Customer Reviews

September Songs

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If you're looking for an introduction to the music of Kurt Weill you might be better off starting with a Lotte Lenya album. But if you're not a purist this album holds just as many goodies as Hal Wilner's landmark tribute, LOST IN THE STARS. It's a pity you can't combine them for what SEPTEMBER SONGS lacks STARS makes up for and vice versa.

Most notable is Nick Cave's irreverently violent stab at the oft covered "Mack the Knife". True, Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Darin and Sinatra all left their mark but Cave recklessly pulls the rug out from under them. Though he's taken some liberties with the translation of the lyrics, lines like " and the childbride in her nightie/ who's assailant's still at large/ violated in her slumbers/ Mackie how much did you charge" hold the knife right up to the throat. Though the kid gloves are certainly off, he masterfully keeps the song's spirit alive with a tuneless growl. Sting's cutsey version off LOST IN THE STAR'S pales in comparison.

Another highlight is Elvis Costello's charming rendition of LOST IN THE STARS. Betty Carter's stirring take on "Lonely House" also fares well as does Mary Margret O'Hara's weird but intruiging "Furchte Dich Nicht". Lou Reed also makes a welcome return with a stellar re-working "September Song" from the Wilner tribute. He nearly stole the show on that record and this new version is right at home here.

Less successful is the perfuctory "Alabama Song". Next to Lotte Lenya or Jim Morrison's rousing version with THE DOORS, David Johanson's take is somewhat unremarkable. I can't help thinking how great Shane MacGowan of THE POGUES would of been on this one.

PJ Harvey's "Soldier's Wife" is suitably mournful but I can't seem to get Marianne Faitful's LOST IN THE STARS version out of my head. Harvey's has darkness to spare but Faithful found the humor. The Persuasion's "O Heavenly Salvation" suffers from a same problem, being a little too close to Arron Neville's version off the Wilner.

Comparisons with the Wilner are inevitable unfortunately, but SEPTEMBER SONGS has the presence of Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya to recommend it. It's great to hear Brecht's original (albeit German) version of "Mack the Knife" and Charlie Hayden provides fitting accompaniment to Kurt Weill's haunting singing on "Speak Low". I'm a big fan of Lotte Lenya and her classic turn of "Pirate Jenny" is far more welcome thant Teresa Stratas' overblown "Youkali Tango".

To sum up, if you liked the Wilner tribute there's enough here to make it worth your while. True, William S. Burrough's version of "What Keeps Mankind Alive" isn't quite as good as the Tom Waits version but appearences of Nick Cave, Costello and many others more than make up for it.

Plenty of Lenya,some Brecht, some Weil...I expected to love those cuts. I was surprised by how effective the Teresa Stratas pieces were. And I was KNOCKED OUT by the Alabama Song, far preferable to me than Morrison's take, which was so unusual for the time that it commanded far more attention than it deserved. The whole album deserves to be listened to front to back as a unified composition. It's far closer to the spirit of the original than any other tributes or prettified performances of Weil/Brecht I've heard elsewhere.

Do yourself a favour and get this shining gem of a CD in tribute to the genius of Kurt Weill, (God how he is missed...) Nick Cave does one of the better renditions of "Mack the Knife" in recent memory,(certainly better than Sinatra and -gasp- Bobby Darrin. How Mack the Knife EVER became part of the Rat Pack repertoire is one the Great Mysteries of the Western World, right up there with Bigfoot.) Teresa Stratos gives beautiful performances of "Youkali Tango" and "Surabaya Johnny". The old recording of Lotte Lenya singing "Pirate Jenny" is touching and moving. Elvis Costello gives an amazing performance of "Lost in the Stars". People will either love or hate Lou Reed's interpretation of "September Song", (personally I would pay good money just to hear Reed sing the names from a phone directory). And the Venerable William Burroughs' spoken word rendition of "What Keeps Mankind Alive" is biting satire. But but, if anything else, get this CD to hear Betty Carter sing "Lonely House"...what a classy Lady. Your jaw will drop open at Her supernatural performance. Betty Carter singing Weill...how I picture heaven....

