Lotte Lenya sings Alabama Song (vaimusic.com)

[elneto7]

Wow great thanks for post it!!

[auditoryarmory]

The original = the best.

[OldieMusicMan]

@sissillian1 Thank you very much! What a shame, really . . . "Alabama" sounds so mystic. I was hoping it had some deeper meaning. :/

I'll be sure to look out for Mr. Spoto's book.

[OldieMusicMan]

Love this song! Love this singer!

PS, can someone tell me to what "Alabama" this song refers? I don't imagine it's the American state.

[clintpiercejr]

This is my grandmother. I remember sitting on her knee as a young child as she told me of a fellow named James Douglas Morrison, and how she ever so badly longed to cover this song that he wrote.

[ampletea]

Lotte Lenya ran with Brecht-Weill, who co-wrote explicitly Communist plays. She fled to Paris in 1933. Definitely not a fascist.

[GypsyFairy85]

@ampletea

She was married to Kurt Weill.

[charljenky29]

charlotte is a great name

[bigfolkie5418]

ROSA KLEBB from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

[brickbat44]

@bigfolkie5418 i´ts the shoes m8 and since a kid and i´d found out who the little evil rosa was and i´ve found out her background i love her WHAT A FUCKING LADYXX

[genesssa]

dave van ronk does a version that can't be beat, as good as lotte is! the doors' version is good but at LEAST third in my estimation.

g

[55werther]

Una autentica Actriz/Cantante, muy personal, un estilo unico. Era una Gran In-

terprete, verdaderamente, en este genero, solo ella sabia hacerlo.

[kieetnfuud]

Oops, terribly sorry, didn't read down and notice the Bowie remarks! :)

However to me, Morrisson's version is more truthful, somehow.

Perhaps because Jim did it "first" RnR-wise, but its an old Brecht number that Bowie captured as the character HE was. Just sayin.

[kieetnfuud]

David Bowie does an excellent version of this song as well, and played Brecht in a play he produced I think in 2006(?) Well worth the search!

[abraibra23]

doors copy this song, but their version is the best, a beautiful trip

[BeClaireful]

This is from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Weill's take on the dreadful spectre of fascism. You have to see the whole opera to really "get" it, I think, but it's not performed all that often, which is too bad.

[noff27]

I'd rather not compare this to the Door's version. Let each version be loved for themselves. That said, this is great!!!

[chrisvalentinemusic1]

i love this version  but also love bowie's one

[twobirdtattoo]

watch the movie "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" to see Lotte Lenya in a performance that won her an Oscar.

[Angel1964]

Wow!

[Angel1964]

Cool!

[cookmoore]

I think about Dadaism when I hear this, a bit demented and haunting. But I see she smiles anyway.

[ieatlotsoftoast]

she copied this off the doors

[DarkprinceCs]

@ieatlotsoftoast

Lol hardly. This song existed even before any member of the Doors was born.

[abn666]

@ieatlotsoftoast no Jim copied her :)

[onebaud]

@ieatlotsoftoast Methinks you are not too bright!

[tangchosun1]

Lotte Lenya acted as Colonel Rosa Klebb in the James Bond flick From Russia With Love. She looked pretty awful in the film. LOL.

[moonagedaydream201]

@tangchosun1 Holy crap, that was HER?

Learn something new every day...

[Gydinglight12]

I first heard this song in the mid 60s on a record by the Chad Mitchell Trio owned by someone in the dorm. None of us had ever heard of Kurt Weil, but the song was a shocker to college freshmen.

[mamamiabeara]

Love it.

[Hutcarlingos]

this is so fucking creepy... AWESOME CREEPY

[BLESSTHEIRAINIRELAND]

GREAT !!!

[ps3sucksassballs]

out of tune 

[mrsticks28]

Lotte Lenya. Who better to interpret her husband's music? And Lenya and Morrison are like apples and oranges... no comparison.

[RedWine2go]

Well she sings this a lot better than David Bowie's version of the song !!!

[57timmyb]

Bette Midler used to do this song in her live show. Certainly Ms Lenya must have been an early influence. She was an amazing talent. Watch her performance in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.

