美国国家公共电台 NPR The Voyager Golden Record Finally Finds An Earthly Audience

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And finally today a reason to open your mail. Over the past few weeks, more than 10,000 people around the world have been receiving a special delivery. It's a box set of golden records modeled after the one sent into space aboard NASA's Voyager spacecraft 40 years ago. The new terrestrial set was funded through Kickstarter, and as NPR's Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi reports, it is the first time the Voyager's Golden Record is being released on vinyl to the public.

ALEXI HOROWITZ-GHAZI, BYLINE¹: The Golden Record is basically a 90-minute interstellar mixtape - a message from the people of Earth to any extraterrestrial passersby² who might stumble upon one of the two Voyager spaceships at some point over the next couple billion years.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALBUM "VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Hello from the children of planet Earth.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: In addition to greetings, the records also contain sounds from nature and photographs encoded into the record's grooves³, but mostly it was music.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S "MELANCHOLY⁴ BLUES⁵")

TIMOTHY FERRIS: We were gathering⁶ a representation of the music of the entire Earth. That's an incredible wealth of great stuff.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: That's Timothy Ferris, veteran science writer and music journalist and the original producer of the Voyager record.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S "MELANCHOLY BLUES")

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: In the late 1970s, Ferris was recruited by his friend, Carl Sagan, to help create the records and select the music.

FERRIS: I really had only two criteria⁷. One was let's cast a wide net. Let's try to get music from all over the planet. And secondly⁸, let's make a good record.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: That meant weeks of late-night listening sessions amidst towering stacks of vinyl LPs.

FERRIS: Yeah, we were almost physically⁹ drowning in records.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALBUM "VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD")

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: The final selection, which was engraved¹⁰ in copper¹¹ and plated and gold, included opera, rock and roll, blues, classical music and field recordings¹² selected by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALBUM "VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD")

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Timothy Ferris says that many on the Voyager team expected and hoped for the record to be commercially released after the spacecraft left Earth.

FERRIS: Carl Sagan many times tried to interest record labels in releasing Voyager. It never worked.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Because the music was owned by several different record labels, and except for a CD-ROM released in the early '90s, the record went largely unheard by the wider world.

DAVID PESCOVITZ: I was 7 years old when the Voyagers launched.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: David Pescovitz is a technologist and journalist.

PESCOVITZ: When you're 7 years old and you hear that a group of people created a phonograph record as a message for possible extraterrestrials, it sparks the imagination.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Pescovitz eventually set his sights on making the Golden Record available to an Earthly audience. He teamed up with Tim Daly, a record store manager at Amoeba Music in San Francisco, and approached his former graduate school professor - the very same Timothy Ferris who gave his blessing¹³ with one important caveat¹⁴.

FERRIS: You can't release a record without remastering it, and you can't remaster it without locating the master.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: That turned out to be a taller order than expected. The original records were mastered in a CBS studio, which was later acquired by Sony, and the master tapes descended¹⁵ into Sony's vaults¹⁶. After months of waiting, Pescovitz and Daly finally got word that one of Sony's archivists had found the master tapes. Pescovitz remembers the moment when they heard them for the first time.

PESCOVITZ: They hit play and the sounds of the Solomon Islands' panpipes and Bach and Beethoven and Chuck Berry and the blues washed over us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DARK WAS THE NIGHT")

BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON: (Vocalizing).

PESCOVITZ: It was very moving and sublime¹⁷ experience.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARIACHI VARGAS' "EL CASCABEL")

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: A sublime experience deserved a sublime reissue, says Amoeba Music's Tim Daly.

TIM DALY: I mean, if you do a golden record box set, you have to do it on, you know, gold vinyl.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: They put the project on Kickstarter and expected it mostly to sell to vinyl collectors, space nerds and audiophiles.

DALY: And, you know, frankly¹⁸ we just kind underestimated the appeal of this. The Internet was just on fire talking about this thing.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: They blew past their initial funding goal in two days, eventually raising more than $1.3 million, making it the most successful musical Kickstarter campaign ever.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALBUM "VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD")

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: Last week, Timothy Ferris got his box set in the mail, and he says that his friend, the late Carl Sagan, would be delighted.

FERRIS: I think this record exceeds Carl's - not only his expectations, but probably his highest hopes for a release of the Voyager record, and I'm glad that these folks were finally able to make it happen.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: David Pescovitz says he's just glad to return the Golden Record to the world that created it.

PESCOVITZ: As much as it was a gift from humanity to the cosmos¹⁹, it was really a gift to humanity as well. It's a reminder²⁰ of what we can accomplish when we're at our best.

HOROWITZ-GHAZI: At a moment of political division and media oversaturation, David Pescovitz and Tim Daly say they hope that their Golden Record can offer a chance for people to slow down for a moment, to gather around the turntable and bask²¹ in the crackly sounds of what Carl Sagan called this pale blue dot. Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, NPR News.

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 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

3 grooves   

n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏

参考例句：

• Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

5 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。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

8 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

10 engraved   

v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• The silver cup was engraved with his name. 银杯上刻有他的名字。
• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back. 此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

12 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

13 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

14 caveat   

n.警告； 防止误解的说明

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling.为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。
• As I have written before,that's quite a caveat.正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。

15 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

16 vaults   

n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴

参考例句：

• It was deposited in the vaults of a bank. 它存在一家银行的保险库里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 sublime   

adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的

参考例句：

• We should take some time to enjoy the sublime beauty of nature.我们应该花些时间去欣赏大自然的壮丽景象。
• Olympic games play as an important arena to exhibit the sublime idea.奥运会，就是展示此崇高理念的重要舞台。

18 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

19 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

20 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

21 bask   

vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于

参考例句：

• Turtles like to bask in the sun.海龟喜欢曝于阳光中。
• In winter afternoons,he likes to bask in the sun in his courtyard.冬日的午后，他喜欢坐在院子晒太阳。