昨日、そこで流れてきたのがパーシー・フェイス・オーケストラの「夏の日の恋」であった。原タイトルはTheme from "A Summer Place" であり、日本のタイトルが「避暑地の出来事」という映画のテーマ曲である。実はこの曲は、わたしの高校時代、昼休みが始まると放送室から流されていた（ちなみに、下校時には同じパーシー・フェイス・オーケストラの「引き潮」だった）。毎日毎日聞いていたから本当に耳タコなのである。
I thought love was only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else but not for me.
Love was out to get me
Thats the way it seemed.
Disappointment haunted all my dreams.
Then I saw her face, now Im a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
Im in love, Im a believer!
I couldnt leave her if I tried.
I thought love was more or less a given thing,
Seems the more I gave the less I got.
Whats the use in tryin?
All you get is pain.
When I needed sunshine I got rain.
Then I saw her face, now Im a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
Im in love, Im a believer!
I couldnt leave her if I tried.
今日の歌は1978年のヴィレッジ・ピープルのヒット曲「Y.M.C.A.」。日本では西城秀樹が「YOUNG MAN」というタイトルでカバーしてヒットしている。ディスコ・ブームの頃の曲なので、やたらノリだけはいい曲である。YMCAを知らない人はいないと思うが、Young Men's Christian Associationの略である。アメリカならどの町にもあって、この歌詞のように、スポーツや教育活動などを行うキリスト教のサブカルチャー組織である。
この歌はアメリカのゲイ・カルチャーを初めて正面に打ち出したポピュラーソングという評価があるようだ。
こんな歌詞である。
Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.
Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal
You can do whatever you feel ...
Young man, are you listening to me?
I said, young man, what do you want to be?
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams.
But you've got to know this one thing!
No man does it all by himself.
I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf,
And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A.
I'm sure they can help you today.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
You can do whatever you feel ...
Young man, I was once in your shoes.
I said, I was down and out with the blues.
I felt no man cared if I were alive.
I felt the whole world was so jive ...
That's when someone came up to me,
And said, young man, take a walk up the street.
It's a place there called the Y.M.C.A.
They can start you back on your way.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
YMCA
It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A
Young man, young man there's no need to feel down
Young man, young man pick yourself off the ground
Y-M-C-A
then just go to the Y-M-C-A
young man, young man I was once in your shoes
young man, young man I said, I was down and out with the blues.
Y-M-C-A
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're doing what we can
But when you want money
for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right
Our little boy is four years old and quite a little man
So we spell out the words we don't want him to understand
Like T-O-Y or maybe S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E
But the words we're hiding from him now
Tear the heart right out of me.
Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E.
Watch him smile, he thinks it Christmas
Or his 5th Birthday
And he thinks C-U-S-T-O-D-Y spells fun or play
I spell out all the hurtin' words
And turn my head when I speak
'Cause I can't spell away this hurt
That's drippin' down my cheek.
Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin' away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E.
今朝起きたときに頭のなかでブンブンうなっていた曲がこれ、女性シンガーソングライターであるボビー・ジェントリーの「ビリー･ジョーの歌 Ode to Billie Joe」。1967年の大ヒット曲である。
「それは6月3日、眠くなるようなほこりっぽいミシシッピー･デルタの一日だった It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day」という歌い出しの部分と「今日ビリー･ジョー・マカリスターがタラハチー橋から身を投げた Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge」というリフレインが延々と頭のなかで繰り返される。
同じメロディが続く歌なので、一度聞いただけで耳に残る。そしてまた、歌詞が印象的なのである。
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"
"There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow"
And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billie Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?
"I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know it don't seem right"
"I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
And Mama said to me "Child, what's happened to your appetite?"
"I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite"
"That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today"
"Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way"
"He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge"
"And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
They say that you're a runaround lover
Though you say it isn't so
But if you put me down for another
I'll know, believe me, I'll know
'cause the night has a thousand eyes
And a thousand eyes can't help but see if you are true to me
So remember when you tell those little white lies
That the night has a thousand eyes
You say that you're at home when you phone me
And how much you really care
Though you keep telling me that you're lonely
I'll know if someone is there
'cause the night has a thousand eyes
And a thousand eyes can't help but see if you are true to me
So remember when you tell those little white lies
That the night has a thousand eyes
One of these days you're gonna be sorry
'cause your game I'm gonna play
And you'll find out without really tryin'
Each time that my kisses stray
'cause the night has a thousand eyes
And a thousand eyes will see me too
And no matter what I do
I could never disguise all my little white lies
'cause the night has a thousand eyes
So remember when you tell those little white lies
That the night has a thousand eyes
Got a call from an old friend
We used to be real close
Said he couldn't go on the American way
Closed the shop, sold the house
Bought a ticket to the West Coast
Now he gives them a stand-up routine in L.A.
I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, and leave me alone
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
(I never said you had to)
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
(I never said)
I still belong, don't get me wrong
And you can speak your mind
But not on my time
They will tell you, you can't sleep alone in a strange place
Then they'll tell you, you can't sleep with somebody else
Ah, but sooner or later you sleep in your own space
Either way it's okay, you wake up with yourself
I don't need you to worry for me cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, and leave me alone
I never said you had to offer me a second chance
(I never said you had to)
I never said I was a victim of circumstance
(Of cirumstance)
I still belong, don't get me wrong
And you can speak your mind
But not on my time
I don't care what you say anymore, this is my life
Go ahead with your own life, and leave me alone
ふだんジムで運動をしながら音楽を聴いている。ウォークマンに入れた音楽ソースをBluetoothのイヤホンで聴いている。このウォークマンは基本的にアルバムごとに音楽を入れているのだが、運動用のファイルというのがひとつあって、気に入っている曲、何となく気になる曲を手当たり次第放り込んである。そのファイルには500曲近く入っていて、それをシャッフルして聞いているので脈絡もなく音楽が流れてくる。
