Image: Life magazine
Mack the knife – Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weill
I’ve recently been listening to Lotte Lenya recently. In particular, The Three Penny Opera. Lotte Lenya was married twice to Kurt Weill, the song’s writer, once in the twenties, then again in the thirties. Her version of Mack the Knife is brilliant. The organ and banjo combination drive the song along with real purpose. The whole thing’s great, but I think with Mack the Knife, you get so used to people butchering it that it’s easy to forget what a great song it is and that’s why so many people still cover it.
Anyway, there’s a few good ukulele versions on the internet and an easy google search brings up a few tabs. There’s also a good uke version by IanRentrant which I’ve included below as well as the Lotte Lenya version.
Lotte Lenya
Uke version
Tiny Tim and Martin Sharp – Street of Dreams
Incrediably, I never knew Martin Sharp, Australian pop artist, art director of Oz magazine, and general seminal sixties counter culture chap, was obsessed with Tiny Tim. Sharp created artwork for concerts and albums, produced some of his records, and even made a film called Street of Dreams about his twin loves, Tiny Tim and Luna Park. Street of Dreams looks amazing and I’ve included some clips I found on youtube. It’s supposedly an obscure and strange film about Tiny Tim trying to break a non-stop singing record. I only hope that one day I’ll be able to see the whole thing.
Some Martin Sharp posters
Here’s a poster I featured on ukulele porn a while ago that I just randomly spotted in a framers. Only now do I realise it was a Martin Sharp.
Excitingly, Blue Pye are to re-release a heap of Tiny Tim records with the help of Martin Sharp and with the added bonus of Martin Sharp artwork and essays.
Finally, here’s the Street of Dreams clips:
