　　2002年，布朗特离开军队，成为全职音乐家（“我爸爸为我担心，因为我放弃了一份稳定的工作”）。2003年9月，他到加利福尼亚州录制自己的专辑，发现在洛杉矶市里当一个有点脏兮兮的英国男孩是件挺愉快的事。他呆在一个女演员的家中，白天和罗思罗克一起录歌，夜里则流连于洛杉矶的俱乐部中。他说：“由于我之前阅历简单，这样的生活感觉就像一脚踏进了魔鬼的大锅炉中。”

　他不会解释他的大部分歌曲讲述的是什么，虽然他的确承认如梦如幻的《再见，吉米》的创作灵感得自亨德利克斯和莫里森两位先生。至于其它歌曲，他只是说：“你可以在歌曲中逍遥法外。”