What keeps mankind alive?

Tom Waits is...Tom Waits. But his version of Brecht/Weill song from The Threepenny Opera rocks (without being anyways rhythm and blues). In the context of spiraling food and energy prices the obscenity of the stock marker -- of the market! -- haunts all of us today.

But hey you can get this song with Tom being spot on in its delivery (and I say that as a registered Brechtian) as a ringtone! How ironic is that?

"First the belly, then morality"

There are a few version in English from the original German, and this lyric carries the phrase:"Food is the first thing, morals follow on." I prefer another English translation which is a favorite saying of mine:"first the belly, then morality."

If you don't know the Threepenny Opera, maybe we can help you here at LeftClick with some more sampling. Unfortunately for the sake of the song you have to put up with the promo video content.

I reckon this version is so darn good -- and I've heard the song sung by many others. Onya Tom! Really scary (in a barbaric capitalism sort of way).

• (Much)more on The Threepenny Opera

(Weill/Brecht)

You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that's where it begins

You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn, for once, the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on

So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive?

What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shriek the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts