Ol Man River: His 25 Greatest

Paul Robeson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 16, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Asv Living Era
• ASIN: B000007N70
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,645 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ol' Man River

2. Steal Away

3. Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho

4. Water Boy

5. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

6. Round The Bend Of The Road

7. Carry Me Back To Green Pastures

8. Blue Prelude

9. Wagon Wheels

10. So Why

11. St. Louis Blues

12. Young Man, You've Had A Busy Day

13. I Ain't Lazy, I'm Just Dreaming

14. Shenandoah

15. All Through The Night

16. Solitude

17. Song Of The Volga Boatman

18. Dear Old Southland

19. Nothin'

20. A Perfect Day

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Nothing sounds like this legend's bass voice! Includes Robeson's seminal renditions of Steal Away; Deep River; Shenandoah; Ol' Man River; Summertime; Song of the Volga Boatmen; Lazy Bones; Mighty Lak' a Rose; Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; Mah Lindy Lou; When It's Sleepy-Time down South; Rockin' Chair; St. Louis Blues , and more. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Voice, March 20, 2003

By 

Barbara J. Chaplin (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ol Man River: His 25 Greatest (Audio CD)

The songs on this cd have been remastered from the original 78s, and the original mono recordings date from 1925 - 1938. The sound quality, obviously, is not very good - there is a lot of background hiss on some of the selections, and the sound is murky - but considering the age, it's good enough. As well, I feel you get used to it: now when I listen to this cd I don't really notice the imperfect medium.
Unfortunately, the fact is that if you want to listen to Robeson's wonderful bass voice, you have no choice but to put up with imperfect recordings. This cd is a good selction of his famous songs, and, at 76 minutes, is generous as well. Most of the material is from musicals, and some of the older works are spirituals.
The songs are not all that old, and yet listening to them now, I was struck by the odd contrast between the exquisite, formal, beautifull-controlled, noble singing, and the lyrics. We don't talk like that anymore, and we certainly don't expect anyone who sounds like Robeson to talk like that. However, these songs are standards, and you certainly won't hear them sung any better than this anywhere else.
I highly recommend this cd to anyone who wants a good selection of Robeson's earlier work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most magnificent voices ever recorded, May 9, 2008

By 

jlove "jlove" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ol Man River: His 25 Greatest (Audio CD)

Although things always change at Amazon.com (and so what I am responding to may no longer be the case by the time you read this), I was stirred to write because of the two reviews posted to this item that I viewed, one was an attack on the quality of Paul Robeson's voice without even a shred of evidence to back it up other than the author's dubious personal tastes. I wonder if the "reviewer" had even purchased the item s/he was reviewing. Ultimately all music is a matter of one's own preferences regardless of what professional critics might say, but I hope you will consider the multitude of contemporary and later music critics who considered Robeson among the great Bass-Baritones of his time as reason enough to at least give Robeson's music a try.

First, this item might not make a good choice if you are relatively new to the subject for the reasons mentioned by others--these tracks are remastered from scratchy originals. If you haven't had much exposure to Robeson, I suggest you begin with either "Songs of Free Men/ A Paul Robeson Recital" or "Paul Robeson Live at Carnegie Hall". Both of these are representative of Robeson's period later in life--but although his voice may not have been at its peak, the recording quality was better. When you listen to the Carnegie Hall concert in particular, you might want to consider that Robeson was already 61 years old and the concert was recorded on something like a home tape recorder. But despite those problems, I think you'll have no trouble recognizing one of the most marvelous voices of the last or any century.

Once you have an appreciation for the artist, the recording under review becomes a marvelous addition to any Robeson collection. What is wonderful about the recordings of Robeson's earlier period is seeing the full range his voice was capable of--more than three octaves, the playfulness of some of the songs (later in life he favored more gravitas), and the evolution of his art. Compare the lyrics of "Ol' Man River" on this recording to the lyrics on the Carnegie Hall album, for example.

No matter which albums you might choose, you will find a person with an incomparable mastery of the folk music of many nations singing in original languages that he could often converse in--Russian, German and French. He mastered a number of songs in Yiddish and didn't shy away from Asian languages as well. He was a frequent player on the Broadway and London stages, and you'll find a great sampling of the musical theater of his era on many of his albums. He is also credited with being one of a handful of artists to bring the art of the African-American spiritual to the attention of the American and international audiences beginning in the late 1920s.

As he aged, Robeson strove to place his music in a classical context because that was considered more "legitimate" than pop music in his era. For that reason, others are right to mention him in the company of Marian Anderson who should be praised for many of the same reasons as Robeson. In this day and age of access to all of the these artists I strongly commend both Robeson and Anderson to you and hope that you will acquire and listen to these great recordings.

2 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, June 4, 2006

By 

B. Tupper (Ramona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ol Man River: His 25 Greatest (Audio CD)

There is a great deal of romanticism about Paul Robeson, mostly, I would guess, on account of his political activism. Certainly his singing doesn't merit it. It would be too easy to blame the faults on the relatively primitive recording techniques of his time, but that excuse fails, too. Other artists who recorded at the same time on the same media don't sound this bad. The truth is that Robeson did not have a very good voice, and what he had, he used poorly. One is impelled to compare his work with that of Marian Anderson, who was about one year older, lived through the same political and social problems, was subject to the same primitive recording techinques, and actually made music. Compared to Anderson, Robeson's work is embarrassing. This album does not contain the worst of Robeson's work, but one doesn't need to go further than this to recognize just how bad his singing really was.