Editing Ol' Man River

{{short description|1925 composition by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II}}
{{other uses|Old Man River (disambiguation){{!}}Old Man River}}
{{review|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox song
| name          = Ol' Man River
| cover         = Ol' Man River (1927) Sheet music.pdf
| alt           = 
| caption       = Sheet music for the song
| type          = Single
| artist        = [[Paul Whiteman|Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orchestra]] with [[Paul Robeson]] and Mixed Chorus
| album         = 
| EP            = 
| written       = 1925
| published     = 1927 [[T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc.|T. B. Harms Co.]]<ref>{{Cite web|title="Ol' Man River"|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1336044|access-date=2021-08-15|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Library of Congress. Copyright Office.|url=https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig223libr|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1927 Music For the Year 1927 New Series Vol 22 Part 3|date=1927|publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off.|others=United States Copyright Office|language=English}}</ref>
| released      = May 1927<ref>{{Cite web|title=Victor 35912 (Black label (popular) 12-in. double-faced) - Discography of American Historical Recordings|url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/objects/detail/30455/Victor_35912|access-date=2021-08-15|website=adp.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref>
| format        = 
| recorded      = March 1, 1928<ref>{{Cite web|title=Victor matrix CVE-43122. Ol' Man River / Paul Whiteman Concert Orchestra ; Paul Robeson - Discography of American Historical Recordings|url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/800017300/CVE-43122-Ol_Man_River|access-date=2021-08-15|website=adp.library.ucsb.edu}}</ref>
| studio        = [[Columbia Records#Recording studios|Liederkranz Hall]], [[New York City]]
| venue         = 
| genre         = [[Show tune]]
| length        = 
| label         = [[Victor Talking Machine Company|Victor]] 35912
| writer        = 
| composer      = [[Jerome Kern]]
| lyricist      = [[Oscar Hammerstein II]]
| producer      = 
| prev_title    = 
| prev_year     = 
| title         = 
| next_title    = 
| next_year     = 
| prev_track    = 
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| next_track    = 
}}
"'''Ol' Man River'''" is a [[show tune]] from the 1927<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=10538|title=Show Boat - IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information|author=The Broadway League}}</ref> [[Musical theater|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]],<ref name="Amcom">{{cite book|title=Broadway: The American Musical: Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon: 9780821229057: Amazon.com: Books|isbn=0-8212-2905-2|last1=Maslon|first1=Laurence|author-link1=Laurence Maslon|date=13 October 2004|publisher=Bulfinch }}</ref><ref name="MassGeo">"Lesson: Ol' Man River" (school lesson for Mississippi River), Michael E. Marrapodi, New Covenant Christian School, [[Ashland, Massachusetts]], 2006, webpage: [http://www.massgeo.org/river.htm MassGeo-River] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231075237/http://www.massgeo.org/river.htm |date=2007-12-31 }}: shows phrase "feared of dyin' " (rather than "skeered" of dying) as sung in earlier recordings.</ref> and is the most famous song from the show. The song is meant to be performed in a slow tempo; it is sung complete once in the musical's lengthy first scene by the stevedore "Joe" who travels with the boat, and, in the stage version, is heard four more times in brief [[reprise]]s. Joe serves as a sort of musical one-man [[Greek chorus]], and the song, when reprised, comments on the action, as if saying, "This has happened, but the river keeps rolling on anyway."{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

The song is notable for several aspects: the lyrical [[Pentatonic scale|pentatonic-scale]] melody, the subjects of toil and [[social class]], the metaphor to the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]], and as a [[bass (vocal range)|bass]] solo (rare in musicals, solos for [[baritone]]s or [[tenor]]s being more common).

[[Paul Whiteman|Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra]] had a hit recording of the song in early 1928, in a much faster tempo than Kern and Hammerstein intended, featuring [[Bing Crosby]] on vocals and [[Bix Beiderbecke]] on cornet.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Bing Crosby Discography|url=http://www.bingmagazine.co.uk/bingmagazine/crosby1a.html|website=BING magazine|publisher=International Club Crosby|access-date=April 30, 2017}}</ref>  A second version was recorded on March 1, with Paul Whiteman and his Concert Orchestra and [[Bass (voice type)|bass singer]] [[Paul Robeson]] on vocals, sung in a dance tempo. The latter was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 2006, and a 1936 rendition by Robeson also finished No. 24 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs]] 2004 survey of top tunes in American cinema. Its musical composition entered the public domain on January 1, 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/|title=Public Domain Day 2023 &#124; Duke University School of Law|website=web.law.duke.edu}}</ref>

