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。當時一位名叫Neil Lomax的民俗學家正在研究記錄美國南部地區的風土人情,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哼唱的他們自己創作的歌曲。 這首名為"Po Lazarus"的歌曲,實際上更像是一段節奏鮮明,讓人難以忘懷的說唱旋律,它講述了一個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候,卡特可能絕對沒有想到這首歌能夠在這么多年后贏得2萬美元的版稅和6項葛萊美大獎。 塵封已久的歌曲 Neil Lomax錄制完這首歌后便將它放進了自己所在的基金會的檔案資料中。大約5年前,一位名叫T-Bone Burnett的音樂制作人在翻閱這些檔案資料的時候第一次聽到了這首歌。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,(Burnett使用了這首歌。) 在這張電影音樂專輯中,"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,直到一個月前,這部電影的所有制作人員沒有一個知道詹姆斯·卡特身在何處,甚至不清楚他是否尚在人世。 Burnett是Lomax基金會的一名編輯兼《薩拉索塔先驅論壇報》的記者,他通過搜索該報的數據庫,終于發現了有關卡特的記錄。 卡特曾經在密西西比州四次被判入獄,其中兩次是因為偷竊,一次是因為違誓(假釋期間犯新罪或逾期不返回監獄),還有一次是因為假釋期間非法私藏武器。 Burnett他們在芝加哥找到了卡特。卡特最后一次出獄后,作了一名運務員,自1967年起就一直住在芝加哥。 擊敗樂壇天王、天后 如今的卡特已經是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了樂壇天后馬莉亞·凱莉和天王邁克·杰克遜的最新專輯。 這個星期卡特拿到了他的第一次版稅支票后非常高興。他說:"這是最讓人高興的一件事了。" 盡管現在卡特已經不大出門了,但是上周,這張專輯的制作人還是說服了他和他的家人到洛杉磯出席了葛萊美頒獎典禮。 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歷驚人的相似。 在影片中,喬治·克魯尼扮演的囚犯帶領另外兩名囚犯越獄逃跑。在逃亡的路上,他們在一個小電臺里錄制了一首歌曲。誰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束的時候才得知他們這首歌獲得了成功。 由于有著相似的經歷,詹姆斯·卡特非常能夠體會到影片中人物的感受。如今成百萬的人都聽到了他的聲音,盡管這個時刻讓他等待了43年之久。 (中國日報網站譯) |