[歌词大意]
A Song for Mama 献给妈妈的歌
You taught me everything 你教会我所有的东西，
And everything you've given me 你给我的一切
I'll always 1)keep it inside 我都会珍藏在内心深处。
You're the 2)driving force in my life 你是我生命的动力。
There isn't anything 如果没有你，
Or anyone that I can be 就没有今天我的一切。
And it just wouldn't feel right 如果你不在我的身边。
If I didn't 3)have you by my side 一切都不对劲。
You were there for me to love and care for me 你爱我，关心我，
When skies were grey 当天空乌云密布时候。
Whenever I was 4)down 当我失意的时候，
You were always there 你总是在那里
To comfort me 给我安慰。
And no one else can be 在我生命中，
What you have been to me 没人能取代你的地位。
You'll always be 你永远是
You will always be the 5)girl 我生命中
In my life for all times 最重要的女人。
Mama 妈妈
Mama you know I love you 你知道我爱你。
Mama 妈妈
Mama you're the 6)queen of my heart 你是我心目中最重要的人。
Your love is like 你的爱就像
Tears from the stars 星星的眼泪那样珍贵。
Mama I just want you to know 妈妈，我只想让你知道，
Lovin' you is like 7)food to my soul 爱你就像爱生命。
You're always there for me 你总是在那里为我守候，
Have always been around for me even 在我最糟糕的时候
8)when I was bad 支持我。
You showed me 9)right from my wrong 你告诉我是非对错。
And you 10)took up for me 你鼓励我
When everyone was 11)downin' me 当所有人看低我的时候。
You always did understand 你总是理解我，
You gave me strength to 12)go on 你给我继续下去的勇气。
There were so many times 很多时候，回首往事，
Looking back when I was so afraid 当我内心恐惧的时候，
And then you come to me 你就会来到我身边，
And say to me 对我说，
I can 13)face anything 我能战胜一切。
And no one else can do 没有人能做到
What you have done for me 你为我做的一切。
You'll always be 你永远是
You will always be 你永远是
The girl in my life 我生命中最重要的女人。
Never gonna go a day without you 不想过一天没有你的日子，
Fills me up just thinking about you 想起你就感觉生命不再空虚。
I'll never go a day 妈妈
Without my mama 会陪伴着我度过每一天。
语音讲解：
[歌手介绍]
According to no less an authority than the RIAA, Boyz II Men are the most commercially successful R&B group of all time. They've sold ludicrous numbers of records and been involved in three of the longest-running number-one pop singles in history, and they've done it as a unit of equals. In fact, their four-part harmonies blend so smoothly that most of the general public would be hard pressed to name any of the group's individual members. And that's no reflection on their skill as singers.
Boyz II Men were among the first male urban soul artists to adopt the sort of hyper-technical melodic embellishments that were popularized by virtuosic divas like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Their early music was indebted to new jack swing, but the group quickly found their fortune in lush, soulful ballads, where their harmonies could be showcased to greatest effect. Boyz II Men may never duplicate their incredible run of success during the first half of the '90s, but that's a near-impossible task for anyone, even with the broad-based appeal of their clean-cut romantic image.
Boyz II Men were formed in 1988 at Philadelphia's High School of the Creative and Performing Arts. Founding members Nathan Morris and Marc Nelson had been singing together for several years, but had trouble keeping a group together simply due to members graduating. Things finally stabilized when they hooked up with Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, and bass vocalist Michael McCary; calling themselves Unique Attraction, the quintet performed a well-received Valentine's Day show for their school, and developed a repertoire that leaned heavily on New Edition songs, one of which, "Boys to Men," gave them their name.
Their big break came in 1989, when they snuck backstage at a Bell Biv DeVoe concert and wowed group member Michael Bivins (also formerly of New Edition, and a budding music entrepreneur) with an a cappella version of New Edition's "Can You Stand the Rain." Bivins offered them a deal right there, but Nelson would not stick around to be part of it; personality conflicts led to his departure soon after.
Down to a quartet, Boyz II Men entered the studio to record their debut album for the legendary Motown Records. Backed by the new jack production then in vogue, they dubbed their sound "hip-hop doo wop," though as a vocal-harmony group they were more indebted to R&B of the '60s and '70s. Cooley High Harmony was released in 1991, and its first single, the up tempo dance track "Motown Philly," rocketed up the charts, going Top Five pop and number one R&B on its way to platinum sales.
Briefly entering the studio in between concert gigs, Boyz II Men cut a smooth Babyface ballad called "End of the Road" for the soundtrack of the Eddie Murphy film Boomerang. Released as a single, it became not just a blockbuster, but one of the biggest hits in history; it spent 13 weeks at number one on the pop charts, an incredible run that broke the record of 11 weeks Elvis Presley had held ever since 1956 with the double-sided single "Don't Be Cruel"/"Hound Dog." "End of the Road" won a slew of awards and cemented Boyz II Men's star status beyond any doubt.
Boyz II Men spent much of 1995 touring the U.S. and beyond, and also opened their own recording studio. They spent some time recording collaborations with other artists: Wanya Morris duetted with Brandy on the hit "Brokenhearted," and the whole group sang on Michael Jackson's "History" and LL Cool J's "Hey Lover." The biggest one, however, was a song done with Mariah Carey called "One Sweet Day." Featuring two of the biggest chart powerhouses in the industry, "One Sweet Day" was virtually a guaranteed blockbuster, and it went on to spend 16 weeks at number one on the pop charts, debuting there in December 1995; it was the third such record-setting single of Boyz II Men's career.
