North Country Blues - 조안 바에즈(Joan Baez)

 

Joan Baez

 

 

조안 바에즈(Joan Baez)는 1941년 미국 출생으로 미국의 포크 가수, 정치운동가이다. 그녀는 음악교육은 거의 정식으로 받지 않았으나 자신이 편곡한 기타 반주만으로 노래를 불러,1960년대 70년대까지 포크 송 부흥의 선두주자로 젊은층에 크게 인기를 받았다. 그녀는 저항운동에 활발히 참여했으며 유네스코, 시민권 운동기관, 베트남 전쟁 반대시위를 위해 무료 연주회를 활발히 가졌다. 'The River In The Pines (솔밭사이로 강물은 흐르고)', 'Donna Donna' , ' Mary Hamilton(아름다운 것들/ 양희은의 번안곡)'. 'Diamonds and Rust' 등 올드 팝 팬들에게 많은 사랑을 받았다. 이 곡은 조안 바에즈의 애인이며 오랜 친구인 밥 딜런이 만든 곡이라 한다.

  

 

North country blues

 

 

 

  Come gather 'round friends
And I'll tell you a tale
Of when the red iron pits ran plenty.
But the cardboard filled windows
And old men on the benches
Tell you now that the whole town is empty.

In the north end of town,
My own children are grown
But I was raised on the other.
In the wee hours of youth,
My mother took sick
And I was brought up by my brother.

The iron ore poured
As the years passed the door,
The drag lines an' the shovels they was a-humming.
'Til one day my brother
Failed to come home
The same as my father before him.

Well a long winter's wait,
From the window I watched.
My friends they couldn't have been kinder.
And my schooling was cut
As I quit in the spring
To marry John Thomas, a miner.

Oh the years passed again
And the givin' was good,
With the lunch bucket filled every season.
What with three babies born,
The work was cut down
To a half a day's shift with no reason.

Then the shaft was soon shut
And more work was cut,
And the fire in the air, it felt frozen.
'Til a man come to speak
And he said in one week
That number eleven was closin'.

They complained in the East,
They are paying too high.
They say that your ore ain't worth digging.
That it's much cheaper down
In the South American towns
Where the miners work almost for nothing.

So the mining gates locked
And the red iron rotted
And the room smelled heavy from drinking.
Where the sad, silent song
Made the hour twice as long
As I waited for the sun to go sinking.

I lived by the window
As he talked to himself,
This silence of tongues it was building.
Then one morning's wake,
The bed it was bare,
And I's left alone with three children.

The summer is gone,
The ground's turning cold,
The stores one by one they're a-foldin'
My children will go
As soon as they grow.
Well, there ain't nothing here now to hold them.