I was listening to an English version of the Threepenny Opera when I drew this. The music's catchy, and the lyrics (originally written by Bertolt Brecht and translated by R. Mannheim and J. Willett*) are biting.
Take these samples from the end of the first act:
But say your son is close to you
And finds your pension’s not come through
He’ll kick you smartly in the face.
And so will all the human race.
and
Oh snap!
Of course that’s all there is to itThe world is poor, and man’s a $#!+We should aim high instead of lowBut our condition’s such this can’t be so.
*bad word bleeped out by me, but I'm sure you can figure out what it is.
4 comments:
wow, brutal!
It sounds better with music.
You can hear it here if you're curious.
Teenager Polly is arguing with her folks (who are racketeers) about a cutthroat she just married- doesn't she have the right to seek contentment? This soon devolves into them ranting about how crappy everything is.
I do not like this opera today. Man, am I ever glad on days like this that I don't have a son.
No need to bleep out that bad word, though!
Linda,
The whole show has songs like that. Even the most famous song, "Mack The Knife", is creepy (the lyrics in the Bobby Darrin version were toned way down). It does end happily, however.
As to the extent that I agree with the sentiment of the other song, I suppose maybe 1 or 2 percent of the population might be "kick you smartly in the face" types.
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