3 Chapter 2 Memphis

Chapter 2 Memphis Now that Elvis had a guitar, he wanted to play it. Gladys asked a local pastor named Frank Smith to help teach her son the guitar. Elvis was his own teacher, too. By reading a book, he figured out where to put his fingers. Elvis began hanging out at WELO, the local radio station. There, he heard older and better guitar players. He listened carefully to how they played. And every Saturday night, Elvis, Gladys, and Vernon would gather around their radio. They listened to the songs of country music stars from the Grand Ole Opry.

现在猫王有了一把吉他，他想要弹它。 格拉迪斯请当地一位名叫弗兰克·史密斯的牧师教她儿子弹吉他。 埃尔维斯也是他自己的老师。 通过读书，他知道了手指该放在哪里。 埃尔维斯开始在当地广播电台WELO闲逛。 在那里，他听到了更年长、更好的吉他手的演奏。 他仔细地听着他们的演奏。 每周六晚上，猫王、格拉迪斯和弗农都会聚在收音机旁。 他们听了大奥普里乡村音乐明星的歌曲。

"I took the guitar and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit," Elvis said later. "But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it, you know." In seventh grade, Elvis started to bring his guitar to school every day — except when it was raining. Some kids made fun of him. They called his songs "hillbilly music." "Hillbilly" was a nasty name for someone who lived in the backwoods. Some kids were even meaner. One cut the strings off Elvis's guitar when he wasn't looking.

“我拿着吉他，看着人们，我学会了弹一点，”埃尔维斯后来说。 “但我永远不会在公共场合唱歌。 你知道，我对此很害羞。” 七年级时，埃尔维斯开始每天带着吉他去学校——除了下雨的时候。 一些孩子取笑他。 他们称他的歌为“乡巴佬音乐”。 Hillbilly是对住在边远地区的人的蔑称。 有些孩子甚至更刻薄。 有人趁猫王不注意的时候把他的吉他弦剪断了。

In November of 1948, when Elvis was in the middle of eighth grade, Vernon and Gladys decided to move again. But this time, they weren't heading to another shack in Tupelo. No, the Presleys were headed to the big city: Memphis, Tennessee. It was a little more than one hundred miles away. They

1948年11月，埃尔维斯上八年级，弗农和格拉迪斯决定再次搬家。 但这一次，他们不是要去图珀洛的另一个窝棚。 不，普雷斯利一家要去大城市:田纳西州的孟菲斯。 它离这儿有一百多英里远。 他们

packed the family car, a 1939 Plymouth, and left. They were looking for a fresh start. And they got it. Before long, Vernon had a job loading and unloading heavy cases of paint. Gladys worked in a factory that made curtains. Elvis needed a new guitar teacher. He found one in Jesse Lee, the eighteen-year-old son of the local preacher. Every Saturday and Sunday, Jesse Lee came over to the Presley home. He and Elvis practiced downstairs in the laundry room. In Memphis, Elvis began to grow up. The shy kid made friends: Buzzy, Farley, and Paul. The four boys rode bikes together, went to the movies, and played football. They made money mowing lawns. By his junior year in high school, Elvis looked different. He grew sideburns, which made him

带上家里的一辆1939年的普利茅斯轿车，离开了。 他们在寻找一个新的开始。 他们做到了。没过多久，弗农就找到了一份装卸重油漆箱的工作。 格拉迪斯在一家生产窗帘的工厂工作。 猫王需要一个新的吉他老师。 他在当地牧师18岁的儿子杰西·李身上找到了一个。 每个周六和周日，杰西·李都会来普雷斯利家。 他和埃尔维斯在楼下的洗衣房练习。 在孟菲斯，埃尔维斯开始长大。 这个害羞的孩子交了几个朋友:巴兹、法利和保罗。 这四个男孩一起骑自行车，去看电影，踢足球。 他们割草坪赚钱。 到了高中三年级，埃尔维斯看起来不一样了。 他留了鬓角，这使他

look older. He also started meeting girls. They liked the fact that he was still a little shy. Elvis took a girl named Regis to the school prom. Then there was music. Memphis was so much bigger than Tupelo. Elvis went to Charlie's, a store where kids were allowed to hang out and listen to records. In those days there were no iPods or CDs. Elvis and his buddies put on 78s, records made of thick shellac. Only one song fit on each side. Elvis visited the local radio station, WMPS, which

看起来老了。他也开始和女孩约会。 他们喜欢他仍然有点害羞的事实。 埃尔维斯带一个叫瑞吉斯的女孩去参加学校的舞会。 然后是音乐。孟菲斯比图珀洛大得多。 猫王去了查理的商店，孩子们可以在那里闲逛，听唱片。 那时候还没有ipod和cd。 猫王和他的伙伴们放上了78唱片，那是用厚厚的紫胶做成的唱片。 两边只适合唱一首歌。 埃尔维斯访问了当地的广播电台，WMPS

would host concerts. He also went to Ellis Auditorium. Once a month, people gathered there to sing gospel songs, the music Elvis knew from church. Sometimes, they sang all through the night.

会举办音乐会。他还去了埃利斯礼堂。 每个月一次，人们聚集在那里唱福音歌曲，这是猫王从教堂里听到的音乐。 有时，他们唱了一整夜。