作为一个局外人，你眼里的美国音乐有着怎样的文化内涵呢?你在这些令人叹为观止的音乐中发现了些什么呢?能跟我讲讲吗?

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

我第一次接触美国音乐是通过德国的军队广播风。

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

小理查德在某种意义上是我接触到的第一位歌手——他给人的感觉不只是声调优美。

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

当时我一个字都没听懂，但它的节奏，它带喉音的感情奔放的嗓音，

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

还有重重的钢琴声和萨克斯管的声音深深的打动了我。

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

那里面有种东西，让我脊椎发冷，起鸡皮疙瘩。

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.

我开始沉迷于摇滚，不管在那里，一找到就听个没完，不过在五十年代中后期的德国，这种东西还是比较少的。

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

后来我到了加拿大念高中并学讲英语，

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

有段时间广播一直陪伴着我，

I was like a kid in a candy store.

我就像个进了糖果店的小孩。

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个夏天，一个人也不认识，

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

没有朋友，也无处可去，我就听广播。我听各种各样的广播：乡村音乐，来自水牛城的R&B，

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

礼拜天早上的黑人教堂音乐(同样来自一百英里外的水牛城——挺远的一段路呢)。

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

加拿大明显不同于德国，尽管它跟美国也不相像。

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时光。我喜欢加拿大，对加拿大人也颇有好感，很愿意去那儿)，再来到美国，

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，然后到加利福尼亚——我在那儿过了二十年。但是我发现我儿时在德国的那些景象，我在德国和加拿大看的那些摇滚影片，

(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这些东西带给我的想象，不大可能在这里找得到了。那些影片，正如好莱坞的许多影片一样，多少有点扭曲了摇滚的本来面目。

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.

当我们在Steppenwolf时，当我们周游各州时，我才开始接触到真实的或者说地理意义上的美国，接触到那些不同的文化团体，接触到一些寻根音乐的发源地——那些音乐的各种组合创造成摇滚。

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

这也是我在几年前搬到纳什维尔的原因之一。

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,

以纳什维尔为圆心，以500英里为半径画一个圈，这个圈覆盖了许多风格各异的地区，

(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，新奥尔良，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.

那里有蓝调、乡村音乐和其它各种类型的音乐。我至今仍喜欢演奏的音乐就是由这些音乐一砖一瓦般地组合起来的。

I feel very much at home here.

我在这儿就像在家里一样。

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

最初，有很多事让我这个初来乍到的异乡人眩晕。

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

我在加拿大就开始关注的民权运动就一直让我很是迷惑。

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

我缺乏对于美国历史的认识，所以很难理解在下层辛苦劳作着的那些人们。

With time and my interest in history per se,

就我对历史的兴趣而言，

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

我一直是，并且至今仍然是美国文化与历史的业余学习者。

I find it a fascinating and endless subject.

我感觉这是一门令人着迷的永无止境的学问。