[areisdeus]

Amazing video. But it's also worth checking Nina Hagen's rendition of this song. Incredibly contained, maybe because she was performing with a full orchestra in Japan.

[neilismyusername]

To alexuniverse, I love you, and very much agree. To every one else, Kurt Weill or die, Morrison doesn't even enter into it.

[olgachefugge]

nice

[WuTangShogun36]

The Doors version is still pretty classic none the less. That's why i think they're better than the beatles and stones and everyone. cuz they are the only ones who had the guts to pull off something like that.

[sigimaster14]

the beatles had some good sonds but musicaly the doors are way better+jim morrisons voice is epic,, so that said the doors are wayyy better

[RUTHWEGNER]

geweldig, de muziek van mijn kindertijd

[Saiaton]

It says a lot about Doors that they recorded something as strange as this or even knew about it but the sinister undertones suit them. I think I prefer their version but since she was married to Weill and they all wrote & worked together in 1930s America this must be how he intended it, more Berlin sleaze than sinister. Austrian accent BTW, she came from Vienna, She was good-looking then alright! But this mannish TV & bisexual style goes right back to the Weimar Republic

[skullyj2002]

Actually, Lenya' did this song on her LP "Berlin theatre songs of Kurt Weill" around 1957. It was a very popular LP among the more intellectual college students, so it wouldn't have been unusual for Morrison to have heard it at college.

[canakin216]

hah i used to think this song was doors' until i saw the play. this version is better tbh.

[PainMonkey]

Hee hee! I didnt know this was Weill! It was just so FRIGGIN AWESOME even knowing she sung lit....let alone hearing it. She had a gorgeous voice despite the fact she had a harsh German accent and she's damn near a baritone^^ As far as prettiness goes? Tops Morrison by a long shot....but then again, I'm a guy.

[PropertyIsTheft1969]

she seems 2 fit the song but is she a faschist bitch or somat cos can't work out why there're less comments than 4 any of the main modern stars doing their renditions!!?? gonna watch/listen 2 her mack the knife now!! (i'm a Bowie/Jim Morrison fan n was looking 4 more traditional versions of this brilliant 'old/classic' number b4 they put it in2 the mainstream

[alexuniverse]

She was by no means a fascist -- in fact she fled Germany when the Nazis took over. She couldn't be more traditional -- she was married to Kurt Weill, who wrote this song. She's not everybody's cup of tea, but this is gritty and authentic and I personally think she's amazing. I love the Doors version too, btw. Jim Morrison was prettier and had a prettier voice!

[l337mas73r18]

@alexuniverse Heard David Bowie's version?

[QuimChaos]

@alexuniverse and weill was a jew... so it's kind of odd to say that she was nazi or even fascist

[alexuniverse]

@QuimChaos Er, I didn't say that. I said she was by no means a fascist. By no means means NOT fascist.

[QuimChaos]

@alexuniverse i know... i was not criticizing you, only confirming what you said. it just felt kind of odd to me the reference to fascism... it was 1 year ago but you were probably responding to another reply?

[brickbat44]

@alexuniverse she was dadaismus m8 she had to leave m8

[corwinofamber8]

Doors - definitely best version of this song. Sorry for those who can't appreciate it because you still have a grudge against one member of the band that has been dead for almost 40 years.

[jugegamo]

the doors version is the most boring version of this song. I like Ute Lemper's version. No discuission.

[looove19]

great great great!!!

I also loved the way bowie performed it!!!

[machine1313]

i love folks here trying to compare lenya to morrison.

one has nothing to do with the other..totally different time periods and approaches...both valid.

[sptfgpn]

They were both human beings.

[bartonim]

@machine1313 Precisely. I love The Doors, but this is much earlier and different. Great stuff!

[Gefilta]

Lotte Lenya is overrated!?!? Jim Morrison is the most overrated talentless egomaniac on the planet living or dead, his ego has still not deflated. Schmuck.

[sigimaster14]

haha you make me laugh, you must think your something putting jim down like that.

