I have heard various versions of “Mack the Knife,” but Darin’s was the one I heard most often–I was about 10 at the time (1959) and didn’t understand any of the lyrics.
In 1994, however, I went to the Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles; it’s part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The linear exhibit detailing the rise of Hitler to power (it ends, fittingly enough, in a replica of the Auschwitz gas chamber :() includes a scene at an outdoor restaurant, in which Weil’s melody is played. One of the people at the restaurant is Dr. Josef Mengele. 
A woman I went to the museum with, one time, is of Russian Jewish ancestry. The museum had less of an impact on her than I hoped it would, but she has told me she particularly detests the melody Weil wrote–probably because to Jews it has Nazi connotations.
They teach this in high school? I just took Gay’s play in a graduate studies seminar, and I can’t believe it would have a great deal of relevance for anyone who wasn’t given ample information about the brutal conditions of 17th/18th century British society. The whole concept of prisons and jails at that time (where a good chunk of the play is set) is from another world, I swear. I especially find amusing the fact that you were expected to pay the jailer a “gratuity” for his services - and that you could also pay him to provide you with relative comforts, like less-chafing handcuffs and such.
FWIW, the tacked-on ending was a satirical swipe at the wildly popular Italian operas of the day, which contained happy endings no matter how far-fetched they would be plotwise.
I’m not sure I understand … was she disturbed because of the juxtaposition in that display, or is there some other reason I’m not aware of? Weill’s work was harshly criticized by the Nazis, most obviously because he was Jewish. This was the main reason he left Germany. Perhaps she didn’t like the fact that so many people had to leave the country, and the song made her think of that?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike *
Second favorite: the “Moritat” from Saxophone Colossus, the 1956 jazz masterpiece with Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone, the recently-deceased Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Max Roach on drums.
YES! You are sharp, Ukelele Ike!
Yes, Brecht (and to a lesser extent) Weill were concerned with social injustice and socialist principles. Their left-wing connections put them on the Nazi enemies list very early on.
I have read that the mere whistling of the song was a subversive activity in thirties Germany. No cite available, sorry.
As frequently elsewhere, Brecht and Weill marry beautiful melodies to ugly lyrics. This is kind of an extension of the “verfremdungseffekt” or alienation effect, that was an attempt to have theatre-goers NOT identify with the characters, but rather, sit back unaffected by emotion and judge the rights and wrongs (usually in a political sense) of the situation presented.
So to the haunting evocative strains of the melody are set lyrics about children burned in a house fire, obviously lit by Mack, a body “oozing life”, and Macky spending like a sailor and the quatrain:
There was rape down by the harbour
Little Suzie caused a stir,
Claiming that she’d been assaulted
Wonder what got into her?
The Moritat is the “theme” of the show. It opens the proceedings and (I think) closes them, after the Happy End. The show is dirge-y and drab if it’s performed badly, just as Oklahoma, or Bye Bye Birdie is. Performd with good musical sensibilities it is jazzy, seductive and disturbing.
I think others are correct in outlining how the song became prominent. The Off-Broadway production (in which Bea Arthur had a leading role - as Lucy Brown from memory) probably prompted Louis to record it, then Bobby, and it was his version that became very popular.
But to me the version that works best is whistled, late at night by a man in a raincoat, walking alone into the shadows down a wet cobble-stone alley.
Redboss
I see your point… This woman, however, also dislikes the melody of “Greensleeves”/“What Child Is This?” for no reason I can muster. I know it’s unconventional because it’s in Dorian mode and perhaps hard for some to assimilate. She and I were in a college singing class; an “art” song I sang for the Final Recital was “Greensleeves”; hers was “O Wali, Wali,” which I never heard anywhere else; I know nothing about its composer.
Well, she also doesn’t like raw tomatoes…
For my own part, when I was 10 years old in 1959, Darin’s line about “Lucy Brown” made me think of “Peanuts.” Good Grief!