With his long nightshirts and low-hanging pant, belted around the knees, his funny hat, his deadpan face -- and a truly dangerous banjo -- David Akeman, who most people knew as "Stringbean," was a comic star of the Grand Ol' Opry from the '50s through the early 70s. And he was part of the original cast of Hee Haw, which introduced him to a new generation of hillbilly music.
He was born June 17 in 1915, though I've also seen reports that say he was born in 194 or 1916. Whatever is true, he'd be well over 100 if he were still alive.
But he's not.
Following a performance at the Opry on Nov. 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife Estelle were shot and killed killed at their cabin in Goodlettsville, Tenn. near Nashville by a couple of burglars looking for a big stash of money they -- wrongly -- thought was there.
But I don't want to dwell on his murder, which has been well-covered elsewhere. This is Wacky Wednesday, so let's remember his music and the laffs he gave us.
Here's an early TV appearance with none other than Earl Scruggs on second banjo.
Sunday, June 16, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Be Gone by Daddy Long Legs
Dropout Boogie by Captain Beefheart
Built Environment by Nots
Hit it and Quit it by Ty Segall
Dreamer by The Jackets
Space Brother by Alien Space Kitchen
Pretty Good for a Girl by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Two Headed Demon by Urban Jr.
Night of the Living Dead by Sickkidz
Sing it Right by Shinyribs
Voodoo Stomp by The Saucer Men
Te ta Te Ta Ta by Ernie K. Doe
Toe Up from the Flo Up by Ronnie Dawson
All I Wanna Do by The War & Treaty
Watching the News Gives Me the Blues by The Mystery Lights
Isis by Bob Dylan
Around the World in a Daze\
American Wedding by Gogol Bordello
Hold My Hips by Dengue Fever
In My Dreams by Prince Alla
Im Nin'alu by Ofra Haza
Sono Meu by Maria Bethania & Gal Costa
The Bunker by Beirut
Wait for Me by Roger Damawuzan
Lonely Dying Love by Houndog
Good Stuff by Bobby Rush Mack the Knife by Dr. John
I Walk on Gilded Splinters by Jello Biafra & The Raunch 'n' Roll All-Stars
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
One year ago this week I did my last Santa Fe Opry, the hillbilly music show I did for KSFR, Santa Fe Public Radio, for more than 20 years.
Here is the first hour of that show, featuring some of my favorite songs I played on it over the years, including a couple of live performances from musical guests. My friend Scott Gullet was there with me.
If I ever find the second hour, I'll post it here also.
It was last week's death of a man named Mac -- Mac Rebennack, aka Dr. John, that got me thinking of this wonderful song. It probably was the first song about a serial killer to become a huge American pop hit: "Mack the Knife." The Night Tripper recorded it on his last album released while he was still alive, Ske-Dat-De-Dat ... The Spirit of Satch (2014).
But no, even though Louis Armstong did one of the best versions of the song, "Mack the Knife" did not originate in some Storyville cat house where jazzbos picked it up, It came from Germany
According to an article by Laurence Senelick on the Boston Lyric Opera website, Die Dreigroschen Oper (The Threepenny Opera) "was a rethinking of The Beggar’s Opera, a 1728 English satire of Italian opera by the poet John Gay. Elisabeth Hauptmann had translated the work, thinking it appropriate to a Germany roiled by post-war economic depression, conspicuous depravity and political turbulence. The left-wing poet Bertolt Brecht gave it a make-over, setting it in a mythical Victorian London, and providing his own sardonic lyrics. The jazz-flavored music was by [singer/actress Lotte] Lenya’s husband, the distinguished composer Kurt Weill."
And the brightest penny from The Threepenny Opera was "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" better known as "Mack the Knife." Says Senelick:
Macheath is a womanizing highwayman, a rollicking, amoral rogue. Brecht’s Mackie Messer is rather more ruthless, archetypal of the modern capitalist. Paulsen had devised his own foppish costume: spats, a sword-stick, a light-colored derby and a sky-blue butterfly tie that matched his eyes. Shortly before the show was to open, he demanded an entrance song that would announce his character. Brecht decided to compose one that would counteract the dandy image, and so penned . A Moritat is a murder ballad—from the Latin, mori, of death, and the German tat, deed, especially dastardly deed. A Moritat was traditionally intoned by street singers and illustrated by lurid pictures on a pole or easel. In Brecht’s verse, Mackie is not directly accused of the song’s list of crimes, as if the street singer feared the consequences; they are imputed to him. Three Pernny Opera premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. A movie was made by G.W. Pabst in 1931. And when the Nazis came to power in 1933, they banned it.. Brecht, Weill and Lenya fled the country and ended up in the US.
Here's a German version of "Mack" sung by Brecht himself.
And here's Lotte Lenya singing lyrics translated by Marc Blitzstein. She starred as "Pirate Jenny" the pickpocket in both the original 1928 German production, the 1931 German movie and the 1954 Broadway version.
It didn’t take long for “The Ballad of Mack the Knife” to become a jazz and pop standard. Louis Armstrong recorded an upbeat version on September 28, 1955. Since Lenya was in the studio during the session, he added her name to the list of the killer's victims.
Here's a live video from the TV variety show Hollywood Palace in 1965
Bobby Darin recorded probably the best known and most popular version in December 1958. Here he is 12 years later on The Andy Williams Show.
Folk giant Dave Van Ronk did an pretty, somewhat spooky, acoustic version in the 1990s. He must have been a Three Penny Opera fan. When I saw him in the early 80s, he played "Alabama Song," (better known as "Whiskey Bar," which is what The Doors called it.)
Van Ronk includes a verse similar to the little-used final verse (also used by Mark Lanegan, which is based on Van Ronk's interpretation):
Some are children of the darkness Some are children of the sun You can see the sons of daylight Sons of dark are seen by none
Fast forward to the early part of this century and Polish rocker Kazik Staszewski brought Mack and company back to Europe. And yes, under the catchy title "Straszna Pieśń O Mackiem Majchrze," ("A Terrible Song About Mack Maikara"). he made it rock! This is from his Kurt Weil tribute album
And yes, the late, great Dr. John funked it up on his version featuring jazz trumpeter Terrence Blanchard and rapper Mike Ladd.
Sunday, June 9, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Snagglepuss by Daddy Long Legs
Collection of Regrets by Weird Omen
I'm So Tired (of Living in the City) by The Mystery Lights
I'm a Man by Ty Segall
Boppin' the Blues by Carl Perkins
Give Punk a Chance by Alien Space Kitchen
Journey to the Center of the Mind by Amboy Dukes
She's My Witch by Fire Bad!
Poor and Broke by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
The Patriot by Unknown Instructors
Saying Nothing by Imperial Wax
The Hippies Killed the Polka Stars by The Polkaholics
Explosion by April March & The Makers
My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama by Frank Zappa
Steam Queen by The Jackets
Break You Down by Left Lane Cruiser
Creature With the Atom Brain by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Hog of the Forsaken by Micheal Hurley
Dr. John Celebration
(All songs by Dr. John except where noted)
Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya
Junko Partner
Locked Down
Morgus the Magnificent by Morgus & The 3 Ghouls
Right Place, Wrong Time
Such a Night by Dr. John & The Band
