美国国家公共电台 NPR One-Hit Wonders / Second Best Songs: Harvey Danger And 'Flagp

 

NOEL KING, HOST:

The band Harvey Danger hit it big with this song.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLAGPOLE SITTA")

HARVEY DANGER: (Singing) I'm not sick, but I'm not well. And I'm so hot 'cause I'm in hell.

KING: That is "Flagpole Sitta." It was all over rock radio in the late '90s, but the band never reached that sort of mainstream¹ success again. Stephen Thompson of NPR Music thinks we are missing out by not knowing more about Harvey Danger. They're his pick for our series One-Hit Wonders/Second-Best Songs.

STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE²: "Flagpole Sitta" made it onto a compilation³ of jock jams for crowds to pump their fists to. And it's just so funny. Like, that's not really what Harvey Danger was all about. Harvey Danger was much more about kind of wordplay and emotion. And the fact that they're big hit is this (vocalizing) is kind of ironic⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLAGPOLE SITTA")

HARVEY DANGER: (Singing) Paranoia⁵, paranoia, everybody's coming to get me.

THOMPSON: I just started scribbling⁶ down notes about song after song after song. Harvey Danger's final song - they broke up in 2009 - is called "The Show Must Not Go On." And it's about divorce and kind of the importance of a well-timed ending. There's a song called "Pike St./Park Slope," which is about never really finding what you're looking for. There's a song called "Carlotta Valdez," which is basically the plot of "Vertigo⁷." And I've just listed a bunch of songs and not even gotten to the one that jumps out the most to me as one that I wish kind of could have been maybe Harvey Danger's biggest hit, a song called "Happiness Writes White."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPINESS WRITES WHITE")

HARVEY DANGER: (Singing) Ariella, 7:30, I don't want to get up yet. Listen to the morning music, cursing the alarm you set. As you know...

THOMPSON: So "Happiness Writes White" is just the songwriter's dilemma⁸. It's about, you know, being in love with someone and you try to write a song about that experience, but your love feels so pure and so uncomplicated that it's hard to find a way into writing a song about it. And that's a - even if you're not a songwriter, that's a really relatable way to think about romance, kind of like there's this love at the center of your life and it's the one thing that doesn't make you feel like a screw up (laughter). And then how do you write a song about that? And it is at its heart a wonderfully emotional and rich just celebration of this love.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPINESS WRITES WHITE")

HARVEY DANGER: (Singing) When I consider what you mean to me, it's everything.

THOMPSON: I absolutely adore it. And I really hope that more people kind of go back and get lost in Harvey Danger's catalogue because there is a ton of great songs that go way beyond that one big hit.

KING: That's Stephen Thompson of NPR Music and the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. "Happiness Writes White" by Harvey Danger is his pick for our series One-Hit Wonders/Second-Best Songs.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAPPINESS WRITES WHITE")

HARVEY DANGER: (Singing) Curse the hours we have to keep. As you know...

1 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

2 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。

3 compilation   

n.编译，编辑

参考例句：

• One of the first steps taken was the compilation of a report.首先采取的步骤之一是写一份报告。
• The compilation of such diagrams,is of lasting value for astronomy.绘制这样的图对天文学有永恒的价值。

4 ironic   

adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的

参考例句：

• That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
• People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”，但他们是在挖苦我。

5 paranoia   

n.妄想狂，偏执狂；多疑症

参考例句：

• Her passion for cleanliness borders on paranoia.她的洁癖近乎偏执。
• The push for reform is also motivated by political paranoia.竞选的改革运动也受到政治偏执狂症的推动。

6 scribbling   

n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• Once the money got into the book, all that remained were some scribbling. 折子上的钱只是几个字！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• McMug loves scribbling. Mama then sent him to the Kindergarten. 麦唛很喜欢写字，妈妈看在眼里，就替他报读了幼稚园。 来自互联网

7 vertigo   

n.眩晕

参考例句：

• He had a dreadful attack of vertigo.他忽然头晕得厉害。
• If you have vertigo it seems as if the whole room is spinning round you.如果你头晕，就会觉得整个房间都旋转起来

8 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。