Mac the knife by Kurt Weill ( Cover version on Ukulele)

Contrary to popular belief reggae did not start in Jamiaca it was invented in 1928 in Germany by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht .

Anyways the song was made popular in the 1950's by Louis armstrong and Bobby Darin, and the english lyrics bear no resemblance to the dark and gothic German original. Tey gave the song a big band treatment.

Have a listen to the version by Ernst Busch to see what I mean. The rolling RRRRRR's was the main reason I decided to try and do it with a mock German accent. And the Uke was played to emulate the sound of the organ grinder i the 1928 movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgLiJ0AokT8

A good version of the original is done by Nick Cave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_2zbZwDlM

which lyrically bares no resemblance to the sanatized american versions of the 50's

The song comes from the Threepenny opera by Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht

http://www.threepennyopera.org/

and surely adds further proof that Weill invented Reggae.

My vid is completely out of sync... must have been because I put in some old time movie effects.... arrrgh well I am not doing it again. Just consider it a 1920's movie experiance.

As the Beatles once said. "Let it be" and I have to get this in somewhere... Nietzsche said: without music, life would be a mistake.

Anyways the chords I used were G A7 D7 G Em A7 D7 G (repeat cycle and rinse)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mac
• the
• knife
• Threepenny
• opera
• Kurt
• Weill
• Ukulele
• Reggae

[mjs004]

This is Fantastic! Sweet job!

[weegingayin]

I did it for the German challenge on UU. It was a toss up between Mack the knife and another Kurt Weill song "take me to the next whisky bar"

The Doors covered it in the 60's

[russbuss415]

interesting take.  enjoyed it much!

[weegingayin]

Lots of people have recorded this song but I think Nick Cave did a version that was lyrically close to the german original (see the sidebar for a link to his performance.) Sting also did a creditable rendition

The 50's versions from America were sanatized and the Bobby Darin version was basically big band swing

[YoppyKyabetsu]

And a bit of Leon Redbone to boot. Beautiful.

[weegingayin]

Yeah thanks very much for the heads up on Leon, I dug around and found "Big bad Bill is sweet William now"

What a relaxed easy going style. If he was any more laid-back he would be asleep

[SalfordWill]

I love this! I love the uke and your voice really suits it...nice find.

[ukeshale]

awesome job

[degcon]

Nice!!

[podcastdude]

I love everything about this!

[GrumpyCoyoteTunes]

Awesome!

[LStrachey]

amazing -- interested by the old clip too.

[unclejeff64]

nice job!

[HaileISela]

Very good entry! Thanks a lot!