Music Challenge - 7 favorite songs #B <The Blower’s Daughter> 音樂挑戰 - 七首喜愛歌曲 #B <The Blower’s Daughter>

Two months ago, steemian @kona hosted the Music Challenge – 7 favorite songs and encouraged steemians to introduce 7 favorite songs in Steemit. I was glad to be invited by @kona as the first participant and introduced my first favorite song - bohemian rhapsody. This week, I was nominated again by @perlia to the chanllenge again. And I would like to introduce my 2nd favorite song - <The Blower’s Daughter>.
(detail of the challenge: https://steemit.com/musicchallenge/@kona/music-challenge-7-favorite-songs)

兩個月前，@kona 舉辦了音樂挑戰 – 七首喜愛歌曲，鼓勵steemian介紹自己喜愛的歌曲給大家。當時我很榮幸地成為第一個參加者，並介紹了Queen的Bohemian Rhapsody給大家。這個星期，我再次被@perlia 提名了，我決定介紹我第二首喜愛歌曲: <The Blower’s Daughter>。
(挑戰帖: https://steemit.com/musicchallenge/@kona/music-challenge-7-favorite-songs)

The song was released in 2002, in the album O by Damien Rice. Damien Rice is a Irish singer-songwriter and I believe <The Blower’s Daughter> is his most famous song. Many of you should know this song as it is one of the theme songs of the film Closer.

Damien Rice is a marvelous singer and songwriter. The melody, and the lyric of his songs always twist your mood and emotion. In his two most famous album, O and 9, you may find a number of songs about love. But Damien Rice seldom take interview to talk about his album. Many people relate the story of the song to his experiences, especially his love with Lisa Hannigan, the backup vocal of the albums as well as his ex-girlfriends. Within the songs, <The Blower’s Daughter> may be the most mysterious one.

這首歌是由歌手Damien Rice推出，收錄在其2002年的專輯O，我相信你們很多人都認識這首歌了，因為它是電影Closer的其中一首插曲。Damien Rice是一位愛爾蘭的作曲家及歌手，他的歌曲往往都有一種勾動人心的魅力，把你的情緒帶到心靈的空虛中。他最出色的專輯，O及9，有幾首歌關於愛情的歌，很多人都在想這幾首歌是否他的親身經歷，尤其是與專輯的和音，他當時的女友Lisa Hannigan有關。不過，Damien Rice很少談論這兩張專輯，當時連宣傳都少！而其中，The Blower’s Daughter>可說是最多人睱想的了。

CLOSER

Let’s take a look of the lyric:
And so it is just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is the shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky

I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes

And so it is just like you said it should be
We'll both forget the breeze
Most of the time
And so it is the colder water
The Blower's daughter
The pupil in denial

I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes off you
I can't take my eyes

Did I say that I loathe you?
Did I say that I want to leave it all behind?

I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind off you
I can't take my mind
My mind, my mind
'Til I find somebody new

Many people just guest who is the blower’s daughter. By searching the web, I found two most common version:

The first version is that the song is about the daughter of his clarinet teacher. So it’s now easy to read. Rice fell in love with the daughter of his clarinet teacher and of course, he failed.

Damien Rice (from Wikipedia)

But few years after the release of the song, Rice told us a story in his concert:
Rice worked as a telemarketer before he started his career of music. His work was cold calling and spoke through the phone selling products every day. You may imagine how boring it is. One day, when he made a new call, a lady answered the call.

Actually, Rice was calling her dad but they started chatting. Their topic was not product selling but dream, and life. Rice enjoyed speaking with the lady and called her every day until one day, the lady didn’t answer the call anymore. Rice found he may fall in love with the lady and he found her address from the call list. He went to her house, pressed the ring, and someone opened the door. It was a girl round 15-16, and, she was the one Rice spoke to. The truth is, the girl was on summer holiday and just chatted with Rice for fun. After the holiday, the girl went back to school again and so missed his call.

