美国国家公共电台 NPR 'I'm Old As Dirt But I Can Still Sing': Sweet Pea Atkinson On 'Get What You Deserve'

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Now step into the way-back machine onto the dance floors of the 1980s.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WALK THE DINOSAUR¹")

SWEET PEA ATKINSON: (Singing) The sun was spitting fire. The sky was blue as ice. I felt a little tired, so I watched "Miami Vice²."

HARRY³ BOWENS: (Singing) I walked the dinosaur.

BLOCK: This campy hit by the group Was (Not Was) features the distinctive⁴ growl⁵ of Detroit singer Sweet Pea Atkinson, dapper on the video with his wide lapels and trademark⁶ fedora. It's been 35 years since Atkinson's last solo album. And now at age 72, he is back with an album of cover songs, funk blues⁷ and soul.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU LONLEY FOR ME")

ATKINSON: (Singing) I'm lonely, baby. Yeah, I'm lonely for you. Oh, yeah. Yes, I am.

BLOCK: The album was co-produced by Atkinson's former bandmate, Don Was. Sweet Pea Atkinson and Don Was join us now from NPR West. Thanks to you both for being with us.

DON WAS: Good to be here.

ATKINSON: Good morning.

BLOCK: And we're listening to the first song on the album, "Are You Lonely For Me Baby," a hit back in 1967 for Freddie Scott.

ATKINSON: I didn't like it at first.

WAS: I'll tell you something. We've had a fundamental disagreement for about 35, 40 years, Sweet Pea and I. I've always loved the way he was like a blues shouter, you know, like a Wilson Pickett. But Sweet Pea sees himself as a lover and a crooner.

BLOCK: Well, Sweet Pea, where are we hearing your crooning voice, which song?

ATKINSON: "Slow Down."

BLOCK: "Slow Down."

ATKINSON: (Singing) When I was a young boy, they tried to tell me that I was moving, moving way too fast.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SLOW DOWN")

ATKINSON: (Singing) But I knew everything about everything.

BLOCK: Don Was, think back to the first time you heard Sweet Pea Atkinson sing. When was it?

WAS: Oh, I'll never forget it, man. We were all in a recording⁸ studio in Detroit called The Sound Suite⁹ in the late '70s. And I was working on some records in one room. And Sweet Pea was rehearsing with his band High Energy next door. And they used to play the UAW Hall. I think he was still working on the assembly line at the time. And what I remember, it was about 4 o'clock in the morning. And I came out in the hallway which had, as you can imagine in Detroit in 1970 - it had orange shag carpeting on the floor and going up all the walls, right? So it was bright to come out of a dark control room. And there standing¹⁰ by the coffee machine in the midst of all this orange carpet...

ATKINSON: (Laughter).

WAS: ...Is Sweet Pea wearing like an orange suit. And everything matched from his hat to shoes to socks, all the same shade orange.

BLOCK: Oh, wow.

WAS: And it just looked like there was a fire in the studio.

(LAUGHTER)

WAS: And he was all charged up because they'd been rehearsing and singing. And he had a million stories. And then I went next door and heard the band play. And it was the voice I always wished I had. And the voice we wanted to write songs for.

BLOCK: You do a version on the album of a Temptations' hit from 1965, "Just Another Lonely Night."

ATKINSON: Paul Williams, it was.

BLOCK: Paul Williams, singer of The Temptations, yeah?

ATKINSON: He was my favorite.

BLOCK: Let's take a listen to a little bit of "Just Another Lonely Night."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUST ANOTHER LONELY NIGHT")

ATKINSON: (Singing) Darling, that's the reason why that even in a crowd, laughing out loud, I'm lonely.

BLOCK: Sweet Pea, were you always singing?

ATKINSON: Mm-hm.

BLOCK: Yeah.

ATKINSON: I had a group called the Exquisite¹² Singing Group. We used to work at Chrysler Corporation.

BLOCK: What were you making?

ATKINSON: Building rear ends for Chrysler cars.

BLOCK: Building rear ends for Chrysler cars - wow. And you'd be singing on the job or after work?

ATKINSON: Yeah. We'd rehearse it in the union hall, singing our butts¹³ off.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN HAVE WATERGATE")

ATKINSON: (Singing) You can have Watergate. Just give me some bucks¹⁴, and I'll be straight.

BLOCK: There's a song in here that is really sending us back to another time. It's called "You Can Have Watergate."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN HAVE WATERGATE")

ATKINSON: (Singing) You can have Watergate. Just give me some bucks, and I'll be straight.