==Early versions==
"Ol' Man River" was first performed in the original stage production of ''Show Boat'' on December 27, 1927, by [[Jules Bledsoe]], who also sang it in the part-talkie 1929 film, although that film version had little to do with the stage musical. Bledsoe also recorded the song years later.<ref name="Redmond"/> The first known recording of the song was by "Kenn" Sisson and His Orchestra, recorded on December 27, 1927, with [[Irving Kaufman (singer)|Irving Kaufman]] on vocals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://secondhandsongs.com/performance/240006|title=Cover versions of Ol' Man River by "Kenn" Sisson and His Orchestra - SecondHandSongs|author=Jerome Kern|website=SecondHandSongs }}</ref> 

Hammerstein and Kern originally wrote the song "Ol' Man River" for the voice of baritone [[Broadway Jones (performer)|Broadway Jones]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A Life in Ragtime: A Biography of James Reese Europe|first=Reid|last=Badger|year=1995|isbn=9780195345209|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=307|quote="Henry 'Broadway' Jones was active in vaudeville and musical theater into the 1930s. In fact, Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein wrote "Ol' Man River" with Jones in mind." }}</ref><ref name="EB">{{cite book|title=Eubie Blake: Keys of Memory|first=Lawrence T.|last=Carter|year= 1979|isbn=9780913642108|publisher=Balamp Publishing Co.|quote="Later Jerome Kern went down to Florida. He heard a lot of black singers, and he decided to write the musical ''Show Boat''. And having heard Broadway [Jones] sing, he wrote the song " Old Man River " expressly for his voice."|page=62 }}</ref> Hammerstein had initially determined to cast in the role of Joe for the original production after hearing the singer perform in Palm Beach, Florida,<ref name="Carlin"/> and Kern later traveled down to Florida to hear him perform as well.<ref name="EB"/> Jones, a partner of [[Eubie Blake]], was offered the role but was not willing to take the salary that he was offered which was less than he was already making as a performer.<ref name="Carlin">{{cite book|title=Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race|year=2020|last=Carlin|first=Richard|publisher=[[ Oxford University Press]]|isbn= 9780190635930|url=https://archive.org/details/eubieblakeragsrh0000carl/mode/2up?q=%22Broadway+Jones%22|page=209}}</ref> Jones later performed the song in [[ Fanchon and Marco]]'s 1929 musical revue ''California Capers''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Eubie Blake: Rags, Rhythm, and Race|year=2020|last=Carlin|first=Richard|publisher=[[ Oxford University Press]]|isbn= 9780190635930|url=https://archive.org/details/eubieblakeragsrh0000carl/mode/2up?q=%22Broadway+Jones%22|page=212-213}}</ref>

The part of Joe in the original New York production was also offered to [[Paul Robeson]], but he too declined the part. Robeson later played the role in the 1928 London production and became closely associated with the song.<ref>{{cite book|title=Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical|first=Todd|last= Decker|year=2013|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780190250539|page=29-30}}</ref> Arguably the most famous rendition of the song, one that is still noted today, was sung by Robeson in [[James Whale]]'s classic 1936 [[Show Boat (1936 film)|film version of ''Show Boat'']].<ref name="Redmond">{{cite book|first=Shana L. |last=Redmond |title=Anthem: Social Movements and the Sound of Solidarity in the African Diaspora|url={{Google Books |TagUCgAAQBAJ|page=101|plain-url=yes}}|date=2014|isbn=978-0-7864-5747-2 |publisher=9780814770412|pages=101&ndash;108 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Robeson also recorded the song with [[Paul Whiteman]] and his Concert Orchestra in 1928, and multiple times in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian Rust |author2=Allen G. Debus |title=The Complete Entertainment Discography, from the Mid-1890s to 1942|url={{Google Books |ezXaAAAAMAAJ|page=552|plain-url=yes}}|date=1973|isbn=978-0-87000-150-5 |publisher=Arlington House|pages=551–556 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