Lisa Hannigan in the MV of the song, acting as the blower’s daughter

Rice was depressed and the experiences inspired him to write this song. In UK, “blower” can refer to telephone. And that’s why many people just think it was the daughter of his clarinet teacher. The story didn’t come to the end. I searched the web and find someone just saying that, the story is just fiction. Rice didn’t work in a call center. Oh my God! So is this version true or not!? Which is the true version!?
Actually, it’s not important to dig deep into the true meaning of the song. Just imagine your version. The song uses Cello as the main instrument. At the very beginning, we can still hear the sound of guitar bring us into the mood of the song. Then, the guitar gradually fades out and we can just listen the Cello with the lyrics, giving us an imagination of a fantasy.

There is only one sentence for the whole chorus: “I can’t take my eye/mind off you”. Rice didn’t add any explanation or description, but just keep singing “I can’t take my eye/mind off you”. No matter the girl is in the reality or just a fantasy, he goes deep into it. When we just think that the song is going to finish, we hear “Til I find somebody new”. So is Rice really looking for a new one. I don’t think so. He knows that only a new one can save him from the missing, but no one will really think that he wants to find a new one.

What do you think about this song? Just share it here!

中文版本

很多人都在想：這個Blower’s Daughter是誰？翻查過網絡，我找到兩個最常見的版本：

第一個版本認為這個Blower’s Daughter是Damien Rice長笛老師的女兒，那故事就很明白了，Damien Rice愛上了長笛老師的女兒，但當然，他失敗了。

第二個版本比較有趣，據說在歌曲推出幾年後的一個演唱會，他在演唱會曾經講述了這首歌歌詞的來歷：

Damien Rice在以音樂為事業前在一間電訊市場公司工作，其實就是電話推銷喇，他每天的工作就是打銷售電話，你會想像到這工作有多沉悶，直到有一天，他打一個新電話時，一名女性接聽了電話。

其實Damien Rice是要找她的爸爸的，但他們照樣開始了交談，他們的交談內容慢慢由銷售變成了夢想、人生，Damien Rice很享受與她的交談，並每天都打電話找她。直到有一天，她不再接聽他的電話，Damien Rice發覺他可能愛上她了，他接受不了她不再接聽他的電話，他很想知道她發生了什麼事，遇到意外了嗎？他禁不住在聯絡資料中找到她的地址並去找她。他來到她的門前，按下門鈴，有人開門了，是一位十五六歲的小女孩，而她，就是每天跟他談電話的那名女孩。原來，女孩當時在放暑假，剛好接到Damien Rice的電話，就拿他來打發時間吧，暑期結束，她又要上學了，就再聽不到他的電話了。

Damien Rice受到很大的打擊，自己一直幻想、戀愛的對象，原來只是一名小女孩，還是借他打發時間的小女孩？籍著這件事，他創作了The Blower’s Daughter這首歌，在英國，Blower也有電話的意思，所以就有很多人錯以為Blower是說他的長笛老師了。不過，故事還未完，我繼續翻查網絡時，發現有人說Damien Rice已証實這個故事其實只是一個開玩笑的故事，他從未在電話公司工作。噢！你耍我嗎？那到底真正版本是什麼！？

其實，又真的需要知道真實版本嗎？每個人聽著一首歌，都會自然幻想屬於他自己的版本，何嘗不試試代入自己曾經的遺憾，好好感受這首歌？全歌以大提琴為主樂器，歌曲開頭配以結他，慢慢引導我們進入歌曲，其後結他退去，就只剩下大提琴，將歌曲變得幻想化，讓我們進入自己的幻想。

歌曲的副歌只有一句：I Can’t Take my Eye/Mind off you，是的，不用什麼故事或解釋，只是一句，不論這女孩是真實存在，還是只是幻想的存在，一句就足以引證Damien Rice的思念。直到歌曲要完結時，他竟以”Til I Find Somebody New”作結，有人或會想，賤男人，泡不到這個，就找另一個，哈哈，他真的是這意思嗎？當然不是，他很清楚，只有另一個女人才能帶他離開這無盡的思念，但他能做到嗎？他不能。他希望自己能借助另一個女人而忘記這個女人，但他不能。而現實中的Damien Rice呢？在完成<9>的專輯後，他和女友Lisa Hannigan分手了。

你呢？你是否也曾有一個這樣的對象？你能否借助一個新的對象去忘記他？不妨分享一下！

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Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
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