Let No One Deceive You: Songs of Bertolt Brecht (or simply Let No One Deceive You) is an album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 folk and blues singer Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk

Dave Van Ronk was an American folk singer, born in Brooklyn, New York, who settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and was eventually nicknamed the "Mayor of MacDougal Street" ....

 and vocalist Frankie Armstrong

Frankie Armstrong

Frankie Armstrong is a singer and voice teacher.She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work...

, released in 1992. It consists completely of songs by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, critic William Ruhlman wrote of the album "These are songs that have been translated from the original German many times, and listeners familiar with them will recognize minor variations from, for example, Marc Blitzstein's English adaptations for The Threepenny Opera. It's actually some of the more obscure songs with music by Hanns Eisler... that are more interesting, since, while often recorded, they are rarely performed in English."

Track listing

All songs by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

 unless otherwise noted.

1. "Mack the Knife
   Mack the Knife
   "Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
   
   " – 2:30
2. "The Love Market" (Brecht, Hanns Eisler
   Hanns Eisler
   Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
   
   ) – 2:40
3. "We All Make the Bed That We Lie In – 3:37
4. "Lullabies I, II, III/To My Countrymen/Lullaby IV" (Brecht, Eisler) – 3:30
5. "A Man Is a Man" (Brecht) – 3:20
6. "The Song of the Little Wind" (Brecht, Eisler) – 2:04
7. "Let No One Deceive You" – 1:56
8. "Song of the Moldau" (Brecht, Eisler) – 1:16
9. "The Legend of the Dead Soldier" (Brecht) – 3:30
10. "Pirate Jenny
    Pirate Jenny
    "Pirate Jenny" is a well-known song from The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein...
    
    " – 4:03
11. "Alabama Song
    Alabama Song
    The "Alabama Song" was originally published in Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille . It was set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 "Songspiel" Mahagonny and used again in Weill's and Brecht's 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny...
    
    " – 5:10
12. "What Keeps a Man Alive? " – 2:47
13. "Tango Ballad" – 4:37

Personnel

• Dave Van Ronk – vocals, guitar
• Frankie Armstrong – vocals
• Paul Blaney – bass
• J. Douglas Dodd – piano
• Eric Frandsen – guitar
• Leon Rosselson – guitar, piano

Production notes

• Produced by Gary Cristall
• Engineered by Simon Garber
• Design by Dugg Simpson
• Liner notes by John Brazier and Elijah Wald
  Elijah Wald
  Indeed, his first book was a collaboration with his biologist mother entitled Exploding the Gene Myth, in which they wrote that "The myth of the all-powerful gene is based on flawed science that discounts the environment in which we and our genes exist." "There are no definitive histories," he...
  
  

External links

• Kurt Weill Foundation discography.