PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Hank Williams

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Hank Williams

By Paul Thompson

BROADCAST: December 22, 2002
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
PEOPLE IN AMERICA --a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(THEME)
Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United¹ States. I'm

Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams.
((TAPE CUT One: Hank Williams' demo record)
)
VOICE TWO:

 

That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording²
companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years
later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the
music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long
after his death.

VOICE ONE:

Hank Williams was born in Nineteen Twenty-Three on a small farm near Mount³

Olive⁴, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the
Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured⁵ in World War One. He spent many
years in a hospital when Hank was a boy.

The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight
years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing
in his life.

VOICE TWO:

By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances
and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known⁶ as "Hank Williams and his Drifting⁷
Cowboys⁸."

For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in Nineteen Forty-
Nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues⁹."

((TAPE CUT Two: "Lovesick Blues"))

Hank WIlliams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the 'Grand¹⁰ Ol Opry' house in
Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six
times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star.

VOICE ONE:

Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the
songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular


styles. Either way, the songs will always be his.
Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best.
When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him.

Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your
Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing
somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.

((TAPE CUT Three: "Your Cheatin' Heart"))

"Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early Nineteen-Fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers
and groups in almost every style of popular music.
VOICE TWO:
Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life

into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question.
Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many
of his songs seemed to ask, 'Why can't we make this marriage work?' Many people knew that when Hank sang

this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems
felt that Hank was singing about them, too.
((TAPE CUT Three: "Cold Cold Heart")
)
VOICE ONE:
Hank Williams drank too much alcohol¹¹. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional¹²

strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life.

Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame.
But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems.
Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through

the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses
his feelings of loneliness.
((TAPE CUT Four: "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry")
)

VOICE TWO:
When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most
Americans. It was the music of the poor farming¹³ areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-
life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music.

Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous
recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He
had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times.

Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, Nineteen-Fifty-Three. He was twenty-
nine years old.
((TAPE CUT Five: "Your Cheatin' Heart"/Count Basie & orchestra)
)

VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
Your narrators¹⁴ were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson.


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1 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

4 olive   

n.橄榄，橄榄树，橄榄色；adj.黄绿色的，黄褐色的，橄榄色的

参考例句：

• Have you eaten a kind of fruit called olive?你吃过橄榄这种水果吗？
• She likes olive because It'symbolizes peace.她喜欢橄榄色因为它象征着和平。

5 injured   

adj.受伤的

参考例句：

• Our best defender is injured and won't be able to play today.我们最佳的防守员受伤了，今天不能参加比赛。
• The injured men have been dug out of the snow.受伤人员从雪中被挖了出来。

6 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

7 drifting   

a.弥漫的

参考例句：

• Some people enjoy that kind of life, drifting from pillar to post. 有些人喜欢这种生活，到处漂泊游荡。
• The ship was found after drifting on the ocean for six months. 那条船在海上漂流了6个月后找到了。

8 cowboys   

n.牧牛工( cowboy的名词复数 )；牛仔；冒失鬼；（尤指无能的）缺德的商人

参考例句：

• children playing a game of cowboys and Indians 玩美国西部牛仔与印第安人游戏的孩子们
• There are too many cowboys in the business these days. 近来商界中，瞎吵胡闹的家伙太多。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

10 grand   

adj.豪华的，宏伟的，壮丽的，主要的，重大的；n.(美俚)一千美元

参考例句：

• The pianist played several pieces of music on a grand piano.钢琴家在一架大钢琴上弹了几首乐曲。
• Come on,I'll give you the grand tour of the backyard.跟我来，我带你去后院来一次盛大的旅游。

11 alcohol   

n.酒精，乙醇；含酒精的饮料

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors.法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。
• The alcohol is industrial.这些酒精是供工业用的。

12 emotional   

adj.令人动情的；易动感情的；感情(上)的

参考例句：

• Emotional people don't stop to calculate.感情容易冲动的人做事往往不加考虑。
• This is an emotional scene in the play.这是剧中动人的一幕。

13 farming   

n.农事；耕作

参考例句：

• He lives by farming.他靠务农过活。
• He is farming in Africa.他在非洲经营农场。

14 narrators   

（故事的）讲述者，（戏剧、电影等的）解说员( narrator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The narrators have a mordant contempt for everyone and everything, including themselves. 叙述者们都尖酸刻薄地蔑视一切人和事，包括他们自己。
• Germany Pavilion's virtual narrators Jens and Yan Yan will guide visitors to tour the pavilion. 德国馆的虚拟解说员“严思”和“燕燕”将会带领游客参观展馆。