As strange as it might seem, Brecht was the one who wrote the melody to this song. He apparently was the original Bob Dylan, complete with attitude, guitar, leather jacket, and sunglasses, and even cooler because the songs were all in German.

This song was originally written as part of a suite of about six songs that were theatrically performed in about 1923. It was very well received, and so Brecht and Weill came up with the idea of developing it into an opera.

I have a collection of original recordings of Weill's music from all the different times in his career, and there is a cut with Lotte Lenya singing in the original show. It sounds like she is singing with a chorus of Munchkins from Hell--

Only thing I don't know are the chords--somebody must know them!!!