天鹅绒的早晨，谜一样的早晨：老歌Some Velvet Morning

这首歌出自Lee Hazlewood之手，他几乎制作了所有Nancy Sinatra的歌，偶尔还与她合作二重唱作品。Lee Hazlewood低沉的嗓音，迷人的才华，无疑给这首歌又增添了韵味。《Some Velvet Morning》就如它的歌名，是首充满梦幻意味又让人不知它到底在说些什么的曲子。

There's a glissando of strings, like waves breaking on a shore, then a man's voice, rich and dark, intones the most enigmatic opening lines in pop history：“Some velvet morning when I'm straight/I'm gonna open up your gate/And maybe tell you 'bout Phaedra/And how she gave me life/And how she made it end/Some velvet morning when I'm straight.”

首先有一个琴弦的滑奏，仿佛是波浪冲击着海岸。接下来是一个男人的声音，深厚而低沉，吟咏着流行音乐史上最神秘的歌曲开头：“Some velvet morning when I'm straight/I'm gonna open up your gate/And maybe tell you 'bout Phaedra/And how she gave me life/And how she made it end/Some velvet morning when I'm straight.”

In response, a woman's voice, light as a summer's breeze, chants an invocation：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

一个女子的声音回应着，轻如夏日的微风，唱着祈祷词：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

Lee Hazlewood

Photo Credit：The official website of singer, songwriter and producer Barton Lee Hazlewood

The year is 1967, the setting is Hollywood.The bass voice belongs to writer/producer Lee Hazlewood, the soprano to his protégée, Nancy Sinatra.The legend they have just spun in vinyl, part rugged country, part fey folk, cloaked in psychedelia by Billy Strange's haunting orchestration, will echo down the years, the puzzle of its lyrics and otherworldly beauty of its sound offering seemingly endless interpretations.

那是1967年，所在地是好莱坞。男低音是歌曲作家、制作人Lee Hazlewood，女高音是他的女门徒，Nancy Sinatra。他们刚刚完成的黑胶唱片创造了传奇，其中部分是起伏的乡村音乐，部分是神秘的民间音乐，隐匿在Billy Strange管弦乐的迷幻感中，久久回荡，歌曲与年代呼应。歌词的神秘色彩和声音的超尘脱俗给人们更多解读的空间。

It first appeared on the album of Nancy Sinatra's TV special Movin'With Nancy, was then released as a single and finally placed in its most majestic setting, the 1968 Reprise LP Nancy & Lee.It crystallises a moment between the optimism of the Summer of Love and the darkness on the desert horizon, manifested in rogue hippy Charles Manson.Not for nothing was it voted the best duet of all time by British music critics in 2003.

在Nancy Sinatra的电视特辑专辑《Movin' With Nancy》中，这首歌首次面世。接下来，这首歌作为单曲发行；并最终在1968年具有纪念性的重奏唱片《Nancy & Lee》中发布。这首歌曲描述了一个中间状态——爱之夏（嬉皮士运动）主张的乐观与以流氓嬉皮士Charles Manson为代表的蛮荒的阴暗之间，以Charles Manson暴戾的嬉皮风展现出来。2003年这首歌被英国音乐评论家评为最佳二重唱，实至名归。

Some Velvet Morning

Barton Lee Hazlewood was born in Oklahoma in 1929, the son of an itinerant oilman, whose wanderings across the south imbued his son with a taste for the cowboy lifestyle and its music.Having served his country in Korea, Lee began working as a songwriter and producer for rockabillies Sanford Clark and Duane Eddy in 1956, hitting upon the novel idea of recording the latter's twanging guitar inside a grain silo.

Barton Lee Hazlewood 1929年生于俄克拉荷马州，他的爸爸是一个流动的石油散工，常年漂在南部。Lee受此影响，喜欢上牛仔的生活方式和音乐。韩国服完兵役归来后，1956年，他开始成为作曲家、制作人，为乡村摇滚乐人Sanford Clark和Duane Eddy制作音乐。Lee偶然想出了一个新点子，在谷仓中为Duane Eddy录制吉他表演。

In 1965, after bonding with Dean Martin over the song “Houston” and a mutual love of whiskey, Lee was asked by Frank Sinatra to come to the rescue of his daughter's career.Hazlewood duly delivered the smash “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'”, having issued his ingénue with the instructions：“You can't sing like Nancy Nice Lady any more.You have to sing for the truckers.” Thus recast, Nancy staked her claim to pop immortality and would record another album with the man she described as “part Henry Higgins and part Sigmund Freud”, Nancy & Lee Again in 1971.

1965年，Lee与Dean Martin由于共同的爱好—威士忌结缘，并合作了歌曲《Houston》。在此之后，他收到Frank Sinatra的邀请来帮助他女儿的事业。Hazlewood给这位天真少女做出了如下指导：“你不能再像个害羞小姑娘一样唱歌了，Nancy。你得唱给卡车司机。”指导之后，他适时地推出了走红歌曲《These Boots Are Made For Walkin'》。做出改变之后，Nancy开始坚持流行歌曲，并于1971年，与她描述为“Henry Higgins和Sigmund Freud结合体”的男人共同录制了另一张专辑《Nancy & Lee Again》

Her singing on “Some Velvet Morning”, however, is more the voice of an elemental, heightened by the name Phaedra—in mythology, the treacherous wife of Theseus, whose unrequited love for Hippolytus results in his watery death at the hands of Poseidon.Many of Hazlewood's songs, including Nancy & Lee's “Summer Wine”, involve sprite-like beings casting spells on cowboys that result in the loss of senses and spurs, and he based the logo of his record company LHI （Lee Hazlewood Industries） on a classical Greek profile.

