Alabama Song

A song, by Bertolt Brecht. I bet you've heard it.

"Show me the way to the next whisky bar"
—written on the men's toilet wall in the TV show Cheers

The song goes by many names. Moon of Alabama and Whisky Song to name but two. It was originally a poem written by Bertolt Brecht in German, translated (quite quirkily!) in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 short opera/play Little Mahagonny. The words are odd to the English ear, deliberately and parodically so, it would seem, bacause the larger piece is about hype, expectation and disappointment.

The Doors covered it on their eponymous album in 1966, following Ray Manzarek's suggestion (it was on an album of German songs he owned), and whilst they messed with the lyrics, the timing, the tune and almost everything else, it's recognisably the same song. A notable change is replacing "little boy" for "little girl". The dark carnival atmosphere makes this a classic version, and of course everyone loves The Doors, right?

Bowie also covered it into his 1978 tour, and although I can't find it on a studio album, it got exposure as a single and on the live album Stage, in 1991. You'll find it on Youtube of course, and I recommend you look it up. It's natural a quirky presentation, but it calls back to The Doors' version with a ska undertone.

There are many other covers, most of which I've not listened to enough to comment on, but they include Bette Midler, Nina Simone, Marilyn Manson and Marianne Faithfull.

Why do I sing it? Why write about it? Perhaps because it's bizarre and a little dark, perhaps I just enjoy the oddity of the words, the bleak fairground atmosphere. Perhaps I just enjoy winding people up by singing on repeat until I either get all the words or The Look from those surrounding me. Perhaps I'm the odd one.

I work at farmers' markets. The chap I work for and with is the third person I met in the whole of the USA. Unsurprisingly, he's my best man friend, he was my best man. Sometimes while we're setting up and breaking down, I sing. My repertoire is limited and eclectic, ranging from William Blake's Jerusalem through Beethoven's great Ode to Joy¹, via Eiffel 65's Blue and Tom Lehrer's [The Elements' to the awful Baby Shark. There are others on occasion, but I have about a dozen I cycle through, and for some bizarre reason about a year ago, I started singing Alabama Song.

I should add that some people consider I have a good voice. I used to sing in school choirs and on the rare occasions I go to church, the choir mistress tries to persuade me to join, so there's that. I do suffer one major problem with singing, and that's the damned words. I get so far along and suddenly find myself at a loss for the next word or stanza or entire bloody rest of the song. My workmates just give me a funny look, Jim rolls his eyes and I laugh anyway. Ode to Joy is frequently punctuated "Deine Zauber binden wieder, I forget the other words, Alle Menschen werden Brüder…" and so on.

Alabama Song is an exception. Not only do I forget words, I forget the tune. I forget the key, I forget everything except that one line and "Oh don't ask why" I forget where I am in the song and yet I never stop singing. I simply start again, so I can forget another bit and so on ad infinitum. Well perhaps not indefinitely, because sooner or later I get a Look from Jim and I stop. If left to my own devices for an hour I'd probably get the whole thing sung, just in a totally random order. That would be an interesting experiment, but it's not one I'd run at work.

I must have heard it first as recorded by The Doors, but the time it really stuck was hearing it performed by David Bowie on some radio show (the BBC's John Peel or Andy Kershaw, or possibly Trent FM's John Shaw), but as far as I remember it was not on any of the albums I owned. It became an occasional earworm and just every so often I had to exorcise it or sing it. I guess it's better than Baby Shark.

The Lyric

As sung in the original by Lotte Lenya (Weill's wife):

Oh, show us the way to the next whisky bar
(Oh, don't ask why, oh don't ask why)
For we must find the next whisky bar
For if we don't find the next whisky bar
I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die!

Oh, Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old Mama
And must have whisky or you know why
(repeat)

Oh, show us the way to the next pretty boy
(Oh, don't ask why, oh don't ask why)
For we must find the next pretty boy
For if we don't find the next pretty boy
I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die!

Oh, Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old Mama
And must have boy or you know why
(repeat)

Oh, show us the way to the next little dollar
(Oh, don't ask why, oh don't ask why)
For we must find the next little dollar
For if we don't find the next little dollar
I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die!

Oh, Moon of Alabama
We now must say goodbye
We've lost our good old Mama
And must have dollars or you know why
(repeat)

¹ Yes, the words are actually by Frederick Schiller, I know that.

Lotte's version on YouTube
The Doors' Version on YouTube
Bowie's version on YouTube