BLOCK: And this is a song written by James Brown. And I'm guessing this was a whole lot of fun to record in the studio.

ATKINSON: It was.

(LAUGHTER)

BLOCK: Tell me about that, Sweet Pea.

ATKINSON: I never heard before. And man, the horn section - but I like the song. I should be a single somewhere.

BLOCK: Paint a picture of the scene in the studio, Don Was, when you're doing this.

WAS: We went into the oldest studio in L.A. It's called Vox Studios - been there since 1939. And there's no gear in there that that's newer than mid¹¹ '60s. And we really tried to do some of the things that gave those old soul records their character. For example, once we recorded all the basic tracks, we bounced them over to one mono-track because that's what they did in those days. And you pick up a certain character that's on those older records.

BLOCK: What kind of character?

WAS: I would say - the best analogy I could give you would be looking at high-res video and then looking at a great - a foreign movie from the '60s, black and white with a lot of grain and high contrast. And one's got mood and texture¹⁵ even though it's kind of a distorted picture. The high-res version's got clarity but maybe it's not as evocative. So we were going for, not just an arrangement that complemented¹⁶ Sweet Pea's vocals¹⁷, but we were trying to get a sonic texture that matched. And I think we did.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AM I GROOVING¹⁸ YOU")

UNIDENTFIED SINGERS: (Singing) You know, you make me want to shout. Baby, you really knock me out.

BLOCK: It's fun to think about how long you guys go back and how long you've been working together.

WAS: Oh, man, yes.

ATKINSON: He's like family to me.

BLOCK: Yeah.

WAS: Well, it's the same thing. Everyone can relate if you have old friends that you grew up with. As you get older, you can make other friends. But there's nothing like the people who you've known for 40, 50, 60 years, you know? We've been playing music together for over 40 years.

BLOCK: Let me ask you, Sweet Pea. You - we mentioned you haven't had a solo record for 35 years. But who's counting? You've been really busy all these years as a background singer, everybody from from Brian Wilson to Bonnie Raitt. What's it like for you now to be back in the limelight as a solo singer?

ATKINSON: It feels great. I'm ready to go to work.

BLOCK: Yeah.

ATKINSON: I'm old as dirt, but I can still sing.

WAS: (Laughter) He's as old as dirt (laughter).

ATKINSON: I'm as old as dirt, but I can still sing.

BLOCK: No question about that - well, Sweet Pea Atkinson and producer Don Was, thanks so much for talking to us. The new album is called "Get What You Deserve." Thanks again.

WAS: Thank you so much.

ATKINSON: Thank you, dear.

WAS: Thanks for having us.

ATKINSON: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GET WHAT YOU DESERVE")

SWEET PEA ATKINSON AND UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) You're gonna get, get what you deserve. You're gonna get, get what you deserve.

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

4 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

5 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

6 trademark   

n.商标；特征；vt.注册的…商标

参考例句：

• The trademark is registered on the book of the Patent Office.该商标已在专利局登记注册。
• The trademark of the pen was changed.这钢笔的商标改了。

7 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。

8 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。

9 suite   

n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员

参考例句：

• She has a suite of rooms in the hotel.她在那家旅馆有一套房间。
• That is a nice suite of furniture.那套家具很不错。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

12 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

13 butts   

笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。
• The house butts to a cemetery. 这所房子和墓地相连。

14 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 texture   

n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理

参考例句：

• We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
• Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。

16 complemented   

有补助物的，有余格的

参考例句：

• The excellent menu is complemented by a good wine list. 佳肴佐以美酒，可称完美无缺。
• In vitro analysis must be complemented by studies of the virus replication cycle in plants. 体外的分析必须辅之以植物体内病毒复制周期的研究。

17 vocals   

（乐曲中的）歌唱部份，声乐部份( vocal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Also look out for soaring vocals on The Right Man. 另外，也可留意一下《意中人》中的那高亢的唱腔。
• Lazy bass line, lazier drums, lush violins, great piano and incomparable vocals. 懒惰的低音线，较懒惰的鼓，饮小提琴，棒的钢琴和无比的声音。

18 grooving   

n.（轧辊）孔型设计v.沟( groove的现在分词 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏

参考例句：

• It can be used for cutting ceramics, grooving and beveling. 该切机具备切割、切槽、倒角等功能。 来自互联网
• Top-quality steel blades are used to guarantee smoothness grooving. 选任优质锯齿型开槽刀片，保证开槽光洁度。 来自互联网