WISE GUY世事洞明的智者
娓娓動聽Randy Newman全新專輯《Dark Matter》證明他仍保持睿智與溫情。撰文： Tim Pritchard Randy Newman proves that he’s lost none of his wit or warmth on Dark Matter. By TIM PRITCHARD
WHAT DO DUSTY Springfield, Judy Collins, Nina Simone, Etta James, Joe Cocker and, er, Snoop Dogg all have in common?
They’ve all recorded versions of songs written by Randy Newman. And while the soundtracks he wrote for Pixar animated films like Toy Story 3 and Monsters Inc.
are very sweet (and Oscar-winning), Newman’s best work has always been in the 10 albums he’s released as a solo artist since the late 1960s.
Dark Matter, his 11th studio album – and his first new material in nine years – returns to the social satire of previous work, allowing him to exercise his wit and warmth, and take aim at everything from global warming and identity theft to presidents past and present.
Anyone who’s heard his 1977 hit Short People, a wonderfully catchy satire of bigotry and prejudice, will be in familiar territory on Dark Matter. The Great Debate
kicks things off with an eight-minute tour de force, pitting science against religion to look for ‘answers to complicated questions’, he sings, set to gospel choirs and an orchestral backing. Brothers takes the gravity of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs invasion and turns it into a comedic spectacle through an imagined conversation between brothers Bobby and John F Kennedy.
Songs such as Putin, a tune sending up the Russian president’s macho image, put their targets directly in their sights. On Sonny Boy, Newman steps into the shoes of real-life bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson, who died in 1948 but subsequently had his identity and songs stolen by another musician.
But slower ballads like She Chose Me, Wandering Boy and Lost Without You, a sketch about a man getting his kids together to say goodbye to their dying mother, prove that the 73-year- old still knows how to open up that softer side of humanity, which his serial collaborator Pixar loves to tap into.
試想想Dusty Springfield、Judy Collins、Nina Simone、Etta James、Joe Cocker，還有Snoop Dogg等歌手之間，有何共通點？
答案是他們全部都唱過由Randy Newman寫的歌曲。他曾為彼思動畫出品的電影如《反斗奇兵3》和《怪獸公司》等配樂，不但悅耳動聽，更獲得奧斯卡金像獎。但說到他的最佳作品，還是要數他自1960年代末以來，以個人身份推出的十張大碟中的歌曲。
《Dark Matter》是他的第11張錄音室專輯，也是九年來首次推出的新作。大碟回歸前作的路線，對社會問題作出諷諭之際，同時流露睿智和溫情，內容由全球氣候暖化問題、身分盜竊到惡搞已卸任和現任的總統等，題材廣泛。
若有聽過他在 1977 年推出的大熱歌曲〈Short People〉的話，必定對《Dark Matter》中嘲諷偏執盲從的心態不感到陌生。專輯打頭陣的，是八分鐘長的精心傑作〈The Great Debate〉，以福音合唱團與管弦樂作伴奏，拿科學與宗教來互相辯論，如歌詞所說，藉此尋找「複雜問題的答案」。而〈Brothers〉以風趣手法來處理沉重的話題，透過羅拔與約翰甘迺迪兩兄弟間的虛構對話，妙語連珠地將古巴導彈危機和豬灣事件唱出來。
至於〈Putin〉則是將俄羅斯總統的大男人形象惡搞一番，對譏諷的對象大膽地來個當頭棒喝。而在〈Sonny Boy〉中， Newman 把自己化身成為 Sonny Boy Williamson，這位藍調歌手於1948 年逝世 後，其身份和歌曲被另一位音樂人盜用。
至於其他慢板情歌如〈She Chose Me〉、〈Wandering Boy〉以及訴說一位父親與孩子們一起向即將離世的母親道別的〈Lost Without You〉，則證明了這位73歲的音樂人仍然擅長展現人性柔情的一面，這也是跟他合作多年的彼思對他情有獨鍾的原因。