Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) - Ol' Man River (Showboat - 1936) "Ol' Man River" is a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the song in 1925. The song contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat, and is the most famous song from the show. The song is meant to be pe

20 years ago (!!) the first hand-pressed copies of OLD MAN RIVER's Sunshine EP were handed out to friends, family, selected radio station DJs and different music reporters. I recorded the EP on what now would be considered an archaic 1880 Roland digital recording station. I had zero knowledge about recording techniques and experimented with whatever I could find. One memorable highlight was frying eggs in the kitchen and sticking a mic before the pan to capture the sizzling sound. Luckily, no mi

Paul Robeson singing "Old Man River" in SHOW BOAT (1936), with men's chorus. Wow, Universal did a great job of making its backlot look like Mississippi in the late 19th century. I love this. <3 😀 I don't own the copyright to this, nor am I collecting any royalty earnings. I have waived them to the copyright owner. This video is for entertainment purposes only. 😀 | Jeffrey Klein