作為一個局外人，你眼里的美國音樂有著怎樣的文化內涵呢?你在這些令人嘆為觀止的音樂中發現了些什么呢?能跟我講講嗎?

My first exposure to American music of any kind was through the Armed Forces Radio Network in Germany.

我第一次接觸美國音樂是通過德國的軍隊廣播風。

Little Richard was the first one that connected with me in a manner that was beyond"this is a nice tune."

小理查德在某種意義上是我接觸到的第一位歌手——他給人的感覺不只是聲調優美。

This was one where I didn’t understand a word,yet the rhythm and that guttural,

當時我一個字都沒聽懂，但它的節奏，它帶喉音的感情奔放的嗓音，

primal,intense vocal performance,that pounding piano and buzzing saxophone.

還有重重的鋼琴聲和薩克斯管的聲音深深的打動了我。

There was just something about that that I just literally sent chills or goose bumps up and down my spine.

那里面有種東西，讓我脊椎發冷，起雞皮疙瘩。

I became addicted to listening to rock & roll wherever I could find it,which was quite limited in the mid to late 50’s in Germany.

我開始沉迷于搖滾，不管在那里，一找到就聽個沒完，不過在五十年代中后期的德國，這種東西還是比較少的。

When I then came to Canada during my high school years and learned to speak English,

后來我到了加拿大念高中并學講英語，

some of which I accomplished by listening to the radio all the time.

有段時間廣播一直陪伴著我，

I was like a kid in a candy store.

我就像個進了糖果店的小孩。

The radio dial,particularly my first summer in Canada when I knew no one,

尤其是我在加拿大的第一個夏天，一個人也不認識，

had no friends and really no place to go,I would listen to everything_country music,R & B from Buffalo.

沒有朋友，也無處可去，我就聽廣播。我聽各種各樣的廣播：鄉村音樂，來自水牛城的R&B，

Sunday morning black church service music also from Buffalo,100 miles away.It was still at a distance.

禮拜天早上的黑人教堂音樂(同樣來自一百英里外的水牛城——挺遠的一段路呢)。

While obviously Canada was nothing like Germany,nevertheless Canada wasn’t quite like the US either.

加拿大明顯不同于德國，盡管它跟美國也不相像。

So,after my first 5 years in Canada(which were very good years,I’m very fond of Canada and think very well of Canadians and enjoy visiting there)when I came to the States,

我在加拿大呆了五年(那是一段非常美好的時光。我喜歡加拿大，對加拿大人也頗有好感，很愿意去那兒)，再來到美國，

first to Buffalo and then to California(where I was later to spend 20 years of my life)much of what I had fantasized about as a child in Germany was not necessarily to be found there in the sense that the rock & roll movies in Germany and in Canada,

先是到水牛城，然后到加利福尼亞——我在那兒過了二十年。但是我發現我兒時在德國的那些景象，我在德國和加拿大看的那些搖滾影片，

(Don’t Knock The Rock and Alan Fried stuff)they were,as so much of Hollywood stuff is,somewhat distorting what it was really about.

像Don’t Knock The Rock和Alan Fried這些東西帶給我的想象，不大可能在這里找得到了。那些影片，正如好萊塢的許多影片一樣，多少有點扭曲了搖滾的本來面目。

It was only when we were in Steppenwolf and we were traveling through all the states that I started to absorb the realities or the geography and different cultural groups and regional territories that were the birth places f the roots music that in various combinations created rock & roll.

當我們在Steppenwolf時，當我們周游各州時，我才開始接觸到真實的或者說地理意義上的美國，接觸到那些不同的文化團體，接觸到一些尋根音樂的發源地——那些音樂的各種組合創造成搖滾。

That is one of the reasons that some years ago I moved to Nashville,TN.

這也是我在幾年前搬到納什維爾的原因之一。

Because you can draw a circle around Nashville(a 500 mile radius)and you will cover a lot of territory that in one form or another,

以納什維爾為圓心，以500英里為半徑畫一個圈，這個圈覆蓋了許多風格各異的地區，

(be it blue grass,Appalachian music,the Delta,Clarksdale,New Orleans,or what have you,Macon,GA and so on and forth).

(三角洲，新奧爾良，美肯，加蓬，等等。)

there is so much in the way of blues and country and various other types of music that were the building blocks of that music that I still to this day love to perform.

那里有藍調、鄉村音樂和其它各種類型的音樂。我至今仍喜歡演奏的音樂就是由這些音樂一磚一瓦般地組合起來的。

I feel very much at home here.

我在這兒就像在家里一樣。

There are many things that as a stranger initially threw me for a loop.

最初，有很多事讓我這個初來乍到的異鄉人眩暈。

The whole civil right movement that I observed primarily from Canada was something that puzzled me to no end.

我在加拿大就開始關注的民權運動就一直讓我很是迷惑。

I didn’t have the background in American history to comprehend many of the underlying demons that were at work there.

我缺乏對于美國歷史的認識，所以很難理解在下層辛苦勞作著的那些人們。

With time and my interest in history per se,

就我對歷史的興趣而言，

I have been and still remain to this day an amateur student of American culture and history.

我一直是，并且至今仍然是美國文化與歷史的業余學習者。

I find it a fascinating and endless subject.

我感覺這是一門令人著迷的永無止境的學問。