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Mack The Knife
Casebook Message Boards: Ripper Media: General Discussion:
Mack The Knife
Author: Edana
Wednesday, 30 December 1998 - 08:27 am |        | On my way to work this morning, they played Kurt Weil's music for The Threepenny Opera and I was forced to remember something. I remember those songs and particularly the Mack the Knife song from when I was very young indeed. My father was very eclectic in his tastes and we used to sing that song all the time...something about a body oozing life....who's that sneaking round the corner...is that someone Mack The Knife? Of course I think most of us are familiar with the more modern version of the song...was it Bobby Darren who sang it? But I have these memories of that song and the images that formed in my head were the same ones that are there when I'm reading about JTR. Very scary indeed in a sort of a cold blooded killer way. I know next to nothing about the Threepenny Opera...was it Bertold Brecht? Is Mack The Knife supposed to be JTR?
Edana |
Author: Edana
Wednesday, 30 December 1998 - 09:03 am | | Ok, a little websearching has provided some answers. Here are the lyrics, transcribed directly from Bobby Darin's version of Mack The Knife:
Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dearAnd it shows them pearly white
Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babeAnd he keeps it, ah, out of sight
Ya know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spreadFancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe
So there’s never, never a trace of red
Now on the sidewalk, huh, huh, whoo sunny morning, un huh
Lies a body just oozin' life, eekAnd someone’s sneakin' ‘round the corner
Could that someone be Mack the Knife?
There's a tugboat, huh, huh, down by the river dontcha know
Where a cement bag’s just a'drooppin' on down
Oh, that cement is just, it's there for the weight, dear
Five'll get ya ten old Macky’s back in town
Now d'ja hear ‘bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe
After drawin' out all his hard-earned cash
And now MacHeath spends just like a sailor
Could it be our boy's done somethin' rash?
Now Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Sukey Tawdry
Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy BrownOh, the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky’s back in townI said Jenny Diver, whoa, Sukey Tawdry
Look out to Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Yes, that line forms on the right, babeNow that Macky’s back in town
Look out, old Macky's back!!
Sounds like JTR to me.
The film version of The Threepenny Opera (1931-German)Die Dreigrochenoper is available. I can't imagine how I never saw this either on film or on stage. Just another book/film/video I've got to put on my 'must see' list.
Edana |
Author: Yazoo
Wednesday, 30 December 1998 - 11:39 am | | Hey, Edana!
The Brecht-Weill opera is an update of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) an English parody of Italian opera. There is a film starring Sir Laurence Olivier in a version of Gay's "opera" called, oddly enough, The Beggar's Opera (1953) directed by Peter Brook. There was also a revival on Broadway that starred the late Raoul Julia as Macheath...I think there's a CD of it, not sure of any video though.
In the older, Gay version, Macheath is a highwayman. Brecht-Weill's update, according to the introduction to the Arcade Publishing paperback of The Threepenny Opera/Baal/Mother, Macheath "became an arsonist, murderer, and rapist in white kid gloves."
Brecht-Weill's Macheath is seen in sort of Marxist terms, as an underworld figure who threatens the profits of large capitalist businesses and their owners/managers. So, while the Brecht-Weill Macheath may have borrowed some traces from JtR, I don't think he was meant to be seen as a JtR-type figure...only the mirror-image of the evil capitalists.
Did you ever hear the original version, sung in German? Those people from the Peanut-Gallery-Chatroom who may be loitering know my feelings on things German, but I still think the German version is creepy as sh**!!!
Yaz |
Author: Edana
Wednesday, 30 December 1998 - 01:29 pm | | Cool, Yaz. I'll have to be courageous and get the German version...dusting off my ancient collegiate German in anticipation. It reminds me of Burrough's/Waits The Black Rider too ( I should send you a copy), that German Expressionistic sort of thing in cabarats and such. Marx...I must confess I never let anything political sink into my grossly left-sided brain, but I did like Duck Soup, Monkey Business and Horsefeathers. Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you ever heard? (My apologies to Groucho)
Edana |
Author: Yazoo
Wednesday, 30 December 1998 - 03:27 pm | | There's a 1985 LP (don't know about a CD version) called "Lost in the Stars" that contains cover versions of Kurt Weill songs by rock stars, jazz musicians, and classical musicians, with about 4 songs from Threepenny Opera. People like Sting, Todd Rundgren, Charlie Haden/Sharon Freeman, Lou Reed, Marianne Faithfull/Chris Spedding, Tom Waits, are on it.
I do have the CD with "The Black Riders." Have to dig it out and give a listen again.
Yaz |
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