Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife" (German: "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer") is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera (German: Die Dreigroschenoper).
The song tells of a knife-wielding criminal of the London underworld named Macheath, the "Mack the Knife" of the title.
In The Threepenny Opera, the Moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard).
The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister whose crimes included rape and murder, transforming him into a modern antihero.
The song was a last-minute addition that was inserted before its premiere in 1928 because Harald Paulsen, the actor who played Macheath, demanded that Brecht and Weill add another number that would more effectively introduce his character.
[3] At the premiere, though, the barrel organ failed, and the pit orchestra (a jazz band) had to quickly provide the accompaniment for the street singer.
[5] This is followed by tales of his crimes including a murder on the Strand, the disappearance of a wealthy man and theft of his money, a fatal stabbing of a woman, an arson that killed seven children in Soho, and the rape of a young widow.
The song was translated into French as "La complainte de Mackie" by André Mauprey and Ninon Steinhoff and popularized by Catherine Sauvage.
The best-known English translation of the song comes from Marc Blitzstein's 1954 version of The Threepenny Opera, which played Off-Broadway for over six years.
[9] The opening stanza reads: Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear, And he shows them pearly white Just a jack-knife has Macheath, dear And he keeps it out of sight[10] Blitzstein's version is a loose translation of the German lyrics; some lines on the crimes of Macheath have been omitted, and he included a verse not in the original, giving a list of female characters in the drama.
[11] The lyrics were further sanitized in the original Broadway cast recording (with Gerald Price as the ballad singer) with two stanzas on Macheath's assaults on women replaced.
[6] In 1976, a brand-new interpretation of "Mack the Knife" by Ralph Manheim and John Willett was used in the New York Shakespeare Festival's production of The Threepenny Opera, starring Raul Julia as Macheath.
This version, simply known as "Moritat", is an extension of the story with completely new lyrics that expound upon the tales of Macheath's trail of activity.
This interpretation was performed by Sting on Hal Willner's 1985 Weill tribute album Lost in the Stars and also recorded by Nick Cave in the late 1990s.
A much darker translation by Robert David MacDonald and Jeremy Sams into English was used for the 1994 Donmar Warehouse theatrical production in London.
The new translation attempted to recapture the original tone of the song: Though the shark's teeth may be lethal Still you see them white and red But you won't see Mackie's flick knife Cause he slashed you and you're dead.
[15] The song, titled "A Theme from The Threepenny Opera (Mack the Knife)", was released in late 1955 together with an instrumental version by Murphy, both by Columbia.
[28] Musicians who played on the song included Don Lamond on drums, Milt Hinton on bass, and Doc Severinsen on trumpet.
[30] Darin's version has similar lyrics to Armstrong's but with small changes, such as using the word "babe" instead of "dear', and he ended the song with a reprise of the sixth verse instead of the first.
[41] In 1999, the 1959 release of the song by Bobby Darin on the Atco Records label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
[75] while Sting and Dominic Muldowney recorded it for the 1985 tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill.
[76] Other notable versions include performances by Mark Lanegan, Dave Van Ronk, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tony Bennett, Anita O'Day (in an arrangement by Jimmy Giuffre), Marianne Faithfull, Brian Setzer, Dr. John, Ute Lemper, King Kurt,[77] Bing Crosby, Eartha Kitt,[78] The Psychedelic Furs, David Cassidy (in At the Copa), Westlife, The Doors, and Michael Bublé.
[55][79] Swiss band The Young Gods radically reworked the song in industrial style on their 1991 album The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill as "Mackie Messer", Deana Martin recorded "Mack the Knife" on her second studio album, Volare, released in 2009 by Big Fish Records.
[81] Salsa musician Rubén Blades recorded an homage entitled "Pedro Navaja" (Razor Pete).
