Alabama Song

For the novel, see Alabama Song (novel); for the Allison Moorer album, see Alabama Song (album); for songs with similar titles, see Alabama (disambiguation)#Music.

The "Alabama Song"—also known as "Moon of Alabama", "Moon over Alabama", and "Whisky Bar"—is an English song written for Bertolt Brecht by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny. It was reused for the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and has been notably covered by The Doors and David Bowie.

Original version

"Alabama-Song"
Single by Lotte Lenya
B-side "Denn wie man sich bettet"
Recorded 24 February 1930
Genre
Label Homocord H3671
Writer(s) Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill

The "Alabama Song" was written as a poem in idiosyncratic English for Bertolt Brecht by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925[1] and published in Brecht's 1927 Home Devotions (German: Hauspostille), a parody of Martin Luther's collection of sermons. It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny (Mahagonny-Songspiel) and reused for Brecht and Weill's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), where it is sung by Jenny and her fellow prostitutes in Act I. Although the majority of all three works is in German, the "Alabama Song" retained Hauptmann's English lyrics throughout.

Brecht and Weill's version of the song was first performed by the Viennese actress and dancer Lotte Lenya, Weill's wife,[2] in the role of Jessie at the 1927 Baden-Baden Festival's performance of Little Mahagonny. The first recording of the song—by Lenya for the Homocord record label—came out in early 1930 under the title "Alabama-Song";[3] it was rerecorded the same year for the Ultraphon record label for release with the 1930 Leipzig premiere of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, despite Lenya not being being a member of that cast.[4] She continued to perform and record the song throughout her life, including for her 1955 album Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill (Lotte Lenya singt Kurt Weill), released in the United States under the title Berlin Theater Songs.[3]

The Doors version

"Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)"
Song by The Doors from the album The Doors
Released January 4, 1967
Recorded August 1966
Genre Psychedelic rock
Length 3:20
Label Elektra
Composer Bertolt Brecht
Kurt Weill
Producer Paul A. Rothchild
The Doors track listing

"Twentieth Century Fox"
(4)
"Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)"
(5)
"Light My Fire"
(6)

The song was recorded in 1966 by the rock group The Doors, listed as "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)". The melody is changed and the verse beginning "Show me the way to the next little dollar..." is omitted. On the album version, lead singer Jim Morrison altered the second verse from "Show us the way to the next pretty boy" to "Show me the way to the next little girl"[5] but, on the 1967 Live at the Matrix recording, he sings the original "... next pretty boy".

For The Doors' version, keyboardist Ray Manzarek plays the marxophone along with the organ and keyboard bass.

Personnel

David Bowie version

"Alabama Song"
Single by David Bowie
B-side Space Oddity
Released 15 February 1980
Format 7" single
Recorded Good Earth Studios, London, 2 July 1978
Genre
Length 3:51
Label RCA Records
BOW 5
Writer(s) Bertolt Brecht
Kurt Weill
Producer(s) David Bowie, Tony Visconti
David Bowie singles chronology
"John, I'm Only Dancing (Again)"
(1979)
"Alabama Song"
(1980)
"Crystal Japan"
(1980)

Bowie, a Brecht fan, incorporated the song into Isolar II, his 1978 World Tour. He cut a version at Tony Visconti’s studio after the European leg of the tour, and in 1980 it was issued as a single to hasten the end of Bowie’s contract with RCA.

With unconventional key changes, the track "seemed calculated to disrupt any radio programme on which it was lucky enough to get played".[6] Nevertheless, backed with a stripped-down acoustic version of "Space Oddity" recorded in December 1979, the single reached #23 in the UK. Although Bowie also changed the "little boy" line like Morrison, he sang Weill's original melody.

Bowie would appear in a BBC version of Brecht’s Baal, and release an EP of songs from the play. He performed "Alabama Song" again on his 1990 Sound+Vision Tour and 2002 Heathen tours.

Track listing

  1. "Alabama Song" (Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill) – 3:51
  2. "Space Oddity" (acoustic version) (David Bowie) – 4:57

The German 1982 rerelease of the single included Jacques Brel's song "Amsterdam" as an additional B-side.

Production credits

Live versions

Other releases

References in popular culture

Selective list of recorded versions

The song has often been covered:

See also

References

Citations

  1. Willett, John; et al., eds. (1990), Bertolt Brecht: Poems and Songs from the Plays, Methuen, p. 223.
  2. Cad, Saint, "Top 10 Famous Songs With Unknown Originals", Listverse, retrieved 21 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Lotte Lenya Discography", Kurt Weill Foundation.
  4. Lenya, Bear Family Records, 1998, p. 32.
  5. "Alabama Song Lyrics - Doors". LyricsFreak.com. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  6. Roy Carr & Charles Shaar Murray (1981). Bowie: An Illustrated Record: p.108
  7. "Dalida site Officiel - Alabama song" (in French). dalida.com. Retrieved 2013-10-28.
  8. "Moni Ovadia Sito Ufficiale". Archived from the original on 23 March 2009. Retrieved 2016-02-09.

Bibliography

External links

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