Crush by The Dave Matthews Band

I’ve always loved music but I haven’t always loved my passion for music.

In high school as I discovered The Beatles, Motown and delved deep into my studies of classical music, I found that none of my classmates seemed to shared my enthusiasm and love for music.

It was “dorky,” that I liked 1960s music, “nerdy” that I loved classical music and incredibly “un-cool” that I admitted to enjoying the resurgence of pop music with the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears (which you know other people did, I mean look at the sales of this artists at that time). But there was one person who thought my love of music was cool, Vauhini.

One night after hanging out with a group of friends, she gave me a ride home. As she drove “Crush” by The Dave Matthews Band came on the radio. Vauhini was a big fan of Dave Matthews Band and it was “Crush” and its accompanying album, Before These Crowded Streets that really helped me realize the greatness of The Dave Matthews Band.



“Crush” melded DMB’s jam band sensibilities with Jazz creating a dark and emotional opus. Like the best of DMB’s songs “Crush” had a dramatic arc that made the music go somewhere significant. Something changes for the character in the music and us as listners also experience this as we are taken to somewhere we never expect.

In the soft glow of the instrument panels of Vauhini’s car, I described the magic between the notes. I talked about the way that DMB holds back allowing different layers of instruments to come through. I guided her through the long verse that gradually opens up to choruses full of elation and the unforgettably ending of this song.

Throughout “Crush,” DMB creates a feeling of something building, like someone barely able to hold in his joy. Each chorus gives us a little release but never leaves us fully satisfied. In the second to last chorus, it seems like we get there and as Dave Matthews pulls back the song takes a breath. Then the song builds back up as Matthews, almost growling builds to a final exclamation of joy. He changes the lyrics and the melody adding syncopated rhythms while the band to a climax in a way that is beautifully symphonic.

After the song ended, Vauhini smiled with a sense of joy you can only get from seeing someone describe something they love. I’ll never forget how free I felt at that moment to be exactly who I was, feeling no need to hide or be ashamed of how I felt about music.

I often think about that moment when writing about music because it reminds me that I’m not alone. Yes, most of the people in high school didn’t understand me but Vauhini did and that gave me hope that there are other people in the world who would like me for my passions. Now I have a whole family of friends and who do just that.

Thanks Vauhini

It's crazy, I'm thinking just as long as you're around.
I'm here I'll be dancing on the ground.
Am I right side up or upside down?
To each other, we’ll be facing.

Vauhini Vara is reporter at the Wall Street Journal and a fiction writer with work with published or forthcoming in Glimmer Train, Epoch, and Black Warrior Review. Check out her work at http://www.vauhinivara.com/

Mack The Knife by Bobby Darin

Not all lyrics are created equal.

Some lyrics are trite and are just there to serve the melody, other times lyrics play an equal importance in the song and with artist like Bob Dylan, the lyrics are the most important expressive and artistic aspect of a song.

Regardless of the level of the lyrical artistry, I like knowing the lyrics and what they are about. Often when I’m talking to friends and they a mention and I casually mention what they lyrics are about they are often shocked especially when the lyrics seems to say express something different then the words. One of the most striking examples of this is “Mack The Knife” from The Threepenny Opera

Between World War I and World War II, life for Germans was so bad that all artist could do was make jokes about life’s misfortune. This type of “black humor” was the only way people could cope with life. Two of the most important artists of this time in Germany who used dark humor to comment on life were the composer Kurt Weill and the playwright Bertolt Brecht. In 1928, these two legendary artist combined forces to compose the musical The Threepenny Opera.

The Threepenny Opera is the story of Macheath. He falls in love with a girl named Polly and wants to marry her against her father’s wishes. The father, Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum, who controls the beggars in London, successfully gets Macheath arrested and sentenced to death. Luckily Macheath is pardoned right before he is executed. Our hero is released and we are made to feel happy that Macheath has escaped such an unjust and cruel fate.

Before this story begins, we are told about this person, our hero, Macheath, otherwise known as “Mack the Knife.” The musical opens with a “moritat” a story of murder performed strolling musician. The moritat singer bookends the show singing about hos exploits.

Macheath is bad man even though it’s not clear what exactly he has done. The police have arrested him numerous times for crimes but Macheath always gets released because he served in the military with the Chief of Police. Even though Macheath has done some horrible things, we cheer him on in this story as he fights for his love and freedom, with the warnings of “Mack the Knife” echoing in our memory.

What people originally heard was not a big band arrangement with a swinging jazz vocalist out front, instead they heard this:



This recording of Brecht singing “Mack the Knife” in German is kind of creepy isn’t it? Listening to this song feels like I’m wearing a shirt that doesn’t quite fit right but I just can’t get it off. . ick.

That’s the original “Mack the Knife.” It’s eerie and just a tad disturbing. It’s like someone telling a group of people a joke about a girl being raped and laughing at his own joke while everyone else in the room is just sickened.

When Bobby Darin told his management that he wanted to record “Mack the Knife,” after he had just scored with the hits “Splish Splah” and “Dream Lover,” they argued against it. Darin recorded it anyways and it became his biggest hit. Many people recorded this song after Darin brought it into our cultural consciousness. My personal favorite is this Robbie William’s cover.



The song opens talking about a shark as a metaphor for Macheath. The “scarlet billows” is blood flowing while Macheath’s fancy gloves never show “a trace of red.” The next verse talks about a body “oozing life” as the singer wonders if he just saw Macheath around the corner. The singers takes us down by the river, where a cement bag is weighing someone down to the bottom of the river which the singers sees as a sign that Macheath is back in town. The last part of the song lists off people who Macheath killed. It’s kind of odd how this is the part of the song when it kicks into a joyful shout chorus.

I’ve always loved “Mack the Knife” but ever since I found out the history behind the song and what the lyrics are about, I feel a little guilty enjoying hearing about this sadistic man, Macheath. The thing is, I like the song even more knowing what it’s about, and the feeling that I shouldn’t is what makes it all the more fun.