November 8, 2014

YELLOW BIRD - "CHOUCOUNE" 2/2 : Original & Remade


"Norman Luboff Choir's Calypso Holiday"
1957年, 作曲家 Norman Luboff 聽過 "Choucoune" 後, 把此曲新篇的樂譜交予作詞家, Alan 與 Marilyn Keith Bergman 夫婦撰上英文歌詞, 譜寫而成全新歌曲 "Yellow Bird", 並首次收錄在自己的唱片專輯 "Norman Luboff Choir's Calypso Holiday"; 而封套背面則寫着:

"Serenade of a lonesome lover to an equally lonesome bird"
"孤獨的情人給寂寞鳥兒的小夜曲"
 

YELLOW BIRD - Choucoune "Ti Zawaz"
Music: Norman Luboff
Lyric: Alan & Marilyn Keith Bergman
Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Did your lady friend leave the nest again?
That is very sad, make me feel so bad.
You can fly away, in the sky away.
You more lucky than me!

I also have a pretty gal,
She not with me today.
They all the same, the pretty gal,
Make them the nest, then they fly away.

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree.
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me.
Better fly away in the sky away.
Picker coming soon, pick from night to noon.
Black and yellow you, like banana too.
They might pick you some day!

Wish that I was a yellow bird,
I fly away with you.
But I am not a yellow bird,
So here I sit, nothing else to do.
Yellow bird, yellow bird, yellow bird.

1957年, "Yellow Bird" 首次在一齣以 "Calypso 卡歷騷" 熱潮的電影 "Calypso Heat Wave" 港譯: "熱浪舞" 由樂隊 The Tarriers 的主歌手 Alan Arkin 演譯, 但是找不到這個版本的録音。

同年, Harry Belafonte 的一曲 "Don't Ever Love Me", 雖然是以他的名字創作, 實在仍是取用了 "Choucoune" 部份的曲調而另有不同格調的演譯而已。
 
 

DON'T EVER LOVE ME - Harry Belafonte
While in that gay tropic isle 
I first saw that maiden smile 
Though I had failed in the past 
I said "this is true love at last" 
But then she whispered to me 
That our love never could be
[Chorus]
Destiny, oh when will I see the day?
Hopelessly, I've wandered so long this way
"This could never be" she said pleadingly
"Don't ever love me, I'm just fancy-free"
"This could never be" she said pleadingly
"Don't ever love me"

My love was motion and grace
The moonlight soft on her face
I held her close in my arms
My heart was quick to her charms
But then I saw in her glance
It was just an evening's romance

[Chorus]
Don't ever love me .... 
"YELLOW BIRD"
這首歌曲很快普及至美國與世界樂壇, 成為抒情歌曲的類别。雖然很多歌手與樂隊各有不同的演譯版本, 而傅統方式是一些 Steel Band 以鋼桶敲擊樂器演奏, 至今在加勒比海 Caribbean 的島嶼與郵輪上, 仍不絕於耳。 海地 Haiti 是加勒比海 Caribbean 地區的主要旅遊地方, 在當地多以 "Choucoune -Yellow Bird" 這音樂、歌聲或舞蹈, 作歡迎或送别的禮儀, 成了遊客們在旅程難忘的歌曲之一。


YELLOW BIRD - Haiti Folk Song in Steel Drum

今天到訪海地的遊客或世界各地的樂迷, 有多少人知道此曲是出自1883年海地的監獄呢? 如果每次聴到 "Yellow Bird" 這歌曲時, 請不要忘記 "Choucoune - Ti Zawaz" 與及詩人 Duran Oswald 的愛情遭遇:

"原來已得到的東西, 却不去珍惜; 至失去後, 又感到絕望與哀傷!"

"CHOUCOUNE" 這首詩引發起 Michel Mauleart Monton 的創作靈感; 之後, 更得到一些有才華的音樂人, 把它演譯成一首不朽的經典 "YELLOW BIRD" 出現於樂壇。


YELLOW BIRD - The Mills Brothers