美国国家公共电台 NPR The Lumineers Trace The Cycle Of Addiction: 'It's A Progressive Disease'

 

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HO HEY")

THE LUMINEERS: Hey.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The makers¹ of this song...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HO HEY")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) I belong with you. You belong with me, my sweetheart.

INSKEEP: ...A huge 2012, hit are back. The Lumineers try to shine light on a dark corner of American life. It's a project close to the lives of the musicians - addiction³.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SALT AND THE SEA")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) And they wrote all these prescriptions⁴. They wrote me off like a heel.

INSKEEP: The album is called "III," and in it, lyricist Wes Schultz examines a problem that is much in the news but hard to discuss.

WES SCHULTZ: It's a secret. It's the family secret, and it's a taboo⁵.

INSKEEP: Schultz wrote an album that tells a story in three acts. It runs from one song to the next, the tale of a family - not one person but a family - facing the same problem. That's the way drummer Jeremiah Fraites says we should think about it.

JEREMIAH FRAITES: With drug addiction or alcoholism, it really affects the individual, and then it has a sort of, like, you know, fallout effect. And much similar to the effects of, you know, a radiation bomb, over time and over years and years, it continually tends to affect people, loved ones.

INSKEEP: Both founding members of The Lumineers know this from experience. Schultz says he has a relative addicted⁶ now.

SCHULTZ: She's been in and out of rehab, jail and now has been homeless for about a year.

INSKEEP: And then there was Schultz's childhood friend in New Jersey⁷.

SCHULTZ: We were both very interested in drawing at the time, so we would sit in a room together, and we took art class together. We both liked these solitary⁸ activities, but we'd do them together.

INSKEEP: As a teenager, that childhood friend slowly came apart. Both band members experienced this because Wes' friend, Josh Fraites, was the brother of Wes' future bandmate, Jeremiah Fraites.

FRAITES: I remember my mom woke me up. She said, sweetheart, your brother got arrested last night. He was arrested in a car. It was around 2 in the morning. He had smoked PCP, and he was so high on drugs that he went inside this A&P, which was, like, a local supermarket out in the East Coast. And he drank Drano, which is just an unbelievable thing. I don't know what compelled him to do that, but he was in the ICU for a couple weeks with second and third-degree burns on his throat.

INSKEEP: Months later, Jeremiah Fraites' brother died after a heroin⁹ overdose.

FRAITES: You know, they talk about addiction. It's a progressive disease. It's not something where you just wake up and you're homeless and you're begging for crack or heroin or whatever the drug of choice is. It truly is a progressive disease.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEADER OF THE LANDSLIDE")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) You drove me wild, drove me insane, drank the whole bottle and forgot my name.

INSKEEP: In writing about this disease, The Lumineers track how it progresses through generations - three of them. The first includes an alcoholic¹⁰ woman named Gloria.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLORIA")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Gloria, I smell it on your breath, Gloria, booze and peppermint¹¹.

INSKEEP: In the lyrics¹², Wes Schultz imagines how Gloria's children see her and how she sees herself. You hear the differing perspectives in the music.

SCHULTZ: There's this almost cartoonish piano that interrupts the guitar and - or it's almost like the guitar hands it off to the piano. And I think within the reality of being closely involved with an addict², there is a cartoonish nature to life. Like, you'll get a call, and it's the most absurd thing you've ever heard. You can't even wrap your head around it. And there's a mania¹³. There's, like, a manic nature to it that is found in that piano that I really love. And so in the song, every time a guitar is the main focus, it's a daughter talking to her mother.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLORIA")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Gloria, you crawled up on your cross. Gloria, you made us sit and watch. Gloria, no one said enough is enough.

SCHULTZ: And then every time a piano is the main focus, it's the mother giving her side of the story back to the daughter. So it's sort of this conversation.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GLORIA")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Heaven help me now. Heaven, show the way. Get me on my own two feet. I would lie awake and pray you don't lie awake for me.

SCHULTZ: In a family, the mother occupies this really unique space. Gloria being that important and also being that dysfunctional is where the album kind of begins.

