Subject: ADD: Bilbao Song
From:
Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 12:59 AM
BILBAO SONG (Happy End)
Sung by Marianne Faithful
Bill's beer hall in Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao,
Was the most fantastic place I've ever known;
For just a dollar you'd get all you wanted,
All you wanted, all you wanted,
Of whatever kind of joy you called your own,
But if you had been around to see the fun,
Well, I don't know, you might not like what you'd've seen;
The stools at the bar were damp with rye,
On the dance floor the grass grew high,
Through the roof the moon was shining green
And the music really gave you some return on what you paid.
That old Bilbao
Down where we used to go
Da da da da da...
I can't remember the words,
Da da da da da da
It was so long ago.
I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief, but
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
Beyond belief.
Bill's beer hall in Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao,
Came a day the end of May in 1908,
Four guys from Bristol came with sacks of coal dust,
Sacks of coal dust, sacks of coal dust,
And the time they showed us was really great,
But if you had ben around to see the fun,
Well, I don't know, you might not like what you'd've seen,
The brandy bottles smashing through the air
And the chairs flying everywhere,
Through the roof the moon's still shining green,
*And those fog eyes all going crazy with their pistols blazing high;
Think you can stop 'em? Well, go ahead and try!
That ol' Bilbao
Down where we used to go,
Casting its golden glow;
That ol' Bilbao,
Why does it haunt me so?
I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief, but
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
Beyond belief.
Bill's beer hall in Bilbao, Bilbao, Bilbao,
Now they've cleaned it up and made it middle class
With potted palms and aspree;
Very bourgeois, very bourgeois,
Just another place to put your ass,
But if you could come round to see the fun,
Well, I don't know, you might not find it such a strain,
Ha, they've cleaned up all the booze and broken glass,
On parquet floors you can't grow grass,
They've shut the green moon out because of rain
And the music makes you cringe now when you think of what you paid.
Hey Joe, play that ol' song they always played-
That ol' Bilbao
Casting its golden glow,
That ol' Bilbao moon,
Love never laid me low.
That ol' Bilbao,
Why does it **hurt me so?
I don't know if it would have brought you joy or grief, but
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
It was fantastic
Beyond belief.
So long ago.
*Not certain of that line. **'Haunt' and 'hurt' used by different singers. Several online lyrics, all with errors.
The Brecht-Weill song, as sung in "September Songs, Music of Kurt Weill," cover by Marianne Faithfull, and originally sung on Broadway, in "Happy End," 1929. Lotte Lenya recorded it in 1930.
The musical was ruined by one of the actors, Helene Weigel, breaking the action and reading Marxist claptrap to the audience. Not until 1960, when Lenya and conductor Wilhelm Bruckner-Ruggeberg recorded the score, complete on Columbia, did Weill's music really get a hearing.
Happy End
(I will run through my "September Songs" and get the name of the singer that Faithfull covered, but my mind is ready for bed tonight).
The real "Bilbao Song" is certainly not that sophomorish revision by Mercer- I always thought better of him. Or did Andy Williams do the damage?
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sj