Jim morrison had the best voice on the planet in history. overrated? no i would say underrated by assholes like you

[Gefilta]

Glad I made you laugh, funny asshole that I am

[Geieraugen]

@Gefilta: When Morrison and the Doors are a dusty curiosity of a deranged capitalist "culture", the work that Lotte did with Weill and Brecht will still be one of the heart-piercing wonders of the world.

[Gefilta]

@Geieraugen yes, as true today as it will be tomorrow

[mrbexiful]

Jesus Christ Lenya is overrated. Why such ecstasy? Give me Morrison's version any day.

[mubirshu]

And for those who stumble upon this clip without knowing who Lotte Lenya was, she also sang the original German version of Mack the Knife (that's why Bobby Darin's version mentions her), and played Rosa Klebb in the 1963 James Bond movie From Russia With Love. She died in 1981 at the age of 83.

[pgnorgan]

I wonder how Jim Morrison discovered this song. He was a very strange but talented young man. It is so sad that he messed up his life and died so young. He actually did a lovely job on this song. I still miss him.

[Brooker0606]

I took a class taught by the Doors manager and he said back in those days you would have to sit around and wait for each recording to record and copy to tape for hours and Jim was looking through the producers record collection and came across the opera Mahogonny

[KarmicOmen]

@Brooker0606

Jim Morrison just changed the second verse from: "Show us the way to the next pretty boy" to "Show me the way to the next little girl" ... of course, or it would not have sounded right.

[vse2009]

@KarmicOmen

He sang it both ways, at least at the start of their career .

March 10th, '67 recording at Matrix , for example, has it as "the next little boy".

[MsMieno]

@pgnorgan

I think Manzarek played a record of the opera to Morrison and suggested they could do a rock version of this song.

He really brought all the classical music influences in the Doors anyway...

[borgwin2]

Lotte Lenya is a german actor. She played in the "Dreigroschenoper" of Brecht the "Seeräuber Jenny"

[ellandelachapelle]

Wonderful! (beats every other performance.)

[devilprincess226]

what a class act !!! --i saw one of her "farewell" performances at carnegie hall about 1965 ---and the audience kept her on stage and singing for at least 30 minutes of encores

[sheepsick]

Fantastic. Marianne Faithfull eat yer heart out

[3moctezuma3]

wow is so great i love her

[captainkundalini999]

Sure do. Ther's one ting you can definitely say about David Bowie, his influences are unimpeachable.

[laideronnette]

I have a recording of Mahagonny where Lenya sings the main role! Absolutely fabulous!!!

[OldieMusicMan]

Where did you get that? I've been looking for a recording of "Mahagonny " but have thus far come up empty. Also, is your recording on CD or an LP record?

[laideronnette]

I got it from the music library in Budapest :) It's on double CD. I copy it's infos maybe it'll help: CBS Records, cop. 1983. cond. Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg ; Lotte Lenya, Heinz Sauerbaum, Gisela Litz, é., [et al] ; NorthGerman Radio Chorus

[daplummer01]

Thanks! :D

[octavioarmendariz]

The Lenya recording is availabled for download from iTunes. It's the same version that is the Columbia Masterworks double CD set. Only problem is not libretto.

[Isolar]

Wonderful:)

[jacobsimon]

The one and only--the original. The intellectual sarcasm of 1920's Berlin preserved.

[captainkundalini999]

The genuine art'. Makes so much more sense of this song than Mr. Jones.

[sclogse1]

Check out Tom Waits songs from Alice and Blood Money.

[candelaberry]

Thank you very much!!! Lotte Lenya is amazing!

[VivaRenata]

Stupendous! Brava, bravissima. And don't forget the composer who wrote this amazing piece.

[szn46]

OMG!...love the low level opera feel!

[mrbike69]

Muito bom!!!

[ProTwoAm]

Simply wonderful!

[FilmTraum5]

I love this song and Lotte Lenya!Amazing!

[Persephonie22]

She was a fantastic singer. I luv this song. First fell in love with The Doors version. =)~

[ItalianDivo101]

Lenya is my household goddess!