Anne Kerry Ford Sings "Pirate Jenny" by Kurt Weill

[gvanderleun]

Now that is very, very well done.

[Candyberry2006]

Less dramatic than Ute Lemper but did a good job on her softly voice, my choice's still Nina Simone.

[TuboEspectador]

Quite good! All the emotion and all the imagination. It had my attention. I had to check that the Black Freighter wasn't docked up in our town!

[actclicksmile]

This makes me want to swear appreciatively . Love it.

[gadaichie]

i know the versions of lotte lenay, gisela may and sonja kehler, but this version cab compete

[black1399]

i like the dresden dolls / amanda palmers version

[valeriemci1]

Excellent rendition of this song!!! I love the expressions she gave as she sang.

[normanthepig]

This is really great, and she's best when she plays it small. nice!

[fsklrk]

I like nina simone's, its more vulgar and vicious.

[jamespriceAK]

she scares me like she has a gremlin in her

[Persephonie22]

Anne Kerry Ford sings beautifully. =)~

[martha6742]

Super :P

[biegunkaelo]

she's pretty good as a singer

[purelyshameless]

awesome!

[blackbird107]

Wow I'm the odd one out. This version is horrible to me. The Donmar Warehouse version is so much better. She's not even trying to sing it like it's meant to be sung. It's not suppose to be pretty. She's trying to change the whole rhythm of the song.

[WhiteDragonTile]

@blackbird107 no, it's supposed to show frustration and rage. just listen to te lyrics, there is nothing pretty and singable about them.

[wbeaty]

Un bel notte vedremo! The arrival of the ship, the distant cannon in the harbor, and what happens this time as her man approaches her abode.

[lachorvath]

WOW!!!! it's f good

[bobbyunavailable]

Absolutely love this version. Some versions try to camp it up. I prefer it sung with poison.

[BruenftigerElch91]

Very, very nais.

[RaimundoGuzman]

Beautiful performance, beautiful actress, beautiful play, beautiful music...

[UandMeKid]

You should try Betty Buckley's version from her Carnegie Hall concert CD( from 1996 or so). Dark, chilly and dramatic.

[topsamite]

Brilliant! Marvellously scary. Best English version of this song I knew.

[fringelily]

You've got to hear the version in the Donmar Warehouse production available on e-music ...sung with a Glasgow accent, in a new, even harsher translation and scary as hell.

[Wesbound1]

Soooo Goooood.....

Great performance.....

BRAVO

[MTVoodoo]

BRAVO!! BRAVOOO!!!!

[lazytom1946]

Wonderful - will look at Nina Simone's version. Love Judy Collins rendition

[marvy1118]

Judy Collins' gives me the shivers and scares my kids. It's sooooo evil.

[NoMorePigs]

Hers isnt that good.

So dark.

And this one isnt on watchmen nina simones is.

[affectivity]

I saw Ellen Greene perform this in a NYC production decades ago. I loved it, and her performance became my standard. Ford does a creditable job.

[waygeta]

She performed this how it was meant to be done, and nina's is also good, but kerry hear does this like a pro

[imaaaaaaaaaaan]

I prefer Nina Simone's version... majorly.

[skie878]

This was a great Idea to do this song no if we can just get them to remake roots and cast george bush as kunta kente that would be just swell

[Rundleguy]

i dont remember this on watchmen

[thewalkingman]

The Black Freighter comic book in Watchmen was named after this song.

[invaderGEO]

it's on the tales of the black freighter extras thingy which'll be on the dvd ;] if you read the back of the soundtrack's cd you'll see.

[JSWright101]

This is a really brilliant performance.

[embigmoose]

This version seems embarrassing compared to Nina Simone's

[Straaasse]

defo the most vicious interpretation of the song and a truely wonderful one! - obviously the contrast between "innocence" of the OV and lyrics is gone. But the English translation is the best I have seen so far and really caught the meaning - except for the last lines which are poorly translated "That'll learn ya!" :(

[Ice3461]

watchmen.. has some sweet references

[avapepper]

She reminds me of Gloria Swanson a bit. Great performance.

[inesparis]

this woman has an amazing face... fascinating. i watched this 7 times and every time is good as the last .

[TheMaryoftheAnn]

She's good, but...hm, I prefer Ute Lemper singing it.

