08 Dave Marsh评《Plastic Ono Band》

Dave Marsh（1950.03.01 - ），美国记者、乐评人，出版有各类著作二十余种，任摇滚名人堂（Rock and Roll Hall of Fame）评委会成员。

本文系Dave Marsh给John Lennon、Yoko Ono的专辑《Plastic Ono Band》所写的评论，原刊于《CREEM》（1971）。原文见：https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/john-lennon-iplastic-ono-band-iapple-yoko-ono-iplastic-ono-band-i-apple

BOTH OF THESE records are remarkable in some aspect, a sort of East-West five years after Butterfield and Allan Watts. Certainly, until this point, John and Yoko had not been among my favorite artists, most certainly not the mind-blowing couple they appear to be here.

两张唱片都在某些方面令人印象深刻，像是Butterfield和Allan Watts五年之后的又一场东-西呼应。当然，在此之前，John和Yoko还不在我最喜爱的艺人之列；更为当然地，还不是他们在这里成功扮演的，一对予人极深印象的情侣。

John's record, of course, has been righteously raved over ever since its release, justifiably. It's interesting and even enlightening to see a man working out his trauma on black plastic but more than that, it's totally enthralling to see that Lennon has once again unified, to some degree, his life and his music into a truly whole statement. I don't know how far the political implications of that will carry us, or carry John (which is the really cogent point), but they are none-the-less present in a perspective that is much more revelatory of the change in the Ono/Lennon fabric of perception than any in ours, I'm afraid. I'm unsure whether this record is going to be appreciated for what it is – a very, very political statement, even if on the most personal level. Certainly, it is as political as some that jazz artists have been making for the last ten years and in the same individual vein. (In other words, Archie Shepp pulled it off first, or rather Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus did.)

John的唱片，当然了，自发表以来就理所应当地好评如潮；这是无可非议的。在黑胶碟片中窥见一个男人治愈自身创伤的过程堪称有趣，甚至能予人启迪；但不止如此——再次看到Lennon于某种程度上将他的生活与音乐整合为一份真正完整的陈述，这是十分引人入胜的。我不清楚那些政治性隐喻会将我们或John带到多远的境地（John本人会去向何方，正是最能令人信服之处），但若不从我们自身出发、而以一种更能揭示Ono/Lennon这对伴侣在观念上的转变的角度来看，恐怕这些隐喻仍是确凿存在的。我不确定，这张唱片是否会因其本质而得到赞赏——一份政治性非常、非常强烈的陈述，哪怕是其最为个人的层面。当然，它与一些出自爵士艺人之手的唱片一样富有政治性，这些爵士艺人在过去十年里一直致力于此，也运用了同样富有个人风格的方式。（换言之，是Archie Shepp [1]打响了第一炮；或更准确地说，是Charlie Parker和Charles Mingus。）

[1] Archie Shepp，美国萨克斯演奏家，曾积极参与民权运动。

Unquestionably, Lennon comes from an elitist perspective on the entire matter. He might not interpret his situation in the political light at all (though, after reading the second part of the Rolling Stone interview, one can be pretty sure he doesn't deny it totally) but the fact remains that anyone that blatantly realistic cannot be involved with the traditional stance (Beatle-wise) of denying politics any place in his own personal universe.

毫无疑问，在整个问题上，Lennon是从一种精英主义的角度出发的。他或许完全不会从政治的角度来阐释自己的处境（虽然任何读过那篇《滚石》采访的第二段文字的人都能断定，他也没有完全否定这个角度），但事实仍是，任何如此极其追求现实的人，都不会卷入那种传统立场（也是披头士式的立场）：否认政治在他的个人世界里占有一席之地。

There are few individual statements here that aren't exciting, and there are also few that stand out. To be sure, the two most obvious are 'Working Class Hero' and 'God'. They are also the two most discussed and over-interpreted; one would really be farther ahead to deal with some of the other statements and leave these alone. On the other hand, the entire album has been over-worked to a vast degree, such that any individual assessment of the work must stand more in comparison to other interpretations than to the work itself. Almost.

此处的个别陈述并不令人兴奋，也有某些陈述脱颖而出。确切地说，最平平无奇的两份是《Working Class Hero》和《God》。它们同样是最受讨论、最为过度阐释的，听者最好抛下它们，走向更前方以便看看其他一些陈述。另一方面，整张专辑在很大程度上进行了过度加工，因此任何对该作品的评价都更应该站在与其他阐释作对比的角度上，而非仅仅立足作品自身。几乎如此。

Thus Yoko and her importance. Now, as far-out as John is becoming, Yoko has transcended him and she's done it with a back-beat. Yoko is the first rock scat singer. A major portion of her increased validity must be credited to the fact that she works on one cut ('Aos') with the Ornette Coleman group. Coupled with the fact that this cut was recorded several years ago, long before it became "hip" in the youth community to be involved with avant-jazz figures, one begins to get a real feeling that it is Yoko who was brought artistically downward by her Beatles' involvement rather than vice-versa.

正因如此，Yoko驾到，她的重要性也随之显现。现在，如John正去往的方向一样异乎寻常地，Yoko已经超越了他，而且是以基调强节奏（back-beat）的方式完成了超越。Yoko是第一位摇滚拟声（scat）歌手。她的存在愈发正当，这主要归功于那首曲目（《Aos》）是她与Ornette Coleman的乐队合作的事实。加上这首歌曲录制于数年之前，远早于其在与先锋爵士人物有来往的青年圈子中流行起来，你会开始真心认为，Yoko参与Beatles事务后，在艺术上被拖了后腿的其实是她，而非Beatles。

This is a brilliant work in several senses. The pain John Lennon measures so tenuously with his occasional yelp, is further developed and more primitive (thus more honest) on the Yoko sides. Her work on 'Why' is especially impressive. She uses her voice here much as John Coltrane used his horn; that is, in order to explore every possible nuance of the word-sound (chord) she scats about, using the word as a base for all but never quite saying it simply.

