文／夏禮章
作曲人與鄉村流行歌手Joe South九月5日不幸去世（72歲），由他作曲而由Lynn Anderson唱紅的(I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden和自己唱紅的Games People Play曾經非常受到歌迷們的喜歡。
Joe South(圖／翻攝自網路)出生於喬治亞州亞特蘭大，本名Joseph Souter，當他還是一個青少年的時候就開始寫歌了，同時還在唱片公司的樂隊彈吉他，他參加過Aretha Franklin的歌Chain of Fools，Bob Dylan的專輯Blonde On Blonde和 Tommy Roe的Sheila這些名歌的錄音工作，1969年Joe終於以Games People Play獲得12名而於流行歌壇成名。
Joe South其它知名作品有1970年的Walk A Mile In My Shoes，Billy Joe Royal的Down In The Boondocks和Deep Purple的Hush。
Joe於 1979年獲選進入鄉村歌曲之都納許維爾的作曲家名人堂，2003年則進入喬治亞音樂名人堂。
Games People Play這首歌於1969年獲得Grammy年度歌曲獎。
Games People Play
Joe South
Oh the games people play now
Every night and every day now
Never meaning what they say now
Never saying what they mean
And they wile away the hours
In their ivory towers
Till they're covered up with flowers
In the back of a black limousine
[Chorus:]
La-da da da da da da da
La-da da da da da de
Talking 'bout you and me
And the games people play
Oh we make one another cry
Break a heart then we say goodbye
Cross our hearts and we hope to die
That the other was to blame
Neither one will give in
So we gaze at our eight by ten
Thinking 'bout the things that might have been
It's a dirty rotten shame
[Chorus]
People walking up to you
Singing glory hallelulia
And they're tryin to sock it to you
In the name of the Lord
They're gonna teach you how to meditate
Read your horoscope, cheat your faith
And further more to hell with hate
Come on and get on board
[Chorus]
Look around tell me what you see
What's happening to you and me
God grant me the serenity
To remember who I am
Cause you've given up your sanity
For your pride and your vanity
Turns you sad on humanity
And you don't give a da da da da da
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