VOA慢速英语-THIS IS AMERICA - From Folk Music to Rock, Bob Dylan

The second of two programs about the artist and the changes in his life and music in a career still going strong after 40 years. Transcript¹ of radio broadcast:
15 June 2008

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has been performing for more than forty years. The sixty-seven year old musician and his band are currently² on tour in Europe. Last week on our program, we looked back at his rise as a folk singer in the early nineteen sixties.

VOICE ONE:

Nineteen sixty-five was a turning point -- the year he "went electric." It would anger many fans of his folk music, but gain new fans of rock and roll.

(MUSIC)
　

Bob Dylan at the Pawtucket Arts Festival in 2006

"Like a Rolling Stone" was on Bob Dylan's sixth album, "Highway 61 Revisited." The single reached number two on the Billboard³ music charts in July of nineteen sixty-five.

The album came at a time when he was exploring different kinds of music. This new record included blues⁴ and rock influences. He also had excellent supporting musicians, including the famous blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield.

VOICE TWO:

Nineteen sixty-five was also the year he got married to Sara Lownds. But the pressure of performing internationally and producing records was building up. Then, in July of nineteen sixty-six, something happened that seemed to change everything.

He spent months out of public life. He needed the time, he said, to recover from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, New York. Yet the events of that time have given writers and fans something to talk and debate about ever since.

During this period, he worked with some of the musicians he had traveled with that year. These musicians formed their own group, known simply as the Band. An album of Bob Dylan and the Band called the "Basement Tapes" was released⁵ in nineteen seventy-five.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

For several years, Bob Dylan did not make records as often as he had early in his career. Not only that, he began writing songs with a country music sound. In nineteen sixty-nine, he released the record "Nashville Skyline." It included the hit "Lay Lady Lay."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:
　

Bob Dylan plays the harmonica and acoustic6 guitar in 1963

The young Bob Dylan, with the power and poetry of his folk music, was often called the voice of his generation. Yet he did not appear at his generation's most famous music festival. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair took place in August of nineteen sixty-nine. By then, this "voice of a generation" had moved on.

Through the early seventies, Bob Dylan continued to experiment with his sound. He worked with many different musicians. Then in nineteen seventy-five, in Minneapolis, he made a record that many consider one of his best. "Blood on the Tracks" included this song, "Shelter From the Storm."

(MUSIC)

In nineteen seventy-six, Bob Dylan released "Desire." It become a number one record.

The year before, he had started touring with a new group of musicians. They called their tour the Rolling Thunder Revue. It included folk performers like Joan Baez and Ramblin' Jack⁷ Elliott. Singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell also joined the tour. So did Arlo Guthrie, the son of Woody Guthrie, the biggest musical influence on Bob Dylan's early career.

Poet Allan Ginsberg took part in a film about the tour. And playwright⁸ Sam Shepard traveled with the group, writing about what he saw. His observations were later published as "The Rolling Thunder Logbook."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Other changes were about to take place in Bob Dylan's life. In nineteen seventy-seven, he and his wife Sara divorced¹⁰. They had four children together and also raised a daughter from Sara's earlier marriage. (Their son Jakob Dylan, by the way, is a rock singer who put out a new album just last week.)

Two years later, in nineteen seventy-nine, Bob Dylan announced that he was a born-again Christian¹¹. The Jewish-born performer expressed his new religion in three records, starting with "Slow Train Coming." It won him a Grammy Award for best rock vocal¹² performance for "Gotta Serve Somebody."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
　

Bob Dylan plays his Fender Stratocaster guitar in London's Hyde Park in 1996

The nineteen eighties saw highs and lows for Bob Dylan. He and singer Carolyn Dennis secretly married in nineteen eighty-six and had a daughter. But that marriage also ended in divorce⁹, in nineteen ninety-two.

In "Chronicles," his autobiography¹³, Bob Dylan writes about a point during his touring when he lost feeling for his music. But he would find new reasons to perform and start what he calls his never-ending tour.

In nineteen eighty-eight, he was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The following year, he released the widely praised album "Oh Mercy."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The past twenty years of Bob Dylan's career have been just as notable¹⁵ as the first. In nineteen ninety-one, he received a lifetime achievement Grammy. Six years later, he received the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award.

That same year, nineteen ninety-seven, he suffered a life-threatening heart infection. He healed¹⁶ quickly, however, and was back touring within the year. In nineteen ninety-seven he also released the album "Time Out of Mind." It received three Grammys.

Then he won an Academy¹⁷ Award for best song for "Things Have Changed" in the two thousand movie "Wonder Boys."

(MUSIC)

His album "Love and Theft" was released, by chance, on September eleventh, two thousand one. Music critics praised it. But some people said the words were similar to the book "Confessions¹⁸ of a Yakuza" by Japanese writer Junichi Saga¹⁹.

VOICE ONE:

In two thousand six, at the age of sixty-five, Bob Dylan returned to the top of the music world. He had a number one record with "Modern Times."

Bob Dylan continues to tour, playing about one hundred shows a year. He is also writing the second part of his autobiography. The first part of "Chronicles" was published in two thousand four. It reached number two on the New York Times best-seller list. It showed that people are still hungry to know about an artist who took his own road and never looked back.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written and produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Barbara Klein. Part one of our Bob Dylan biography¹⁴ can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

3 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

4 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。

5 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

6 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

8 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

9 divorce   

n.离婚；分离；vi.离婚；vt.离婚；脱离

参考例句：

• Did he divorce his wife or did she divorce him?是他要和妻子离婚，还是妻子要和他离婚？
• None of us like the divorce of word and deed.我们都不喜欢言行不一。

10 divorced   

adj.离婚的；分开的；不相干的；脱离的v.与…离婚(divorce的过去式和过去分词)；分离；与某人离婚，判某人离婚

参考例句：

• Apparently they are getting divorced soon. 看样子，他们很快就要离婚。
• Many divorced men remarry and have second families. 许多离婚的男子再婚组成了新的家庭。

11 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

12 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

13 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

14 biography   

n.个人经历，传记

参考例句：

• He is now collecting material for a biography of Tao Yuanming.他正在为写陶渊明传记搜集材料。
• Boswell wrote a famous biography of Dr.White.鲍斯韦尔为怀特博士写过一本著名传记。

15 notable   

adj.值得注意的，著名的；n.名人，要人

参考例句：

• His achievement is very notable.他的成就是非常显著的。
• He wrote and published the essay under notable's name.他假托名人写文章发表。

16 healed   

v.（使）愈合( heal的过去式和过去分词 )；治愈；（使）结束；较容易忍受

参考例句：

• The surgeon healed the soldier's bullet wound in the leg. 医生治好了那位士兵腿部的枪伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The doctor applied an unguent to the wound,which speedily healed it. 医生给伤口涂了些油膏，伤口很快就愈合了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 academy   

n.(高等)专科院校；学术社团，协会，研究院

参考例句：

• This is an academy of music.这是一所音乐专科学院。
• I visited Chinese Academy of Sciences yesterday.我昨天去访问了中国科学院。

18 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

19 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。