# "Mack the Knife" - what a weird song! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509 "2006-04-27T20:59:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/21 "2006-04-28T00:09:14Z")
My favorite version of _Moritatensanger_ is Wolfgang Neuss’ warbly, pinch-voiced rendition that Ernie Kovacs so often used to comic effect on his show. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/22 "2006-04-28T03:27:21Z")
Anytime I hear any version of this song all I can hear is Steve Martin doing it on the old SNL. He sort of scatted/mumbled all the lyrics until he got to “Pearly white” which he would scream in a very throaty course way. Sounded funnier than it describes… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/23 "2006-04-28T03:46:02Z")
> [@Hail Ants](#): > > Anytime I hear any version of this song all I can hear is Steve Martin doing it on the old SNL. He sort of scatted/mumbled all the lyrics until he got to “Pearly white” which he would scream in a very throaty course way. I saw him do that on “Steve Martin Live,” and it’s been a running joke in my family ever since. The kicker is the way he forgets all the words and keeps repeating those two lines, then starts miming the “sharks” with his hands. Describing it doesn’t do it justice. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/24 "2006-04-28T04:05:14Z")
Gotta correct the correction … > [@Marley23](#): > > Lotte Lenya played Pirate Jenny. Actually the character’s name is Jenny Diver, a name that’s referenced in the song along with her friend and fellow ho, good ol’ Suky Tawdry. Jenny does sing a rather self-referential song called “Pirate Jenny.” Which is gorgeous and probably my favorite song in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/25 "2006-04-28T04:07:15Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Actually the character’s name is Jenny Diver, a name that’s referenced in the song along with her friend and fellow ho, good ol’ Suky Tawdry. This is what happens around here when you decide that some information is extraneous. Long as I’m here, has anybody else seen the version of _Threepenny Opera_ that just opened in New York? ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/26 "2006-04-28T04:11:58Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > …You simply must see the tribute to Darin by Kevin Spacey, [_Beyond The Sea_,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363473/) which is one of the most unsung movies of a musical nature in recent times. A labor of love by Spacey and a decent bio on Darin. FWIW, I wholeheartedly agree with Zeldar’s recommendation. I have the original Broadway Cast album of the 1954 Soundtrack that has Lotte Lenya **but** has Beatrice Arthur (from the TV series _Maude_) that plays Lucy Brown. The original _Beggars Opera_ is set in London in 1837 at the dawn of the Victorian era and Weill and Brecht used it as take off of modern (1930’s) Germany (read anti-Nazi). Another very interesting version is (BTW it was titled _Die Dreigroschenoper_ by Weill & Brecht) is the 1995 London soundtrack recording of the Donmar Warehouse Production of the Threepenny Opera. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/27 "2006-04-28T04:19:58Z")
> [@Waterman](#): > > The original _Beggars Opera_ is set in London in 1837 at the dawn of the Victorian era and Weill and Brecht used it as take off of modern (1930’s) Germany (read anti-Nazi). The play was written in 1928. As **WotNot** says in the linked thread, the play is not an attack on Nazism. Brecht being a socialist, the show’s main target is the middle class. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/28 "2006-04-28T04:29:50Z")
C’mon. We all know the best version was Steve Martin on SNL 😃 He kept mumbling over all the lyrics except when he got to “pearly white”, all the while doing the shark mouth with his pinky. Comedy gold, I tells ya! ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/29 "2006-04-28T04:31:45Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The play was written in 1928. As **WotNot** says in the linked thread, the play is not an attack on Nazism. Brecht being a socialist, the show’s main target is the middle class. Brecht - Weill’s \*Threepenny Opera \* was wriitten in 1928 and it is a takeoff of the British _Beggars Opera_. FYI, an attack on the middle class was an affront to the Nationalist Socialists, who even in the late 20’s and 30’s were interested in putting down the Communists and the Jews and building up the middle and upper classes who had suffered the indignities at Versailles. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/30 "2006-04-28T04:58:38Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > My mom actually knew Bobby Darin. They grew up in the same Italian neighborhood in the Bronx on 138th Street. She was best friends with a girl that lived in the same building on the ground floor. He was a nice kid that would tag-a-long with the teen-age Girls sometimes. > She said he was a pretty nice skinny little kid but couldn’t believe it when she realized Bobby Darin was little Bobby from the neighborhood. > > My Father says his Sister (Mom) was kind of crazy. She use to smoke out on the fire escape while wearing skirts sometimes without panties on. Apparently she was popular entertainment for the neighborhood boys. (No TV or Internet in those days of course). Apparently she could curse up a blue streak also. > > I have heard Sinatra liked him and set him up with some Vegas Gigs. > > Jim I swear I am not trying to be offensive, but this line: > [@](#): > > My Father says his Sister (Mom) was kind of crazy. left me really wondering. I **know** I am missing something and your Father’s Sister was not also your Mom, but I guess I am missing the point. As to Bronx lineage – I have been out on Arthur Avenue (Dominick’s is okay, Mario’s may be more consistently reliable), and actually saw a couple of interviews with Dion DiMucci (interestingly, a re-convert to Catholicism–he rather surprisingly and eruditely cited the Epistle to Timothy in explaining his reversion to the Faith of his Italian Fathers). His account of his life on the streets of the Bronx was very neat, and the doo wop culture that gave rise to him, Darin, et al., is an interesting chapter in U.S. history. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/31 "2006-04-28T05:13:12Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > I swear I am not trying to be offensive, but this line: > > left me really wondering. I **know** I am missing something and your Father’s Sister was not also your Mom, but I guess I am missing the point.y. Heh. Bobby Darin discovered rather late in his life (which admittedly wasn’t very long) that the woman he’d thought was his sister was actually … his mom. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/32 "2006-04-28T05:14:36Z")