[googygok]

I think, it's a nice performance - but since I'm german I see the weaknesses of the translation. Has any of you ever listened to Bea Arthurs version on her Just between friends CD? I liked that one very much.

[stefanifan2]

I must agree. I really enjoyed Bea's voice with this song even though she didn't even play that role.

[sailorsdoxy]

Nina Simone owns this!!

[None129]

I wish I could find a version of Nina Simone singing this.

[OneDeadMFA]

it's on the Watchmen soundtrack

[imaaaaaaaaaaan]

Well, it's definitely on the Watchmen Soundtrack album!

[Frissoneuse]

This was wonderful. I admit I am partial to the Lotte Lenya, it is the version I grew up with. Yeah, nice song for kids. But I love Ford's expressiveness. Although some of it reminds me of a crazy Gloria Swanson at the end of Sunset Boulevard, especially the eyebrows!

[nubient]

Fantastic Performance

Although I prefer 'Hopla' to 'That'll learn ya!'

[streetswell]

She's no Nina Simone

[ilovemess]

a master at work!

[JamaQu]

Those eyes!

[RockyInes]

Und sie wissen NICHT mit wem sie reden^^

[purelyshameless]

AWESOME!

what a charisma this lady has! let alone her singing-skills.

that is the talent what Brecht/Weill-songs are made for!

[Rufriben]

Really enjoyed seeing this. I would suggest that anyone who has been properly inspired by Miss Ford to appreciate "Pirate Jenny" also seek Betty Buckley's gut wrenching rendition on her 1996 "Evening at Carnegie Hall" album.

[sheabreaux]

I just really think this is the quintessential version of this song. It has so much ferocity and depth - what an incredible artist Ms. Ford is!

[austinrowteam77]

if you think this is s great proformance get the cd of pirate jenny song by Nina Simone it will blow your mind!!!!

[shaydee0]

wow, i am amazed by her performance! so far i have not yet listened to many english translations of this song, but this one is the first that seems like a proper translation to me. its either that, or Annes amazing accentuation that makes her performance worthwile.

[Mavarla]

Great video, good sound quality, and intriguing performance. Wish there were clips of the 1976-77, New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Threepenny..." on YouTube (with Raul Julia as "Macheath"). I have the LP. I'm sure footage exists somewhere of this production but there's no DVD out. Anybody know for sure or not?

[bigapplebucky]

I too, have that LP, bought it right after seeing that show in a Wednesday matinee. IIRC, the tickets were $10 each. Amazing how prices have changed.

The translation they used in '76 is my favorite.

Nice performance here. I prefer this (deeper/richer) voice to the definitive Lotte Lenya.

[Mavarla]

How wise you were, to have actually seen this, in-person, back then! Memories like these are priceless and alas, unlike you, I missed it.

Yes, I agree in re the '76 translation and L. Lenya: Even though she originated the role and am sure both Weill and Brecht liked her rendition (?) from a musical-standpoint level it's a bit coarse on my ears

[Mavarla]

Further thought---might be rude to say this on someone else's video post, but the 1960s Hildegard Knef rendition "auf Deutsch" is the best

[JustPhil22]

Yeah right, that one's a pretty good version...but no one can express it as powerful and expressive as Hilde did in the 60's. To bad she died, there's no one to replace her conveniently yet =)

[Mavarla]

This lady (A.K. Ford) does a great job, but she just doesn't seem as loony as a criminally-vindicative "Pirate Jenny" ought to be! :-D Or, maybe, it's just Knef chopping off with the hard Teutonic tongue that makes one feel so adequately convinced. Given the level of über-feminism in modern German Kultur, though, it's only a matter of time before H. K. is surpassed...? Yikes---batten down the hatches!

[JustPhil22]

Interesting thoughts. But I don't believe anyone could ever surpass Hilde. Still today I often sense in productions of almost all german as well as of some international artists how much they took their inspiration from her performances. But none of them has the same range of mimes and gestics or even that ability to connect and change them so accordingly to the themes like Hilde did...her talent was pretty unique I guess.