她在《Some Velvet Morning》中的演唱则更像是一个四元素小精灵的声音，歌中Phaedra这个女人名字更添神秘色彩。Phaedra，在神话中，是特修斯奸诈的妻子，她一直单恋着希波吕托斯，却不幸导致他死于海神波塞冬之手。Hazlewood的许多歌曲，包括《Nancy & Lee》中的《Summer Wine》，都包含有小精灵这样的生物，它们对牛仔施法导致牛仔失去感知。他的音乐公司LHI（Lee Hazlewood Industries）的标志就是源于一个古希腊人侧像。

But, like the contrast between his vocals and hers, there is another, more carnal interpretation of what those lyrics might mean.Hazlewood's sudden move to Sweden in 1971, at the height of his popularity, added to his mystery—had Frank Sinatra really put out a hit on Lee because Lee and Nancy had grown too close, or was Hazlewood just avoiding the taxman?

但是，正如他与她声音的不同，歌词的意思还有另外一层世俗的解读。1971年，在声名鼎盛之时，Hazlewood突然搬去瑞典，使他变得更加神秘。难道是因为Lee和Nancy走得太近，Frank Sinatra真的试图暗杀Lee？还是Hazlewood只是企图避税？

Nancy Sinatra

This ambiguity has drawn many subsequent artists to their retellings of the myth.Lydia Lunch and Rowland S Howard made the perfect Gothic coupling on their 1982 single.Bobby Gillespie teamed up with Kate Moss to record a version for Primal Scream's 2002 album Evil Heat, recently re-released on Ace Records' Hazlewood covers compilation, Son-of-a-Gun.Shoegazers Slowdive and proto-grungers Thin White Rope have also taken cracks at the enigma.But most poignant is the final version Lee recorded before his death from cancer in 2007.On his 2005 swansong LP Cake or Death, he duets it with his grand-daughter…Phaedra is her name.

这层扑朔迷离引得随后许多艺术家重新解读这个谜。Lydia Lunch 和Rowland S Howard在1982年的单曲中组成了完美的哥特风格组合。Bobby Gillespie与Kate Moss共同录制了一个版本，发行在2002年Primal Scream组合的专辑《Evil Heat》中，该版本在近期Ace Records公司发行的Hazlewood翻唱汇编专辑《Son-of-a-Gun》之中再次发行。迷幻音乐派Slowdive乐队以及邋遢摇滚组合Thin White Rope都触及过这个谜团。最深刻的版本则是Lee在2007年死于癌症前夕录制的最后一版。在他2005年发布的告别演出唱片《Cake or Death》中，他与孙女共同演唱，完成了二重唱。他孙女的名字就叫Phaedra。

Some Velvet Morning

一个丝绒的早晨

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers growing on a hill

Dragonflies and daffodils

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Phaedra is my name

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers are the things we grow

Secrets are the things we know

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Phaedra is my name

Some velvet morning when I'm straight

I'm gonna open up your gate

Flowers are the things we grow

Secrets are the things we know

Learn from us very much

Look at us but do not touch

Look at us but do not touch

Look at us but do not touch

词汇总结

glissando[glɪˈsændəʊ]

n.滑奏法，滑奏部

There's a glissando of strings, like waves breaking on a shore.

首先有一个琴弦的滑奏，仿佛是波浪冲击着海岸。

invocation[ˌɪnvəˈkeɪʃn]

n.祈祷;乞求;乞灵;乞求神助

In response, a woman's voice, light as a summer's breeze, chants an invocation：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

一个女子的声音回应着，轻如夏日的微风，唱着祈祷词：“Flowers growing on a hill, dragonflies and daffodils/ Learn from us very much, look at us but do not touch/Phaedra is my name …”

bass[beɪs]

n低音歌唱家，低音乐器;[鱼]欧洲鲈鱼;[植]椴树，椴属树木，美洲椴木

adj.低音的

The bass voice belongs to writer/producer Lee Hazlewood, the soprano to his protégée, Nancy Sinatra.

男低音是歌曲作家、制作人Lee Hazlewood，女高音是他的女门徒，Nancy Sinatra。

treacherous[ˈtretʃərəs]

adj.奸诈的;骗人的;不忠的;不可信的

adv.背信弃义地

n.背信弃义，背叛

Her singing on “Some Velvet Morning”, however, is more the voice of an elemental, heightened by the name Phaedra—in mythology, the treacherous wife of Theseus, whose unrequited love for Hippolytus results in his watery death at the hands of Poseidon.

她在《Some Velvet Morning》中的演唱则更像是一个四元素小精灵的声音，歌中Phaedra这个女人名字更添神秘色彩。Phaedra，在神话中，是特修斯奸诈的妻子，她一直单恋着希波吕托斯，却不幸导致他死于海神波塞冬之手。