I like the spirit of this album, which is to let the music of Kurt Weill attach itself to the many worlds it came from. This was classical music that also used elements of popular music at the time, all with a very dark and almost mechanical tone. So it would seem fitting to have exquisite voices like Teresa Stratas rub elbows with darker elements like Nick Cave in this collection. There are also the jazz influences developed by Charlie Haden and Betty Carter.

In all, there are some brilliant interpretations of Weill here. I am a fan of Cave's "Mack the Knife" and David Johansen's "Alabama Song," and how can someone NOT like Lotte Lenya herself on "Pirate Jenny" and the drolling of the immortal William S. Burroughs talking through "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"

But other tracks feel to be just too short of brilliance. I love that Lou Reed tries to turn "September Song" into a kind of rock ballad, almost a VU "It Was a Pretty Good Year," but the rendition seems a little short of energy and falls flat after a while. Elvis Costello, though magnificent as an overall artist, just doesn't bring new life to "Lost in the Stars."

Perhaps the problem in the end that the choices were a little too much of the Top 40 Weill (if there really can be such a term). These are songs that have for a long time been regarded as the best of Weill, and it might have furthered the purpose of his music to find new gems and bring them into the sunlight.

This is a very biased review- I originally had much of Weill's work on cassette tape- way back in the olden days- before CD's- so I am already very partial to many of the tracks on this CD- I would recommend it not only to Kurt Weill fans, and the fans of the various artists featured, but I would also strongly recommend this to anyone who likes artsy, camp, fun burlesque, Bohemian European stuff. The record, even though performed by contemporary artists still retains much of it's zeitgeist, it evokes the era in which Weill was writing and it rounds out any great eclectic record collection. It's a great musical discovery for fans of all sorts of genres, and EVERYONE should own at least one recorded arrangement of "Mack The Knife". (You know, for parties and stuff!)

If you love Kurt Weill, buy this album, if you don't know who he is, buy this album. Every cultured person should be familar with this artist, and this is one of the unltimit compliations of covers and orginals I have ever heard. Nick Cave does amazing justice to the imortal 'Mac the Knife', Bertolt Brechts orginal is on this too. Classics, like the best performance of 'Priate Jenny', by Lotte Lenya (Weill's wife, if you don't know) are mixed among the newer tracks. 'Alabama Song' is byond words, the talent behind this song is immence, if you though The Doors did a good job, your opinion will change, I have never head anything as great as this 'Alabama Song'. I have not seen the movie myself, but with a soundtrack this amazing, it must be great.

This is the avant version of these songs, everything done with that Downtown fingers-across-the-blackboard screech. They even got Johanson doing it, which is no less than amazing. The sole exception is the Persuasions' "O Heavenly Salvation", but one song does not an album make.

The mystery here is that there's a perfectly good compilation from the 80s, "Lost in the Stars: the Music of Kurt Weill", featuring many of the same songs--and, if I'm not mistaken some of the same performers. That's the one you want. Too bad it's OP.

This recording clearly has some historic value but I would have preferred more melodic renditions of some of the songs (September Song for example)Interesting but for me, sadly, a bit disappointing

I thought several of the renditions on this album were terrific. (No surprise, but my favorite was Lotte Lenya on Pirate Jenny.) I do have a quibble, though. Why no list of who is singing what?

Kurt Weill is one of those composers who juggles Jewish angst with Catholic guilt: and possibly vice versa. As a collection, it is nonpareil. Each interpretation becomes a definitive reading of the "song". Lord, it is one of the best assemblies of contemporary artists going. Lou couldn't be better; Ms O'Hara, in fine form, performs her deranged puppet-dance to the X. OK. An unknown. Roping-in, such a postmodern figure as, well, you-know-who, to orate Weill's lyrics is never less than exceptional. An amazing collection. Is there a DVD?

Paul