Over the group's objections, Motown released a piece of cash-in product titled The Remix Collection in late 1995; in retaliation, Boyz signed a distribution deal with Sony, not Motown, for their new vanity label Stonecreek. It was the beginning of a souring relationship that only worsened upon the release of Boyz II Men's next album, Evolution, in 1997. The record started out strong, debuting at number one and sending "4 Seasons of Loneliness" to the same position on the singles charts; its Top Ten follow-up, "A Song for Mama," gave Boyz II Men their record-setting seventh platinum single.
Boyz II Men成立于1988年，其四个成员Shawn Stockman、Wanya Morris、Nathan Morris以及Micheal McMary都是费城音乐学校的学生。当他们发现四个人的声音混和在一起要比一个人的独唱悦耳得多的时候，他们走到了一起。
一开始，乐队在学校、街头巷尾以及地铁站台上演出。他们称自己为“独一无二的吸引力”乐队(Unique Attraction)。1989年，在费城的斯威克尔中心进行演出的时候，乐队说服了他们的偶像Micheal Bivins听他们的新歌《你能经受这雨吗》(Can You Stand the Rain)。Micheal Bivins被他们的演唱深深地打动了，最后答应做他们的经纪人并成功跟Motown唱片公司谈成了一笔生意，他建议把乐队的名字改为Boyz II Men，这是《心碎》(Heartbreak)专辑中的一首新歌的名字。
1991年5月，Boyz II Men发行了处女专辑Cooleyhighharmory，该名源于1975年一出名为Cooley High的黑人喜剧。这张专辑取得了巨大的成功。其中的第一首单曲Motownphilly在6月份的排行榜(Billboard)上排到了第三，第二首单曲《与昨日难以说再见》(It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday)也是源于Cooley High剧中一首曲子，在10月份时升为亚军曲目。迄今为止，这张专辑仅在美国的销量就超过了700万张。 1992年，就在Cooleyhighharmony的热潮稍微降温的时候，乐队为影片《回飞棒》(Boomerang)所作的插曲《路的尽头》(End of the Road)出版发行。在长达13周的时间里，它一直位居排行榜的宝座，打破了“猫王”Elvis Presley1956年单曲Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dong创造的连续11周雄居榜首的纪录。1995年他们与 Mariah Carey 合作发行的《甜蜜的一天》(One Sweet Day)在榜首的宝座上蝉联了16周。
1996年，在亚特兰大奥运会的闭幕式上，他们演唱了美国的国歌。
在合作伙伴Babyface、Jimmy Jam和Terry Lewis的敦促下，Boyz II Men的新专辑《发展》(Evolution)于1997年9月出版发行。其中有13首歌曲是乐队自己或与人合作完成的。
[歌词讲解]
1. 这一段的歌词比较长，You taught me everything，And everything you've given me I'll always keep it inside你教会我所有的东西，你给我的一切，我都会珍藏在内心深处。keep it inside就是说keep everything you've given me inside my heart。
2. the driving force，表示“一种动力”，跟motivation差不多。这里是说妈妈总是鼓励他，给他信心，使他成长。
3. have someone by one's side，表示“有某人在身边”。这句歌词是一个虚拟语气的句子。
4. down在歌词里的意思是“心情或情绪低落，消沉的”，也可以是down-hearted，例如，Don't be so down-hearted; things will get better. 别那么垂头丧气，事情会好起来的。关于down还有一个习语，可能大家不常见，就是be down on sb，对某人感到、表示或表达出不满。 She's terribly down on people who don't do things her way. 她对不按她要求做事的人很反感。down也可以做名词组成习语have a down on sb/sth，表示“讨厌或敌视某人/某事物，比如说，She has a down on me and I don't even know why. 她很讨厌我，我都不知道为什么。
5. girl这个词大家很熟悉了，意思是“女孩，年轻的女子”，但是英语中girl实际上可以用来表示任何年龄段的女人，还可以表示某种类型的女人，不管是年轻还是年老，比如说，She's the new girl in the office. 她是办公室的新人。如果年龄很大，还可以说old girl，举个例子，He married the old girl who owns the sweet shop. 他跟糖果店的女掌柜结了婚。所以这里歌词中说妈妈，You will always be the girl in my life 就不奇怪了。
6. queen在歌词中表示“最好的或最重要的女子、地方或事物”。比如说，Agatha Christie is the queen of detective-story writers. 阿加沙·克里斯蒂是最杰出的侦探小说女作家。
7. food to my soul字面翻译过来就是“灵魂的食物”，也就是说，如果对妈妈的爱没有了，灵魂也就无法存在，当然生命也无法延续，所以这里我们就翻译成“爱你就像爱生命”。
8. when I was bad，就是说“我不顺利的时候，倒霉的时候”，跟第一段当中的When I am down所表达的意义差不多。
9. 这里的right 和wrong都成了名词，表示“是非对错”，比如说，He doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. 他是非不分。歌词中的show me right from wrong，就是说“妈妈告诉我哪些事情做错了，告诉我怎样做才是正确的。”。
10. 这里take up表示“提携某人，支持某人”，比如说，The singer was taken up by a famous producer. 那个歌手受到了一位著名音乐制作人的提携。
11. down这里成了动词，可以表示“将某人打倒在地”，引申一下我们就不难知道，在歌词中when everyone was downing me就是说“当所有人都贬低我，瞧不起我的时候”。
12. go on，表示“继续往前走，继续进行”，也可以用carry on来代替，You gave me strength to go on 就可以说成You gave me strength to carry on。
13. face这里的意思是说“面对现实，直面困难，不逃避”，跟confront with something差不多，也有“挑战困难”的意味，比如说，You have to face the fact that she's better at chess than you. 你必须面对她的棋艺比你高的事实。