Nick Cave & & Kenny Wollesen
PJ Harvey
David Johansen & Ralph Schuckett & Bob Dorough & Ellen Shipley
Teresa Stratas
Elvis Costello
Lotte Lenya
Charlie Haden & Fred Hersch & Kurt Weill
The Persuasions
Betty Carter
Teresa Stratas & Gerard Schwarz
Mary Margaret O’Hara
Lou Reed
Bertolt Brecht
William S. Burroughs
Cover version of the standard by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil, first performed in their 1928 anti-capitalist musical drama, The Threepenny Opera.
[BALLAD SINGER]
See the shark with teeth like razors
And he wears them in his face
And Macheath has got a knife
But not in such an obvious place
Now see the shark, how red his fins are
As he slashes at his prey
Oh Mack the Knife wears fancy gloves which
Give the minimum away
By the Thames' turbid waters
Men abruptly tumble down
Well is it plague, or is it cholera
Or because Mackie's in town? (Yeah)
On a shining sky-blue Sunday
See a corpse stretched in the Strand
Well, see a man dodge round the corner
Mackie's friends will understand
And Schmul Meier, posted missing
Well like so many wealthy men
Well Mack the Knife acquired his cash box
God knows how and God knows when
Oh Jenny Towler turned up lately
With a knife stuck through her breast
While Macheath walks the Embankment
Nonchalantly unimpressed
Where is Alphonse Gleet the cabman?
Well who can get that story clear?
Well someone may lay information
But Macheath has no idea (Oh no)
And the child bride, in her nightie
Whose assailant's still at large
Violated in her slumbers
Mackie how much did you charge?
In the ghastly fire in Soho
Seven children at a go
In the crowd stands Mack the Knife
But he isn't asked and he don't know
In the crowd stands Mack the Knife
But he ain't asked and he don't know
Mack the Knife was written by Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht.
Mack the Knife was produced by Hal Willner.