Yiling 的 文學．廚房

"Adam, how good are you in pop music?"
吃完午飯我走到Adam的cubicle。
"Wanna play Trivia?"

Adam向後仰了仰身子，抬起頭微笑的看著我，有點挑釁的意味，我們倆常常玩互問問題的遊戲，有時他贏，有時我答對，有一次我們僵持不下，關於南美洲地勢最高的首都，我堅持是玻利維亞的La Paz，他說拉巴斯不是首都，應該是Sucre，結果查出來La Paz是實際上的政府所在地，Sucre是法定首都，我們各對一半。

"I have been haunted by a song for years, but I never figured out the song title and the writer. I am wondering if by any chance you would know that. But the problem is that I cannot sing the tune, and don't even remember the lyrics……"

"mmm… any hint?"

Adam 很認真的說，右手托著下巴，神情鄭重。

"Well, it was very popular in 1997, radio stations played it all the time. The latest time I heard of it was last Saturday, when it was playing on Alice FM 97.3."

"Okay, you don't know anything about the song itself? Female or male singer?"

"Male. The only few lines I remember about the song is something like 6 am after Christmas in her apartment, OH!…and her parents were not at home."

天哪，我不敢相信，我自己連曲調都哼不出來，歌詞記不全，這麼少的資訊，誰會猜得出來?

"mmm…it's tough though. But…wait…I might know…Is there a line saying 'She's a Brick' and 'broken down' something like that?"

Adam停了兩秒鐘，像發現新大陸一樣，哼了一兩句。
" I am not sure……"
我想不會吧，狐疑的看著他，難道這樣就給他找到了。

於是Adam馬上翻出他的MP3 files，熟悉的旋律就從喇叭傳出來，歌名"Brick"。

"Oh my God, that's it, I cannot believe that you really found it!!!!"

這首曲子是在IU唸書時在廣播節目中常常播放的，哈薩克同學Liza也很喜歡這首歌，但我們從來沒注意聽清楚究竟誰是主唱歌名為何，直到前幾天再次聽到，激動的在大馬路邊停下車來，抓了紙筆想要記下whatever the DJ says。很簡單的鋼琴彈奏和打擊樂器，沒有過分花腔的歌聲，這旋律讓我彷彿又回到IU的校園時代，沒有太複雜的情緒干擾，儘管過單純的生活。

那天下午，我就在Half.com買了這張Ben Folds Five的Whatever and Ever Amen專輯，算是圓了一個年輕的夢。

"I owe you a big one."
我對這個玩trivia的伙伴另眼相看。

"…And I've got one big point!"
Adam很得意的回答。

PS. 後來我在2002年離開美國，Adam 送我的離別贈禮是去舊金山聽一場演唱會，竟然就是 Ben Folds Five。

★ Ben Folds 單飛後的網站     http://www.benfolds.com/

★ 延伸閱讀       Ben Folds演唱會