INSKEEP: This Lumineers album is also a set of videos, which show Gloria tipping a bottle to get the last drop, blacking out, leaving a baby perilously¹⁴ alone. In a later song, we meet her son, who's now grown up.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JIMMY SPARKS")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Jimmy Sparks went into bars and opened up his mouth, said some things to wounded men that they could not allow.

INSKEEP: Grown up Jimmy becomes a father with his own addictions¹⁵. He teaches his son a lesson when they drive past a person on the side of the road.

SCHULTZ: And his son asks, does that man need help? And he says, you never give a hitcher a ride.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JIMMY SPARKS")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Out on the road, they caught a stranger in the lights, his thumb was up and the son asked if the man was all right. Jim said, you never give a hitcher a ride 'cause it's us or them.

SCHULTZ: And then at the end of the song, Jimmy, the same character, is much older and so is his son. And his son is driving home from a graveyard¹⁶ shift he'd been working. And Jimmy's walking the opposite way, and he had been beat up by, you know, sort of the mob that he owes money, and he desperately¹⁷ needs help. It's cold at night, and it's snowing. And his son drives right by him, remembering his dad's advice and not really recognizing his father.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JIMMY SPARKS")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) 'Cause it's us or them.

INSKEEP: There's one level of that song in which the son has been taught the wrong lesson. He's been taught to only look out for himself. But listening to you talk just now, it sounds like you also thought about it from the son's perspective, that maybe he has to only look out for himself.

SCHULTZ: I agree. I think it has a couple layers to it where you're not really sure why he kept driving and if he'd even recognized him. If he did, what does that mean? I think for someone who's not around an addict very closely, it probably sounds very cold, but to anyone who has been, there are a lot of people who understand what that means, unfortunately.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IN THE CITY")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) And if the city skyscrapers¹⁸ rise over this island.

INSKEEP: The album "III" tells such a bleak¹⁹ story that The Lumineers face a dilemma²⁰ as they play it for concert crowds.

Maybe they'll have a beer. Maybe they will have had five beers. Who knows what they might have had out there in the audience. And they want to cheer and have fun, and you say, let me give you some songs about the horrors of addiction.

SCHULTZ: Well, I think you might be right, but you have to think about it another way. I mean, every show you ever go to, someone's talking about getting their heart broken, most likely. And there are people putting their arms around each other.

INSKEEP: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: Coming together for a concert or hearing someone say something that you only thought you felt, I think that's why it's positive, even though it's counterintuitive, that heartbreak music would be when people cheer the loudest.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IN THE CITY")

THE LUMINEERS: (Singing) Whoa, whoa, we can plan if we make it, whoa, whoa...

INSKEEP: Wes Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers.

1 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 addict   

v.使沉溺；使上瘾；n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人

参考例句：

• He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博，最终输掉了全部家产。
• He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。

3 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

4 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

5 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

6 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

7 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

8 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

9 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

10 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

11 peppermint   

n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖

参考例句：

• Peppermint oil is very good for regulating digestive disorders.薄荷油能很有效地调节消化系统失调。
• He sat down,popped in a peppermint and promptly choked to death.他坐下来，突然往嘴里放了一颗薄荷糖，当即被噎死。

12 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

13 mania   

n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好

参考例句：

• Football mania is sweeping the country.足球热正风靡全国。
• Collecting small items can easily become a mania.收藏零星物品往往容易变成一种癖好。

14 perilously   

adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地

参考例句：

• They were perilously close to the edge of the precipice. 他们离悬崖边很近，十分危险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It'seemed to me that we had come perilously close to failure already. 对我来说，好像失败和我只有一步之遥，岌岌可危。 来自互联网

15 addictions   

瘾( addiction的名词复数 )； 吸毒成瘾； 沉溺； 癖好

参考例句：

• He has removed the stigma of drug addictions. 他已经洗去吸毒的污点了。
• Intelligent people are good at using reason to control excessive addictions. 智慧的人善于用理性来控制过度的嗜欲。

16 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

17 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

18 skyscrapers   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
• On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。

19 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

20 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。