> [@Waterman](#): > > Brecht - Weill’s Threepenny Opera was wriitten in 1928 and it is a takeoff of the British Beggars Opera. I’m aware. > [@](#): > > FYI, an attack on the middle class was an affront to the Nationalist Socialists, who even in the late 20’s and 30’s were interested in putting down the Communists and the Jews and building up the middle and upper classes who had suffered the indignities at Versailles. I’m sure they were offended, but it’s still not a takeoff on 1930s Nazi Germany. It wasn’t written in the '30s, and the Nazis weren’t running the country at the time. How does it go after the Nazis? Granted that I saw a new translation, but I see the play targeting anybody in the middle class who considers himself moral, law-abiding and generally swell. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/33 "2006-04-28T05:22:27Z")
There’s an excellent documentary, **September Songs** , which came out about 10 years ago: it intersperses an account of Weill’s life with performances of his songs by such luminaries as David Johansen, PJ Harvey, Elvis Costello and Lou Reed. Nick Cave performs “Mack the Knife” as if he were born to sing it, which he probably was. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/34 "2006-04-28T05:39:33Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Nick Cave performs “Mack the Knife” as if he were born to sing it, which he probably was. I. Must. Hear. This. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/35 "2006-04-28T05:55:09Z")
I knew about Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” since I heard it as a child in the 70’s. My father would play his old records. Then I heard it as the McDonald’s theme music for a series of “Mac Tonight” commercials. But when I heard Lyle Lovett’s version of “Moritat” during the end credits of the film “Quiz Show,” I thought it sounded familiar. The lyrics to “Moritat” are a lot more graphic than Darin’s “Mack the Knife.” About the melody, while in college taking a music appreciation class, the professor Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No.1” During its third movement, there is a variation of the song “Frere Jacques” included. It reminded me of the “Moritat” tune as well. ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/36 "2006-04-28T07:04:02Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m aware. > > I’m sure they were offended, but it’s still not a takeoff on 1930s Nazi Germany. It wasn’t written in the '30s, and the Nazis weren’t running the country at the time. How does it go after the Nazis? Granted that I saw a new translation, but I see the play targeting anybody in the middle class who considers himself moral, law-abiding and generally swell. I apologize for the slight hijack but - the Nazis gained some measure of fame (or recognition if you will) back in 1923 and, while they didn’t take complete control of the government until 1933, they had certainly become a force. I believe that either Brecht and/or Weill were eventually chased out of Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/37 "2006-04-28T07:06:26Z")
> [@Waterman](#): > > I apologize for the slight hijack but - the Nazis gained some measure of fame (or recognition if you will) back in 1923 and, while they didn’t take complete control of the government until 1933, they had certainly become a force. They sure did, and I’m not arguing with that at all. > [@](#): > > I believe that either Brecht and/or Weill were eventually chased out of Germany. They both left in 1933. ---
**Author:** ![Quint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/76d3ee/32.png) [@Quint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quint)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/38 "2006-04-28T08:10:19Z")
Another lover of “Mack the Knife” here. I remember when Ice-T claimed to be the “O.G.” (Original Gangsta) Later I decided that Johnny Cash was the O.G. (“I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.”) Finally, I realized that ol’ Mackie was the O.G. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/39 "2006-04-28T08:22:55Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > There’s an excellent documentary, **September Songs** , which came out about 10 years ago: it intersperses an account of Weill’s life with performances of his songs by such luminaries as David Johansen, PJ Harvey, Elvis Costello and Lou Reed. Nick Cave performs “Mack the Knife” as if he were born to sing it, which he probably was. On a similar note - the excellent Swiss Industrial band, The Young Gods, put out a whole CD of Kurt Weill covers : “The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill”. Their “September Song” and “Seerauber Jenny” are great, but it’s their “Mackie Messer” that I keep going back to. Pure Genius. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2006, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509/40 "2006-04-28T08:25:33Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > I. Must. Hear. This. [The CD of the soundtrack is out there](http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1239725/a/September+Songs+The+Music+Of+Kurt+Weill.html), although sadly [the movie itself](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114392/) {ignore Serva from Sweden: he’s a jerk} doesn’t seem to be out on DVD; my own copy is a battered old video taped off late-night Japanese cable years back. A shame: the performers really do _perform_ the songs, and it needs to be seen as well as heard: Nick Cave really gets into the story of Macheath in characteristic striding and gesticulating style. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mack-the-knife-what-a-weird-song/354509.md?page=3)