美国国家公共电台 NPR A Radiant, Isolated Star: A New Documentary Tells Whitney Houston's Story

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Whitney Houston - so many of us felt the power and emotion in her beautiful voice. But she lived a turbulent life, and she died way too young. A new unauthorized documentary is opening in theaters today, and it will be on Showtime in a week. It is called "Whitney: Can I Be Me." Here's NPR TV critic Eric Deggans.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE¹: Who exactly was Whitney Houston?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU")

WHITNEY HOUSTON: (Singing) And I will always love you.

DEGGANS: Was she the radiant and beautiful pop princess with enduring hits like "I Will Always Love You"? Was she the down-to-earth one-time gospel singer from the hood² in Newark who couldn't believe the crowd at the 1989 Soul Train Awards booed her as a sellout?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HOUSTON: Sometimes it gets down to if you're not black enough for them, you know, or you're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.

DEGGANS: Or was she the unstable³ celebrity⁴ struggling with drug problems and an enabling husband let down by those closest to her and isolated⁵ by her fame? "Whitney: Can I Be Me" suggests this identity crisis helped contribute to the death of one of the best singers in pop music.

Houston's saxophonist, Kirk Whalum, summed it up in a quote which became the title of the film.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME")

KIRK WHALUM: Her favorite saying was - can I be me? In fact, she would say it so much that we had it sampled - c-c-c-c-can (ph) I be me? That was the conundrum⁶. Like, damn it, I have made all this money and made all these people happy, and I still can't be me.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

HOUSTON: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

DEGGANS: Directed by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal, the film shows Houston's career starting when pop music was more strictly⁷ segregated⁸. Arista Records head Clive Davis avoided material which sounded too close to R&B, in other words, too black. Former Arista marketing⁹ executive Kenneth Reynolds explains.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME")

KENNETH REYNOLDS: The company had this image in mind that they were going to create a pop icon¹⁰, an artist that was accepted by the masses, translating to the - white America. Her music was...

DEGGANS: But that facade¹¹ was threatened when rumors¹² surfaced about Houston's close ties to longtime friend and assistant Robyn Crawford. The film quotes a friend who says Houston was bisexual. Journalist Allison Samuels also spoke¹³ about it in the movie.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "WHITNEY: CAN I BE ME")

ALLISON SAMUELS: It wasn't cool to have a lesbian affair. You know, today - I always think, if she were a artist today, she'd be fine. Everything would be lovely. She probably would still be here. But back then, it was this tremendous emphasis on being the perfect girl.

DEGGANS: There were other stories. A family friend notes that she and Houston used drugs together as teenagers. A former bodyguard¹⁴ says he was fired when he tried to alert Houston's managers to rampant¹⁵ drug use by the singer and those around her in the mid-'90s. Another friend says Houston's husband, bad boy R&B singer Bobby Brown, wasn't faithful and intensified¹⁶ their use of substances. The film suggests that when Crawford left the singer's life after one too many arguments with Bobby Brown, Houston's drug use accelerated. She accidentally drowned in a hotel bathtub on February 11, 2012.

The biggest problem here - because the film is unauthorized by Houston's estate, Broomfield and Dolezal lack access to crucial sources. There's no original interviews with Clive Davis, Bobby Brown or Houston's mother, Cissy Houston. They appear in clips from other media outlets¹⁷. There's never-before-seen backstage footage from the singer's 1999 world tour and interviews with Crawford recorded then, but no recent footage.

Still, "Whitney: Can I Be Me" provides a compelling portrait of a supreme¹⁸ talent isolated by fame, dysfunctional relationships and a crushing drug habit, slowly diminished by some of the same qualities that originally made her a superstar. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU")

HOUSTON: (Singing) And I will always love you.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

3 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

4 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 conundrum   

n.谜语；难题

参考例句：

• Let me give you some history about a conundrum.让我给你们一些关于谜题的历史。
• Scientists had focused on two explanations to solve this conundrum.科学家已锁定两种解释来解开这个难题。

7 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

8 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

10 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

11 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

12 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 bodyguard   

n.护卫，保镖

参考例句：

• She has to have an armed bodyguard wherever she goes.她不管到哪儿都得有带武器的保镖跟从。
• The big guy standing at his side may be his bodyguard.站在他身旁的那个大个子可能是他的保镖。

15 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

16 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。