《加州旅馆》与打口磁带
- 还记得当年的打口带么？
一早醒来，我看到朋友圈里转发的“《加州旅馆》写的到底是什么？"，整个人顿时陷入满满的回忆中。
老歌《Hotel California》是老鹰乐队(The Eagles)在1977年发行的单曲。此作品堪称经典中的经典！那悠扬唯美的前奏，今早听得我一度热泪盈眶！太怀旧了太怀旧了！有年头没听这首歌了，想当年玩命听时，我还上初中呢！一直以为这歌唱的是关于“与她的一次邂逅”。读完歌词解读后，才意识到自己太浅薄了！人家这首三十多年前发布的作品，是在暗喻社会现象，反映“金融奴役”状态啊！深度了解，再听此歌，百感交集！
此《加州旅店》，让我一整天都处于满满的回忆中！记得当年，那会儿还是磁带呢，国内乐队的10块钱左右一盘，国外的15块左右一盘。但当时很多国外的音乐在国内还处于萌芽阶段，除了迈克尔·杰克逊(Michael Jackson)比较红外，其他国外乐队引进的不多。但有一种特殊的磁带，叫做“打口带”，就是在塑料壳上打个口再卖。据说这种磁带是水货，说白了就是
盗版，国外的磁带，国内没有正规发行商。那个口是海关打的，以区别行货。这种打口带在商场里正规的音像区基本少见，多数是在小商品市场的摊位上能瞅见。这老鹰的《加州旅店》，就是我莫名其妙买的第一批打口带其中一盘。当时一听前奏我就沦陷了，觉得这老外歌手的水准真是太NB啦！于是整天听，玩命听，除了黑豹、唐朝、郑钧啥的，就听老鹰了。也从此开启了打口带的生涯，满大街找打口带。记得当转遍了周边的了各个小商品市场，音像店。当时不懂博客，要不真应该记录下来那时的收获！
买了一大堆磁带，其实好多乐队自己完全不认识，好不好听，就当是撞大运了。
好听的，心中窃喜，多听几遍。不好听的，能忍的就忍忍留着，实在忍不了的就“放风筝”。什么是“放风筝”呢？就是把里面的磁条揪出来，全都揪出来，理顺了，在风中奔跑。边跑边骂，让你难听，让你刺激我耳朵！解恨了，再把磁条弄成一团乱麻，狠狠地扔进垃圾箱！
当时也是有CD的，但我等学生党是消费不起的。一盘CD能买好几盘磁带呢好么？我当时的随身听(Walkman)也都是卡带式，大点的能换5号电池，小点的得配专用电池。我喜欢5号电池的，没电了街边小店买块电池还能接着听。专配电池的就SB了，得先充电！CD式的就更不考虑了，好高大上的感觉！后来的MP3迅速崛起，市场上也就没随身听什么事了。（3.5英寸软盘也是因USB崛起而没落的，我这还有好几打从来没用过呢！)
转眼这么多年过去了，科技更新换代越来越快。真是应了崔健的那句“不是我不明白，这世界变化快”啊！经典就是经典，这一首《加州旅馆》，让我这平静的小心脏荡起了小涟漪。我想，不仅是因为这歌经典，还因为，当年我年轻！
Hotel California and Cut-out Cassette Tapes
Have you heard that classic song - Hotel California? Are you attracted by its rhythm or the voice of the singer? As a fan of the song, I listen to it by accident again. That's how this article comes.
Everything starts from an article which my friend shares on a social network site. It talks about this great song - Hotel California. The song is produced by The Eagles band in 1977. It is such a beautiful song that makes me tear off. Also, it make me in a "recall mode" all day long. Trace back to the first time I listen to this song, I was a middle school student. Now so many years have gone, the song still in its beautiful melody, but I am not that innocent teenager any more.
The song
I fell in love with "Hotel California" at the first time when I listened the prelude of it. Wow, such a unique song! It is my first reaction when I listened it. I love it so much that I listened it all the time. On the way to school, on the way back home, even in middle of the class. Despite I love the song, I don't really know what it talks about. My English was not good enough to understand the lyrics then. As old saying goes, "Interest is the best teacher". I was motivated by this awesome song. So I look up dictionary, translate the lyrics word by word. Then connect the words together, form them to sentences. After hardworking for several days, I translate the lyric by myself! I understood the song. In my opinion, the song is a love story. It describes a guy encounters a girl during his travel. The whole love story happens in a hotel of California. This version of translation reflect a teenager's good yearn of love. My translation version follows me so many years.
Till today, I realize there has other interpretations of the song. The article I have read says "Hotel California" implies American people chase material life, reflects the change of the American society in 1970's. It express the author's attitude about the change. This version of interpretation gives me a new sight. It helps me understanding the song deeper. I would admit that, compare to my version, this author's perspective is much more mature than mine.
The cut-out cassette tapes
This song brings my mind back to my cassette tapes' teenager life. It was cassette tapes decade in 1990's China. The price of one cassette is US$1.6 to $2.5 there. That time, Western music was in an introductory stage in China. I knew nothing about the Western stars except Michael Jackson. The music stores are filled up by the works of domestic bands. However, as a teenager who would like to discover mysterious world, I was eager to explore something different. After hardworking search, I discovered cut-out cassette tapes. It is a special type of cassette tapes that the plastic covers have obvious cut-out marks. Also, almost all of them are released overseas. I was told the tapes are cut-out because they bypass the Chinese custom, therefore they are deem as illegal imported merchandise. However, the advantage is, the price is cheaper than it should be. The cut-out marks stand for their origin - the truly authentic foreign tapes. The same album would sell at a much more expensive price in foreign countries than in China. Sounds attractive enough for me. These cut-out cassette tapes are only sold in small business counters. To find them in the shopping mall shelves is impossible. I went to many different small markets nearby to collect the cut-out cassette tapes. I didn't recognize any foreign band at all. The internet is not as popular as nowadays, I can't look up online before purchasing. So the tapes I picked are totally in random. I was lucky, I found several good bands in the random selection. The album "The Eagles" is one of them. I was so happy that I picked such a good band. Since then, I learned more and more American great songs. Such as "Yesterday Once More" (The Carpenters), "Careless Whisper" (George Michael), and so on.
The Walkman/ Portable CD player
The main stream music players are radios and Walkman around 20 years ago. People listen cassette tapes via radio at home, while Walkman is often carried on the way. Actually, Walkman is a brand trade name by SONY company. Because this trade name is so well-known by Chinese, it stands for the portable cassette players in people's mind. When talk about Walkman, it means the portable cassette tape player in general. The scope exceeds the SONY's products. Compare to today's tiny equipment, the size of Walkman is huge. However, they were extremely popular among students, white collars, and elders in 1990's China. Batteries in different kind of Walkman are vary. Some of them are button batteries, others are AA or AAA batteries. As a student, I prefer the latter batteries based on its cheap price and easy availability. In contrast, the portable CD players are less popular because less people could afford them. The price of a music CD album is 6 to 7 times more expensive than a cassette. Moreover, the price of portable CD players is 3 or 4 times higher. Therefore, I didn't own a CD player until I become college student. Also, personally I own much less CD albums than cassette albums.
The technology grows rapidly in the past decade. Nowadays, the MP3 player and smart phones replace the role of portable music players. The albums are stored in digital form rather than physical media. You don't need to buy a shelf to display your music collections any more. Hence my cut-out cassette tapes and Walkman become a treasure history memory in my life. As well as the song - Hotel California. Despite I don't carry the cassette tape or listen the song everyday, they appeared in my life. Probably, I love the song so much not only because the song is classic, but also since it mixed with my young crazy life.
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