[Mavarla]

Actually, I agree with you 100%: Hildegard Knef was an absolute original; a product of her times; I don't think any of the younger female German performers could approximate the kind of cynical rage that can only have been borne out of all that post-war devastation. Americans don't understand this, never having had to thoroughly rebuild hundreds of years of history the way Germany/Europe, and Japan, for instance, have...*not* to say this is *singularly* Knef's forte, but it figures, somewhat

[bigapplebucky]

@Mavarla The '76 translation has finally been posted. Search for "NYSF Threepenny Opera - 12 - Pirate Jenny".

[mynxiemonroe]

i quite like the crazyness of it. nobody beat marianne faithfull though - legend and a half! theres so many different versions of this song, some are really good.

[LittleFrankNFurter]

Eww....don't like this version.  I like her performance though... kind-a scary.

[Vittorimo]

she keeps looking like she forgot the lyrics for two seconds after "and you see me" and that takes away a ton. otherwise good emotion.

[hmshutton]

I think we should remember: 1) Kurt Weil's work was kept alive here in the US while Germany went nuts with the Nazi's; 2) Kurt Weil was so ashamed that when he got here he never spoke another word of German. Considering that he forged a second great career here in NYC, and that Lenya stayed on, I have no trouble hearing Americans singing him in "American". Actually, I find it appropriate.

Whatever Anne Kerry Ford is a miracle.

[cielomobile]

i think i'm just too used to the original, because although she does it quite well, i'd prefer if she stuck to the original score and didn't talk it so much. that and it's transposed way down.

[hoffmann9471]

Interesting and good interpretation, but English language is not made for this song/lyrics. She is sometimes a lit bit too theatralic at the end but I like here that there is only a piano. Everybody on utube knows that I prefere the Hildegard Knef interpretation (Hilde´s singing and acting the song but NOT the Big Band in the background).

[angelovondrez]

Ute Lemper, she did the best. I don't even know who this woman is. American accents should stay away from German Kurt Weill - It doesn't sound good.

[schmoodles]

I must disagree...I believe she got exactly what Kurt Weill was going for in this song. Haunting, dark and sinister.  To bring that much emotion to a song while just standing there takes great talent.

[blackpython]

I like half of this performance, and the other half I'm not so hot about. I like her singing the verses, but for some reason, the chorus annoys me. Maybe it's just because I'm so used to Lotte Lenya's version(s) of this song.

[dunjica77]

nobody like Nina Simone!!!

[jacobsimon]

I second that! her version makes your skin scrawl.

[angryunclemartin]

This woman is BRILLIANT! This is such an incredible, haunting, hair rasing performance. This made me love The Three Penny Opera. I've never seen a good performance of anything from this show until now. This woman is an incredible actress! and singer!

[MissAndyWarhol]

Kurt Weill is a genius, and Anne's voice did it total justice. Her vocal expression is impeccable. I love it!

[ladye8888]

WHY wasn't this CD nominated for a Grammy?

[bingotheraccoon]

WOW! FANTASTIC VOICE! This musical has some AWESOME DARK and SKANKY songs. I don't know why people aren't more head over heels about it.

[angryunclemartin]

it's probably because most people that have sung from it aren't as brilliant as this woman. I didn't even like this song until I saw/heard her sing it...and now I love it. She really is incredible, isn't she!

[bingotheraccoon]

SO VERY MUCH!!!

[Weillfanatic]

Yeah, Weill's woefully neglected in general, think the tide is turning though.

[smurfswacker]

This is indeed a good performance of the song. I wish people would give Marc Blitzstein proper credit for the English version of The Threepenny Opera. He did the adaptation of Brecht's play familiar to English-speaking audiences. Some songs (like this one) stayed close to the originals while others differed greatly (especially when they were "cleaned up" for 1950s theatergoers.) Personally I like both versions for different reasons.

[sheabreaux]

Ferociously brilliant. She so deeply digs into this song, it's downright hair-raising. I am haunted by this performance....fantastic!

[RenzoRienzi]

She does a nice job, as a concert piece, and has a good voice. But her characterization is not gritty enough (the character in the song is a lowly, abused bar maid). It would be interesting to see her in a full production of "The Threepenny Opera." Thanks for posting.

[desinga]

Fearless & fascinating. Miss Ford is an wonderful actress AND singer. This feels like the interpretation Kurt Weill had in mind when he wrote the song. Bravo.