克林顿是Country Music, 奥巴马是Jazz （1）

（1）Greatest Man I Never Knew

我在美国的第一份工作，是在一个大百货公司的IT部门里当Mainfram的程序员。我是新人，给一个名叫Chris的高级工程师当助手。Chris当时大概30岁，五短身材，很粗壮。他的技术很过硬，程序写得又快又好，人却很粗鲁，傲慢。他开一辆两门的红色的敞篷车，车里面的音响很高级，车一开，就开始放乡村音乐。后来，我知道，乡村音乐是他唯一的爱好。除了收集了几乎所有的CD外，每周末，他一定去附近参加一次现场的音乐会，周一上班，就和我们讲又听了谁谁谁的音乐会，乐队如何，那首歌最好。。。平时，他总是穿一双牛仔靴，夏天，还戴一顶草帽。

那阵子最红的乡村歌手是Judds，Chris特别喜欢Wynonna。而我却比较喜欢Reba McEntire，她的歌有深入骨髓的凄凉和粗砺直率的雄壮，和她娇小妩媚的模样恰好相反，我偏偏喜爱这种出人意料的对照。我阿婆就是个娇小的女人，却有着令人吃惊的力量，我一贯喜欢火辣辣，敢做敢为，不屈服于命运的女人。





那阵子，克林顿正在和陆文斯基闹得不可开交，电视里经常是这个台在放Reba的音乐会，那个台在弹劾克林顿。有时候我两个台换来换去，渐渐的，克林顿和Reba的歌混在一起，成了一台新戏。比如，有一天，这边Reba在唱她最著名的《Greatest Man I Never Knew》，那里陆文斯基小姐则在深情地回忆克林顿是如何把精液洒在了她的裙子上。我忽然灵魂出窍，原来，克林顿就是一首最精彩的乡村音乐。

The greatest man I never knew
Lived just down the hall
And everyday we said hello
But never touched at all
He was in his paper
I was in my room
How was I to know he thought I hung the moon

The greatest man I never knew
Came home late every night
He never had too much to say
Too much was on his mind
I never really knew him
And now it seems so sad
Everything he gave to us took all he had

Then the days turned into years
And the memories to black and white
He grew cold like an old winter wind
Blowing across my life

The greatest words I never heard
I guess I'll never hear
The man I thought could never die
S'been dead almost a year
He was good at business
But there was business left to do
He never said he loved me
Guess he thought I knew

前不久，John Edwards的丑闻纷纷扬扬，据说，奥巴马打电话给他太太，表示同情慰问，而克林顿打电话给他，问他是如何被太太发现捉住的。我不禁哈哈大笑。