From the show's opening number "Cotton Blossom", the notes in the phrase "Cotton Blossom, Cotton Blossom" are the same notes as those in the phrase "Ol' Man River, dat Ol' Man River," but inverted. However, "Cotton Blossom" was written first, and "Ol' Man River" was written only after Kern and Hammerstein realized they needed a song to end the first scene in the show. Hammerstein decided to use the idea of the Mississippi River as a basis for the song and told Kern to use the melody that the [[stevedore]]s sang in "Cotton Blossom" but invert some of it, and slow down the tempo. This inversion gave "Ol' Man River" a tragic quality.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-12-11|title=Show Boat: Down the Mississippi Aboard the Cotton Blossom|url=https://www.johnstoncountync.org/ava-gardner/blog/post/show-boat-down-the-mississippi-aboard-the-cotton-blossom/|access-date=2021-08-15|website=www.johnstoncountync.org|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title='Showboat'|url=https://www.npr.org/2000/04/17/1073053/npr-100-i-showboat-i|access-date=2021-08-15|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title='Ol' Man River': An American Masterpiece|url=https://www.npr.org/2003/05/31/1279965/ol-man-river-an-american-masterpiece|access-date=2021-08-15|website=NPR.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Agathiyan|first=B.|title=Subtle Racism in Edna Ferber's Showboat|url=https://www.infokara.com/gallery/15-july-2741.pdf|access-date=14 August 2021|website=infokara.com}}</ref>

==Robeson's alterations to song lyrics==
Beginning about 1938 to the end of his career, Paul Robeson changed a few of the lyrics of "Ol' Man River" when singing it at [[Concert#Recital|recital]]s but never in actual stage performances of ''Show Boat'' and not in the 1936 film version.<ref name=Amcom/> (In addition to the 1928 and 1932 stage productions as well as the 1936 film version, he appeared in a [[Los Angeles]] stage revival in 1940.) Except for the change of the word "niggers" to "darkies", the lyrics of the song as Robeson performed it in the 1936 film version of the show remain exactly as Oscar Hammerstein II originally wrote them in 1927. However, after 1938, Robeson would record the song only with the lyrics that he had used in his post-1936 concert recitals.

In the 1978 one-man play ''Paul Robeson'', by [[Phillip Hayes Dean]], there is a (perhaps fictitious) reference to the change in the lyrics - an unseen interviewer asks Robeson (played by [[James Earl Jones]]) about the original lyrics, and he responds "No, I don't sing it that way anymore".<ref>{{cite book|title=Paul Robeson.: Phillip Hayes Dean, Phillip Hayes Dean: 9780822215158: Amazon.com: Books|isbn=0-8222-1515-2|last1=Dean|first1=Phillip Hayes|year=1997|publisher=Dramatists Play Service }}</ref>

In the 1951 film version of ''Show Boat'', as well as the 1962 studio recording and the 1966 [[Lincoln Center]] revival of the show, William Warfield sang only the introductory verse and the lyrics to the main section of the song, and omitted what could be considered a controversial section, in contrast to both Jules Bledsoe (who sang it in the prologue to the 1929 film version) and Robeson (who sang the whole song in the 1936 film). The section that Warfield omitted begins:

::''Niggers all work on de Mississippi,''
::''Niggers all work while de white folks play''...

In the 1936 film, the word "niggers" was changed to "darkies". Ever since the 1946 revival, the term has been changed to "colored folks", although there have been revivals that change the lines to ''Here we all work on de Mississippi,/ Here we all work while de white folks play''. [[Al Jolson]] sang a version starting with "lots of folks work on the Mississippi."  Also, the phrase "feared of dyin' " (rather than "skeered of dyin' ") has been sung in some recordings,<ref name=MassGeo/> notably [[Lawrence Tibbett]]'s 1930s version, Gordon MacRae's 1950s version (first heard on ''[[The Railroad Hour]]''), and [[Frank Sinatra]]'s 1946 performance, first heard in the film ''[[Till the Clouds Roll By]]''.

Robeson's own 1938 changes in the lyrics of the song are as follows:

* Instead of "Dere's an ol' man called de Mississippi, / Dat's de ol' man that I'd like to be...", Robeson sang "There's an ol' man called the Mississippi, / That's the ol' man I don't like to be"..."
*  Instead of "Tote that barge! / Lift that bale! / Git a little drunk, / An' you land in jail...", Robeson sang "Tote that barge and lift dat bale!/ You show a little grit / And you lands in jail.."
*  Instead of "Ah gits weary / An' sick of tryin'; / Ah'm tired of livin' / An skeered of dyin', / But Ol' Man River, / He jes' keeps rolling along!", Robeson sang "But I keeps laffin'/ Instead of cryin' / I must keep fightin'; / Until I'm dyin', / And Ol' Man River, / He'll just keep rollin' along!"<ref>Sarah Lennox (2011). "Reading Transnationally: the GDR and American Black Writers" in Elaine Kelly, Amy Wlodarski (eds.), ''Art Outside the Lines: New Perspectives on GDR Art Culture''. Editions Rodopi. {{ISBN|978-90-420-3341-2}}. p.124</ref>  In Scene 7 of Act II of the show, Joe does sing this verse, but rather than singing "I must keep fightin' until I'm dyin", sings "I must keep livin' until I'm dyin,/ But Ol' Man River,/ He jes' keeps rollin' along!" According to the 1988 EMI album of ''Show Boat'', these are Hammerstein's authentic lyrics for this reprise.

