meaning of the lyrics to mack the knife
Mack the Knife A moritat is a medieval version of the murder ballad performed by strolling minstrels. In The Threepenny Opera, the moritat singer with his street organ introduces and closes the drama with the tale of the deadly Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife, a character based on the dashing highwayman Macheath in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (who was in turn based on the historical thief Jack Sheppard). The Brecht-Weill version of the character was far more cruel and sinister, and has been transformed into a modern anti-hero.
Leave Out All the Rest In a Kerrang! review/interview of the band, and the album, vocalist Chester Bennington had this to say about the song, "We knew this was going to be a single from the very beginning, so we worked really hard on making sure it had great lyrics. I'm singing 'Pretending someone else can come and save me from myself' during it because it's supposed to feel like an apology letter, as though I'm moving on but I want people to remember the good things and not the bad things. A lot of the song is about humility."[5] Mike Shinoda has also stated that Rick Rubin (producer for Minutes to Midnight) was the first to have said "This sounds like a massive single".