Paul Robeson and “Ol’ Man River”

On 24 June,1937, Paul Robeson, the world-famous African American singer and actor, spoke at a benefit concert for Basque refugee children in London’s Royal Albert Hall. As he was in Moscow when the event was being organized, he had not originally planned to attend, and his name does not appear beside those of Pablo Picasso and Heinrich Mann on the poster announcing the event. Instead, he would record his speech, and have it broadcast by radio, but when he heard that Nazi Germany and the Royal Albert Hall management, which was not inclined to receive broadcasts from the Soviet Union, would block it, he changed his mind and flew to London. 

The message of his speech that evening was that “the artist must take sides” in the all-encompassing battle against fascism. The goal of fascism was to destroy culture and “[e]very artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands…There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers…There is no sheltered rear”. The artist had only two options: “to fight for freedom or for slavery”.  Robeson himself “had no alternative. The history of this era is characterized by the degradation of my people.” Connecting the cause of culture and the cause of racial justice, he urged his audience to “rally every artist, every scientist, every writer in England who loves democracy… rally every black man to the side of Republican Spain.”

British intelligence was already following Robeson, and its agent at the benefit reported that after his speech he “sang two ‘Negro songs of protest’ and ‘Ole Man River’”. Robeson brought the house down and inspired people to put their hands in their pockets. The audience donated $8000 – over $175,000 today - in twenty minutes. 

In December 1937, Robeson took part in another event in London where he again performed Ol’ Man River. The song was written in 1925 by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for their musical Showboat. Robeson had sung it when he had performed in the stage show in London in 1928 and New York in 1932, and in the 1936 movie. That evening, however, Robeson sang a new version, with his own lyrics replacing some of Hammerstein’s original ones. Most significantly, “Ah gits weary / An’ sick of tryin’; / Ah’m tired of livin’ / An skeered of dyin’” gave way to “But I keeps laughin’/ Instead of cryin’ / I must keep fightin’; / Until I’m dyin’”. 

From then on, this is the version he would sing in concerts, including the ones he gave for Republican troops when he visited Spain in January 1938.  Robeson later called that visit “a major turning point in my life”, but his revision to the lyrics of an already-famous song reveals that the Spanish Civil War had an impact before he set foot in the country.