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seedarklyxeroWelcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's a Third Sunday Throwback, digging into the archives for a cover song from the 20th century. Today's feature is again one of those which many attribute to one of several popularized covers, but on deeper inspection has a far older and darker origin. The history of this one is loaded with many issues and there's a lot of social commentary I could easily pack into the overview, but for brevity I'm going to withhold such and let you make what connections you might for yourself.
Psychedelic Furs - Mack The Knife (Kurt Gerron)
The play Die Dreigroschenoper opened in Berlin in 1928, adapted (from Elisabeth Hauptmann's translation of John Gay's 18th-century The Beggar's Opera) by playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. Soon and long after known as The Threepenny Opera, it presents a grim and ugly story of murder, police corruption, prostitution, thieves' guild racketeering, revenge fantasies, and the inequity of law. It centers on the character of a self-interested gentleman criminal named Macheath, who is introduced with the song, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer or The Ballad of Mack the Knife. It's said that the song was not part of the original script, but was written into the opening on insistence from Harald Paulsen, the actor playing the main role, who felt his character needed some formal introduction to the audience. Brecht & Weill conceded, but had the actor playing the character of a police chief sing it in the role of a street performer and in the style of a murder ballad, known as a "moritat."
In its time, the play was regarded as one of the most groundbreaking and influential pieces of theatrical art, spreading worldwide to be produced over 130 times in its first five years, made into a movie by 1931, and performed innumerable times since then. In 1954, the play was adapted and translated to English by Marc Blitzstein, an openly gay playwright (who himself was murdered 10 years later in France by three Portuguese sailors after propositioning one of them.)
The role of "Mack" has been played in modern productions by such actors as Jesse Martin (Rent), Raul Julia (Addams Family), Sting (Dune), and Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show.)
In dissonance to its original dread tone and content, Mack the Knife went on to be popularized by the uptempo styling of jazz & pop musicians like Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, and Frank Sinatra, among many others. Such was its familiarity, it was even used during the late 80's in appropriated and gaudy parody to sell hamburgers!
In 1981, post-punk new wave band, The Psychedelic Furs released their cover of Mack the Knife as a B-side track on Pretty in Pink, the third single from their second album, Talk Talk Talk. It was later included on their 1994 album, Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B Sides and Lost Grooves, and the 2002 re-release of their self-titled first album.
Their interpretation of the song is unique with Richard Butler's harsher vocalization and in its rolling guitar rhythms that instill a sense of something uncertain approaching, as opposed to the smooth crooning and big-band bouncy exuberance of other covers.
The Psychedelic Furs launch a summer tour next month... perhaps Macky will "come to town" with them:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
I've spent the month in some pretty obscure territory, so next week I'll present "Fourth Sunday Familiar" and look into one of the popular covers heard often on goth-industrial dance-floors.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin next Sunday in Cambridge Mass. Head over to my schedule for details. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
June 12 - Cancerface - Disease (Insight 23)
June 05 - Microwaved - Obsession (Michael Des Barres & Holly Knight)
May 29 - Depeche Mode - Dirt (The Stooges)
May 22 - Dust Heaven - Dark (Gary Numan)
May 15 - Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Gloria Jones)
Directory of All DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
It's a Third Sunday Throwback, digging into the archives for a cover song from the 20th century. Today's feature is again one of those which many attribute to one of several popularized covers, but on deeper inspection has a far older and darker origin. The history of this one is loaded with many issues and there's a lot of social commentary I could easily pack into the overview, but for brevity I'm going to withhold such and let you make what connections you might for yourself.
Psychedelic Furs - Mack The Knife (Kurt Gerron)
The play Die Dreigroschenoper opened in Berlin in 1928, adapted (from Elisabeth Hauptmann's translation of John Gay's 18th-century The Beggar's Opera) by playwright Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. Soon and long after known as The Threepenny Opera, it presents a grim and ugly story of murder, police corruption, prostitution, thieves' guild racketeering, revenge fantasies, and the inequity of law. It centers on the character of a self-interested gentleman criminal named Macheath, who is introduced with the song, Die Moritat von Mackie Messer or The Ballad of Mack the Knife. It's said that the song was not part of the original script, but was written into the opening on insistence from Harald Paulsen, the actor playing the main role, who felt his character needed some formal introduction to the audience. Brecht & Weill conceded, but had the actor playing the character of a police chief sing it in the role of a street performer and in the style of a murder ballad, known as a "moritat."
In its time, the play was regarded as one of the most groundbreaking and influential pieces of theatrical art, spreading worldwide to be produced over 130 times in its first five years, made into a movie by 1931, and performed innumerable times since then. In 1954, the play was adapted and translated to English by Marc Blitzstein, an openly gay playwright (who himself was murdered 10 years later in France by three Portuguese sailors after propositioning one of them.)
The role of "Mack" has been played in modern productions by such actors as Jesse Martin (Rent), Raul Julia (Addams Family), Sting (Dune), and Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show.)
In dissonance to its original dread tone and content, Mack the Knife went on to be popularized by the uptempo styling of jazz & pop musicians like Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin, and Frank Sinatra, among many others. Such was its familiarity, it was even used during the late 80's in appropriated and gaudy parody to sell hamburgers!
In 1981, post-punk new wave band, The Psychedelic Furs released their cover of Mack the Knife as a B-side track on Pretty in Pink, the third single from their second album, Talk Talk Talk. It was later included on their 1994 album, Here Came The Psychedelic Furs: B Sides and Lost Grooves, and the 2002 re-release of their self-titled first album.
Their interpretation of the song is unique with Richard Butler's harsher vocalization and in its rolling guitar rhythms that instill a sense of something uncertain approaching, as opposed to the smooth crooning and big-band bouncy exuberance of other covers.
The Psychedelic Furs launch a summer tour next month... perhaps Macky will "come to town" with them:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
I've spent the month in some pretty obscure territory, so next week I'll present "Fourth Sunday Familiar" and look into one of the popular covers heard often on goth-industrial dance-floors.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
I spin next Sunday in Cambridge Mass. Head over to my schedule for details. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
June 12 - Cancerface - Disease (Insight 23)
June 05 - Microwaved - Obsession (Michael Des Barres & Holly Knight)
May 29 - Depeche Mode - Dirt (The Stooges)
May 22 - Dust Heaven - Dark (Gary Numan)
May 15 - Soft Cell - Tainted Love (Gloria Jones)
Directory of All DisCOVERies