On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings

by Paul Robeson

Overview

A 20th century renaissance man, Paul Robeson was an actor, singer, writer, scholar, activist, and intellectual with a degree from the Columbia University law school. He also suffered no fools, and his outspoken views on racism and McCarthyism eventually led to his blacklisting in the 1950s, a situation Robeson met with characteristic dignity and resilience. When no label would record him, he started his own imprint, Othello Records, and recorded some 100 tracks and released three LPs (Robeson Sings, Solid Rock, and Let Freedom Ring) between 1954 and 1958, generally to spare piano accompaniment by either Lawrence Brown or Alan Booth. Eventually Monitor Records picked up some of these tracks for a pair of LPs in 1958, Favorite Songs and Encore Robeson, which became the first dents in Robeson's situation on the blacklist, which was smashed entirely when Vanguard Records picked him up a year later. Throughout this period, Robeson found himself being harassed by the U.S. government in myriad ways, but he responded with diligence, determination, and the kind of personal grace that Senator McCarthy could only dream about. Now these independent recordings, most of them produced by Robeson's son Paul Robeson, Jr. and many recorded in friends' apartments, are fittingly a part of the Smithsonian/Folkways catalog, and a generous sampling of them is included here. Robeson's deep voice and theatrical singing style sound quaint at first, but as he tackles these traditional spirituals and folk songs, most of which concern themselves with faith, hope, and freedom, the full range of this man's vision becomes clear: one love, one world, as Bob Marley would put it over a decade later. Among the highlights here are versions of Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me," the powerful and majestic "Takin' Names," a probably definitive "Joe Hill," and a resonant take on "No More Auction Block for Me," a song that became the melodic template for "We Shall Overcome," and speeded up, for Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind," plus a wonderful version of "Hammer Song" done with the harmonica-and-guitar team of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. Robeson's performing style and approach clearly belong to the early 20th century, but his convictions, vision, and unerring and diligent activism place him intellectually at the close of it. Robeson blazed the path that Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, and many others would follow in the 1960s, and truthfully, provides a road map for 21st century agitators like Rage Against the Machine. A true American treasure and icon, Paul Robeson's work belongs at Smithsonian/Folkways, which will always keep it available and in print. ~ Steve Leggett

Product Details

Release Date:	08/28/2007
Label:	Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
UPC:	0093074017821
Rank:	76923

Tracks

1. On Mah Journey Now, Mount Zion
2. Scandalize My Name
3. Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel?
4. Kaddish
5. Climbing Jacob's Ladder, spiritual
6. Songs My Mother Taught Me
7. The Minstrel Boy, folk song
8. The Orphan (Sirotka), song for voice & piano
9. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
10. Vi azoi lebt der keyser
11. Witness
12. Hammer Song
13. Water Me from the Lime Rock
14. Break Bread Together, spiritual
15. Amazing Grace
16. Shlof, mein kind (Sleep, My Child), traditional song
17. Over the Sea to Skye (a.k.a. "The Skye Boat Song")
18. Wanderer, folk song
19. This Little Light of Mine, spiritual
20. Stand Still, Jordan
21. Takin' Names
22. Dans le printemps de mes ann¿¿es, song for voice & piano
23. Passing By
24. Mistress Mine
25. Now sleeps the crimson petal
26. Li'l Gal
27. Kevin Barry
28. Zog nit keynmol (Song of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)
29. Joe Hill, folk song
30. Zvornost (Freedom), folk song
31. Bear the Burden in the Heat of the Day
32. No More Auction Block for Me, folk song

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Paul Robeson   Primary Artist,Bass (Vocal)
Sonny Terry   Piano
Alan Booth   Piano,Piano
Lawrence Brown   Piano
Judith Rosen   Piano
Lawrence D. Brown   Piano

Technical Credits

David Hancock   Engineer
Pete Reiniger   Sound Supervision
Antonin Dvorak   Text
D.A. Sonneborn   Production Supervisor
Bedrich Smetana   Arranger
Selim Palmgren   Arranger
Bob Cataliotti   Liner Notes,Reissue Producer
David B. Hancock   Engineer
Paul Robeson, Jr.   Editing,Engineer,Memorabilia,Photography,Producer
Unspecified   Composer
Jacob Love   Editorial Assistant
Harold Boulton   Text
Mary Monseur   Production Coordination
Peter Bartok   Engineer
Roger Quilter   Arranger
Lawrence D. Brown   Arranger
Tony Schwarts   Engineer
Ira Rosenberg   Photography
Daniel Sheehy   Production Supervisor
Sonya Cohen Cramer   Design,Layout Design