“上尉诗人”詹姆斯·布朗特

“上尉诗人”詹姆斯·布朗特梁碧滢译James Blunt无疑是2005年度欧美主流乐坛最让人惊喜的“黑马王子”。

这位曾经在战乱的科索沃率领3万英国维和部队的上尉，用他那伤感而沙哑的嗓音和一首凄美得让人不能不为之动容心碎的《You Are Beautiful》，攻陷了众多乐迷的心。

今年三月，在有英国“格莱美”之称的“英国流行音乐大奖”颁奖典礼上，他一举摘取“最佳流行艺人”和“最佳男歌手”两个重要奖项，而他首张专辑《Back to Bedlam》的销量步步高升，风行欧美，他的这份成绩单可谓炫目得让人难以置信。

然而，所有被James Blunt打动的人都知道，他并不只是一个背着吉他、拿过往战场上的经历招摇过市的歌手。

他的音乐中，有生活，有爱，有他经历过的生与死的决裂，还有让你心潮澎湃的感动……(Terry)The music’s romantic aspects and thesinger’s poster appeal―2)tousled hair, 3)bedroom eyes, 4)chiseled features and full mouth―have cast James Blunt asthe latest pop 5)pinup.Droll and 6)unfailingly polite, Blunt also can be defensive and a 7)tad 8)frosty, his tone hardening when he senses a9)misperception or challenge. He smiles easily, wears a direct gaze and speaks in a 10)crisp, rapid flow, seldom pausing and 11)dodging only matters of his private life. “I find language quite limiting in capturing what’s going on in the mind,” he says. “But combined with the medium of music, I found it captured what I felt. It was a natural and almost necessary outlet.”Blunt’s outlet yielded an intercontinental 12)commotion. Released in the UK in October 2004, Back to 13)Bedlam sold 2.4 million copies and perched nine weeks at No. 1 (unseating Coldplay) to become the year’s best-selling album in England and the biggest-selling disc in a single year since sales14)tabulations began there in 1994. “You’re Beautiful,” a gorgeous acoustic slice of heartache and 15)futile 16)pining, spent five weeks at No. 1 last summer. He just won two 17)Brit Awards, the UK 18)equivalent of the Grammys. Blunt threatens to follow a similar 19)trajectory here in the U.S.. Bedlam has gradually built an audience, and all shows on a headline tourstarting March 13 sold out the day tickets went on sale.“Commercialism is an ugly thing to focus on,” Blunt says. “The U.S. is a very different place, and often we in Britain very naively say, ‘We’re going to invade and break America.’ I’m 20)adamant that I haven’t come here to break an yone. I hope people from any country, race or religion can relate. I’m enjoying the opportunity and the experience of connecting musically.”Blunt hardly seemed destined for rock stardom. He grew up in a home with no stereo (except in the car) and musical training that was long-haired in the pre-’60s sense. At his mother’s urging, he took up the 21)recorder at three, the violin at five and the piano at seven.“It was a pretty miserable experience to play Bee-thoven’s 22)Sonata in F Sharp Major repetitively,”he says. “But it was a great introduction to an understanding of music.”Through classmates in boarding school, he got an earful of David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Su-pertramp and ThePixies. Later he would 23)gravitate to Jeff Buckley, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith.“At that age, I was pretty naive,”Blunt says. “I hadn’t come across much. I didn’t have money to buy records. I had my parents’one Beatles tape, one Beach Boys tape, their one Don McLean. I got myself an electric guitar when I was 14 and found I could experiment, make mistakes and write songs. I could take it away to a private place. A piano is always public.”At 14, he 24)pledged his life to music, a calling postponed by a four-year 25)stint in the army. Born into a long line of military men, Blunt joined after graduating from Bristol University, going to Kosovo in 1999 first as a 26)reconnaissance officer in the bombing campaign and then as a peacekeeper with NATO forces. As the officer nearest the 27)Macedonia border entry point, he led the march to 28)Pristina.“There was a column of 30,000 people behind us,”he says. “You’ve got to be a good map reader and turn left instead of right, because to arrive in Belgrade would have been 29)marginally embarrassing.”Blunt kept a guitar strapped to his tank on patrol in Pristina, not exactly an entertainment capital.“It was depressing,”he says. “I saw humanity at its worst and most destructive, and at the same time individuals on all sides showed incredible courage through strife.”His war-zone experiences inspired the tune “No Bravery,”and playing it triggers flashbacks. The 30)genocide he witnessed 31)sears his memory, but you won’t catch him 32)whining about it.In a 33)jarring shift, Capt. Blunt spent his last year of service in the Queen’s 34) Life Guard, riding horseback and sporting 35)armor, a sword, a plumed helmet and tall boots during her 2002 36)jubilee.“It was very easy to go from that to being a rock star,” Blunt quips.Discharged in 2002, he played London’s small clubs andbegan recording demos, which led to a deal with Elton John’s management firm and an opening 37)slot on the piano man’s tour. After catching him at a 2003 South by Southwest showcase in Austin, 38)Linda Perry signed Blunt to her Custard label, an Atlantic Records imprint.While “Captain Blunt”may evoke a rapping 39)pothead, the soldier-turned-40)crooner delivered pure pop drama on Bedlam, a personal journey of pain and hope sung in a lovely but wounded voice. Blunt wowed critics, who compared him to 41)Elliott Smith, Damien Rice and David Gray, 42)perplexing since “they don’t sound anything like each other,” he says. “It’s a bizarre and remarkably simplistic comparison.”“I write songs about my personal experiences because I need to. I wanted to say, ‘This is how I understand my life and my position here.’If I was the only person to enjoy that, it would be fine. To be able to play live and have this connection with an audience is heart-warming. When people hear a song and tell me, ‘That’s exactly how I feel,’ it’s rewarding. The mind can be a very lonely place.”充满浪漫奇情的音乐创作，加上酷帅的海报造型――凌乱随性的头发、朦胧性感的眼神、清秀尖削的下巴、饱满丰润的嘴唇――让詹姆斯?布朗特成为最近流行乐坛又一备受热捧的新偶像。