这是一件在几种意义上都很杰出的作品。被John Lennon用其偶然的尖叫以如此精确地测量的痛苦，在Yoko这边得到了更深远的发展，而且更显原始（因此也更显真诚）。她在《Why》中的工作特别令人印象深刻。在其中，她像John Coltrane吹号一样使用着她的声音；也即，为了探索她拟声的每个词-声（和弦）之间的细微差别，她将字词作为一切的基础，却从未只是简单地念出字词。

These are not lovely records and for those who still find Yoko appalling, it isn't going to sink in the first time around. Still, Yoko's record is unquestionably farther out and you have to be there along with her, let her take you along for the ride...you have to give it up, as they used to say, or the whole thing gets really impossibly horrid, and your own demons are conjured up and swirl around you like some Aleister Crowley nightmare. At best, she conjures the demons and shows you their powerlessness.

这些唱片都并不令人愉悦，而且对于那些仍觉得Yoko十分可怕的人来说，这作品在初次接触时是很难充分理解的。不过，Yoko的唱片毫无疑问地走得更远，你必须跟着她，让她带你走上旅途……你必须放弃，像他们曾经过去常说的那样，不然整件事情就会变得恐怖无比，你心中的恶魔被召唤而出、绕你盘旋，就像Aleister Crowley[2]式的噩梦。在最好的情况下，她将召出那些恶魔，并向你展示它们的无力。

[2] Aleister Crowley，英国神秘学者、术士，专事魔法研究和活动，被称为世上最邪恶的男人。

It is interesting that Yoko, too, has turned from her obviously Eastern approach of the past (even as John has left the nascently Oriental work of the Beatles) to a true return to the post-Western climate in which we presently exist. Certainly, in the sense that this is not an artificial reading or the quasi-humor of the paper bag, in the sense that this is the real torture of the soul, the music (or whatever appellation occurs as most suitable) is totally transcendant. But again, one can't really escape from the fact that it is totally relevant.

有趣的是，Yoko也从过去对东方思想的显然兴趣（即便此前John已经抛弃了the Beatles那些早期的东方作品），向我们正身处的后西方思潮实现了真正的回归。当然，这不是某种生造的理解或纸袋上的小幽默，而是真正的灵魂拷问，这音乐（或任何可能更合适的称呼）是完全超验的。而话说回来，你也无法否认，它也是完全切题的。

The very primitive factors that make Yoko so exciting are exactly the factors that make traditional rock and roll so energizing. And, at a time when rock values are being pandered and solipsized all over the planet, when the contention that rock is music that must be formalized and formulated to be apprehended is most powerfully in vogue, Yoko's work could not be more important. For those who can hear it (and I don't mean listen) it should serve as the final proof positive that great artificial constucts do not necessarily make great art; that rock and roll is not in any sense to be judged by the standards of any previous form (thereby pretty much negating the necessity of the Nice, Deep Purple, the New York Rock Ensemble, et. al.) and that rock and roll will stand, if we'll only get the fuck out of its way.

让Yoko如此令人兴奋的那些极其原始的要素，正是让传统摇滚乐如此振奋人心的要素。而且，在摇滚的价值观被全球迎合、被全球独尊的年代，在“摇滚乐必须正规化、必须被规训得容易理解”的论点正在风行的年代，Yoko的作品极显重要。对那些能够听懂它的人而言（我说的不是“听到”而已），它将作为一项终极铁证，证明伟大的人工建构并不必然产生伟大的艺术；证明在任何意义上，都不该以任何过往的形式去评判摇滚乐（由此在相当程度上否定了the Nice、Deep Purple、the New York Rock Ensemble等乐队的必需性）以及，摇滚乐将会长存，只要我们不去他妈的挡它的路。

Strange, then, that in the most male chauvinist medium ever devised that a woman should strike the killer blow to liberate it. Yoko Ono cannot be ignored any longer, on any grounds. And, I'm afraid, those who can't relate to her are going to find themselves relegated to the absolute back of the bus. This is the wave of the future and there is no denying it. Not that all music need be this un-defined, structurally, but that all music should be able to be. (And of course, to impose confines of structurelessness is to put yourself right back in the trap of structure – even structureless structure.) As Chairman Mao says, one must pick up the gun to put down the gun. Perhaps one must pick up the challenge in order to see that the challenge doesn't exist. And in the sense that Yoko Ono is an extremely challenging artist, she is also a very revolutionary performer. If she can deal with the situation on that level, we're in a very good shape indeed.

总之，奇怪的是，在最为男性沙文主义的音乐形式里，一个女人将可能送上足以解放这种形式的致命一击。人们再无机会或理由忽视Yoko Ono。而且，我恐怕那些不能理解她的人将发现，自己会遭贬到公交车的后排。这是未来的潮涌，无人可予否认。并非所有音乐都必须在结构上如此无法限定，但所有音乐都必须具有这样不被限定的潜能。（当然了，强加“无结构”这一限定的行为本身，正正将你扯回了结构的陷阱之中——甚至是一种无结构的结构。）正如毛主席所说，要放下枪杆，你就必须提起枪杆。也许，你必须提起挑战，才会看清其实从不存在什么挑战。既然Yoko Ono是一个极具争议性的艺术家，那么她也是一个极具革命性的表演者。若她能在那个层面上应对自如，那么我们的确处在一个非常良好的境况之中。