Mack the Knife is so violent! What is up with that song? Does anyone know what it’s supposed to mean? It seems strange that a song that is more violent than most rap music was sung (and VERY popular) such a long time ago.
Bits and pieces of the lyrics:
"Ya know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy 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, eek
And 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"
What’s up with that?
"Ya know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe Sharks are known for violent attacks. Scarlet billows start to spread When a shark attacks, there is no mistaking it. Massive wounds cause a large loss of blood. Fancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe So there’s never, never a trace of red MacHeath, on the other hand, is more stealthy. He covers his tracks, and wearing gloves keeps the blook off of his hands and his fingerprints from getting on the crime scene.
Now on the sidewalk, huh, huh, whoo sunny morning, un huh Lies a body just oozin’ life, eek There’s a deader on the pavement. And someone’s sneakin’ ‘round the corner Could that someone be Mack the Knife? Is that “Mac the Knife” sneaking around the corner? Did he do it?
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 The bag of cement is to weight down the body that it is attachetd to. Five’ll get ya ten old Macky’s back in town" I’ll betcha Mac did it.
It’s actually from a musical, the Threepenny Opera. It’s the theme of the main character, a womanizing man named Mackie who is quick with his blade. He’s very -very- much an antihero, perhaps even a villain. On the flipside, I seem to remember that there’s really -no one- in the musical that -is- a good, decent person, so take that as you will.
ArrrMatey is correct. The Threepenny Opera is by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. “Mack the Knife” is the first song, performed by a narrator/prologue type character. It introduces the protagonist as a nasty piece of work who will seduce various girls and kill people throughout the following show.
Brechtian theater depends on a “distancing” effect (I forget the term he came up with for it) that asks the audience not to get caught up in the story but to always maintain their objectivity and think about what they’re seeing. Performances of Brecht will often feature written signage, visible costume changes (not naked, you pervs; just a quick switch of hat and jacket or something similar), and other ways to remind the audience of the artificiality of the onstage proceedings.
So in adapting the much-older show The Beggar’s Opera, Brecht and Weill chose to create a verbal overture that says to the audience, in no uncertain terms, “This play’s hero is an evil man.”
Now, how this rather specific bit of theatrical alienation (that’s the term I was looking for! yay memory) got transformed into an innocuous lounge standard… that’s the mystery to me.
P.S. By the way, I’ve done this show. I played Readymoney Matt, and I reorchestrated “Pirate Jenny” since the actress had a highly atypical singing range. Based on my work in that show, I was asked to compose a brand-new complete score for a new adaptation of Mother Courage the following year. The point is, other than the reinvention of the tune in question as a Bobby Darin finger-snapper, I know whereof I speak.
The effect Cervaise referred to is the Verfremdungseffekt, or V-Effekt for short, and it’s as described.
A lot of Weill’s music was intentionally in contrast with the lyrics - the Kanonen-song (about soldiers in India massacring each other) is pretty catchy too.
Another thing about “Mack the Knife” in particular is that it’s a Moritat, which was a way of singing the news, usually about some murderous deeds. (“Murder Ballad” is a similar English expression, but a Moritat is not exclusively about murder. ) If you ever see the 1931 movie version of the play, the song is sung in a distinctively bland, organ grinder style, the way a Moritat traditionally would have been sung.
Another thing: the song is damn catchy. I think its a rag. The song which is happy and cheerful and under this tale of a murderer, rapist, arsonist, gangster, etc. It was written in 1923 by Germans who were blue also the War, Versailles, and the economy. Brecht and Weill seem to be making the point that no one is looking out for anyone anymore. The words and the music don’t see eye to eye just like people don’t see eye to eye anymore. The Beatles did something similar in the '60s with “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” a song about a hammer murderer that also has a catchy bouncy tune under it.
Be really careful if you start tracking down some different versions of this song. Bobby Darin kicks and jams, of course. But Ella Fitzgerald forgets the words (and not in a good way) and the less said about the Frank Sinatra/Jimmy Buffet duet, the better.
My favourite will always be the dirge-like original german-lyric version that Ernie Kovacs used (with just an oscilloscope for visuals,) on his indescribably psychedelic 1950’s television program. You know the one.
On PBS, they aired old episodes of “The Dinah Shore Show” which had a duet between Dinah and Pearl Bailey singing “Mack the Knife.” Pearl was priceless as she provided an explanation of each line in kind of an echo style after Dinah sang it. What a great performer Miss Bailey was, quite expressive and entertaining.
Bobby Darin. Frank Sinatra. Tony Bennet. These guys were the OG’s (original gangsters). I love gangster rap to no end, but I love the old crooners who sang about (and for) gangsters. They did it with style and flare. Back when being a gangster was about wearing cool suits and hats while you engage in your murderish thugging. Nowadays the gangsters outfits all look like walking adds for Foot Locker clothes. Give me a pinstripe, a crooner crooning, a stiff drink and a loose broad anyday.
Earlier this week at a Dj gig I mixed Frank Sinatra into Biggie. Alot of people were kind of like “What the Fuck?” but in my mind the two were of the same cloth just different times and neigborhoods. They are all singing about the same thing. Women, booze, and gangsters. . .
The best version is the one sung, in German, by Lotte Lenya who was married to Weill. That is full of dark menace. BTW Lenya is the lady with knives in her shoes in the James Bond film " From Russia with Love"
Bob Dylan’s “Oxford Town” is another example of a song in which the lyrics and music are in sharp contrast. The music is fairly upbeat and happy-sounding, but the lyrics are about civil rights activists getting clubbed by Mississippi police circa early 1960s.