In recitals and in several of his many recordings of the song, Robeson also omitted the controversial section "Niggers all work on de Mississippi...", etc., with its middle portion "Don't look up/ An' don't look down/ You don't dast make / De white boss frown", etc., as well as its concluding "Lemme go ' way from de Mississippi/ Lemme go ' way from de white man boss, etc." . However, Robeson did include a portion of these lyrics in the 1932 4-record 78 [[Revolutions per minute|rpm]] album of selections from ''Show Boat''.

[[Gordon MacRae]]'s version of the song, as performed on ''[[The Railroad Hour]]'' radio program (late 1940s or 1950s), changed the phrase "white man boss" to "big man boss".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.otr.net/|title=OTR.Network Library (The Old Time Radio Network)|website=www.otr.net}}</ref>

[[The Temptations]], in their rendition on ''[[The Temptations in a Mellow Mood]]'' (1967), changed any references to the "white man boss" to "rich man boss", as well as "Here we all work while the white boys play" to "Here we all work while the rich boys play".

In 1988, [[EMI]]/[[Angel Records]] issued a 3-CD set of the complete score of ''Show Boat'', starring [[Frederica Von Stade]], [[Jerry Hadley]], [[Teresa Stratas]], and [[Bruce Hubbard]], conducted by [[John McGlinn]]. On this album, the original 1927 lyrics of ''Ol' Man River'' were heard for the first time on a [[high fidelity]] [[stereophonic|stereo]] recording.

While Robeson's changes to the lyrics were mostly sung by himself, [[Leon Bibb (musician)|Leon]] and [[Eric Bibb]] together sang a changed version in their 2006 tribute album ''Praising Peace: A Tribute to Paul Robeson'', and a clip exists of [[William Warfield]] singing the song with the changes that Robeson incorporated into it.<ref>{{YouTube|-WLtCPRjqb0|William Warfield performs "Old Man River" (Robeson version)}}</ref>

==Other versions==
Indian singer [[Bhupen Hazarika]] met Robeson in New York in the 1950s. His [[Assamese language|Assamese]] song "Bistirno Dupare" is influenced by "Ol' Man River", with the [[Brahmaputra]] replacing the Mississippi.<ref name="George2023p52">{{cite book |last1=George |first1=Steven S  |editor1-last=Malhotra |editor1-first=Simi |editor2-last=Rizvi |editor2-first=Zahra |editor3-last=Singh |editor3-first=Shraddha A. |title=Globalization and Sense-Making Practices: Phenomenologies of the Global, Local and Glocal |date=11 September 2023 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-95301-5 |page=52 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aQbLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA52  |doi=10.4324/9781003434481 |language=en |chapter=Singing Rivers: Spatial Discourses and Milieu-Specific Analysis}}</ref> Hazarika's song has in turn been translated into [[Bengali language|Bengali]] (with the same name) and [[Hindi]] (as "Ganga Behti Ho Kyu", about the [[Ganges]]).<ref name="George2023p52"/>

[[The Beach Boys]] recorded a version of Ol' Man River with "[[Old Folks at Home]]" as an instrumental intro during the recording sessions for their 1968 [[20/20_(The_Beach_Boys_album)|20/20]] album, which didn't make the final cut.

==See also==
* [[Spirituals]] – also known as Negro spirituals - is a genre of songs originating in the US and created by African-Americans describing the hardships of slavery
* ''[[That Lucky Old Sun]]'' – a country-western song addressing similar themes and popularized by [[Frankie Laine]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* The chapter "Ol' Man River" in the book ''[[Stardust Melodies: The Biography of Twelve of America's Most Popular Songs]]'' by [[Will Friedwald]] (New York: Pantheon Books, 2002).
*Todd Decker, ''Who Should Sing Ol' Man River?: The Lives of an American Song'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015).

==External links==
* [http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/o/olmanriver.shtml 1927 lyrics to Ol' Man River]

{{Show Boat}}
{{Paul Robeson}}
{{Bing Crosby singles}}
{{Frank Sinatra singles}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ol' Man River}}
[[Category:1927 songs]]
[[Category:Bing Crosby songs]]
[[Category:Paul Robeson songs]]
[[Category:Songs about labor]]
[[Category:Songs about rivers]]
[[Category:Songs about the Mississippi River]]
[[Category:Songs from musicals]]
[[Category:Songs from Show Boat]]
[[Category:Songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II]]
[[Category:Songs with music by Jerome Kern]]