| View Larger Image | Songs for Free Men 1940-1945 | Audio CDPaul Robeson (Performer)
| List Price: | $17.98 | |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Studio: | Pearl | | Release Date: | May 20, 1997 | | Sales Rank: | 348,672th |
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TRACK LISTING |
Disc: 1
- Track 1: Ballad for Americans - Paul Robeson, Victor Symphony Orchestra
- Track 2: Spring Song
- Track 3: Oh, Give Me Your Hand - Lawrence Brown, Paul Robeson
- Track 4: Chee Lai! (Arise!)
- Track 5: Feng Yang
- Track 6: Chinese Soldiers' Song [Old Chinese Folk Tune]
- Track 7: Riding the Dragon [Old Chinese Folk Tune]
- Track 8: From Border to Border [From Quiet Flows the Don]
- Track 9: Oh, How Proud Our Quiet Don [From Quiet Flows the Don]
- Track 10: Purest Kind of Guy [From No for an Answer]
- Track 11: Joe Hill
- Track 12: Peat-Bog Soldiers (Die Moorsoldaten: Song from a German ...)
- Track 13: Four Insurgent Generals [Spanish Loyalist Song]
- Track 14: Native Land
- Track 15: Song of the Plains
- Track 16: Cradle Song [From Op. 1 No. 5]
- Track 17: Within Four Walls (From Sunless: Cycle)
- Track 18: Anthem of the Ussr
- Track 19: United Nations
- Track 20: By An' By - Lawrence Brown, Paul Robeson
- Track 21: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
- Track 22: John Henry
- Track 23: Water Boy
- Track 24: Go Down Moses
- Track 25: Balm in Gilead
- Track 26: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
- Track 27: Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho - Lawrence Brown, Paul Robeson
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CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)
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The many sides of Paul Robeson... by JAG 1 (Massachusetts, USA)  5 Stars
June 10, 2008
These World War II recordings by the great Paul Robeson make for an interesting collection. Although Robeson's communist leanings are in fully evident in this collection, it should be noted that when these recordings were made the Soviet Union was a war-time ALLY of the United States. Robeson's renditions of these Soviet and left-leaning songs are also quite rousing, if one can get over the underlying Marxist-Leninist tone. As a patriotic American, sometimes I have qualms about seperating Robeson's outstanding talents from his political bent. Then again, taking into account the horrible treatment of African-Americans in the USA during Robeson's time, one can understand why he may have looked to the USSR and communism as an alternative to deeply entrenched racism and segregation.
All-in-all this collection reveals the many sides of Paul Robeson: his true Americanism; also his misguided infatuation with the USSR; as well as his deep and soulful connection to the African-American spirituals. His talents include an ability to sing in Russian, Chinese, Spanish and German. He also has a particular affection for the Jewish people as evidenced in the "Song from the German Concentration Camp" (On later recordings, Robeson would also cover Yiddish folksongs).
Interesting is also "The Purest Kind of Guy" written by the gay, left-leaning, American composer Marc Blitzstien. The lyrics are enigmatic: is it a tribute to Josef Stalin; to a little boy; or is it a cryptic gay love song?
This all makes for interesting history. The rich bass-baritone voice of Paul Robeson is, of course, always a thing of great beauty. Beware, the sound quality though, it is not very good as the technology of the day was limited.
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This is the voice of Free Men.... by Rachel Howard (ocklawaha, Florida United States) 5 Stars
November 03, 2001
I've had most of these songs on vinyl and they provide me with many wonderful memories. Paul Robeson had an unusual voice: a bass with baritone colorations, huge and powerful, with what can best be described as a mellow urgency. If that description confuses, then you'll just have to get this album and hear for yourself what I mean. Robeson championed the cause of the working man through his music. Joe Hill is one of my favorites, in which Paul sinks down to the vocal depths with an astounding ease. The Song of the Plains is a rouser, and, if I remember correctly, it's sung in two languages. The Ballad For Americans is here, and it's a classic... and, for me, it's the very definition of America and the great spirit and soul of its people and its greatness. By and By is one of my favorite spirituals, and this is the version I remember. Who sang spirituals with as much richness and depth of feeling as Paul Robeson? Maybe Marian Anderson, whose voice was unique and whose life broke through so many barriers. This is an album for those who love freedom and the many races who seek it. God bless Paul Robeson for his incredible contribution to humanity.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| Paul Robeson Live at Carnegie Hall
Aleksandr [Piano] Aleksandrov (Composer), Anonymous (Composer), Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), George H. Clutsam (Composer), Antonin Dvorak (Composer), Jerome Kern (Composer), Modest Mussorgsky (Composer), Earl Robinson (Composer), Franz Schubert (Composer), William Shakespeare (Composer), Czech Traditional (Composer), English Traditional (Composer), Russian Traditional (Composer), Spiritual Traditional (Composer), Paul Robeson (Composer)
This CD was recorded live Live at Carnegie Hall on May 9, 1958 and features the songs 'Every Time I Feel the Spirit', 'Volga Boat Song' and 'Ol' Man River'. Vanguard. 2005.
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| On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings
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| Songs of Free Men/ A Paul Robeson Recital
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There was nothing like the Robeson sound, ever. To describe his deep, rich, perfectly equalized instrument is futile. Go instead to "Balm in Gilead," the opening track, and see if you can listen to the last pianissimo phrase without falling to pieces. Robeson was at his best when the music was slow and the words contained spiritual or social messages. Faster, lighter fare like Kern's "I Still Suits Me" or Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" find the serious-minded singer out of his element,...
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| Ballad for Americans
by Paul Robeson
Legendary American actor/concert performer Paul Robeson sings as deep as a well and as wide as an ocean on the reissue of Ballad for Americans. His unmistakable bass-baritone makes the rafters ring on this excellent, eloquent collection of spirituals, work songs, folk songs, and pop tunes. The epic 10-minute title track--composed by Earl Robinson and John LaTouche--is a compendium of American musical forms and a celebration of American spirit, delivered in a call-and-response style that finds...
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| The Complete EMI Sessions 1928-1939
Stephen [Composer] Adams (Composer), Egbert van Alstyne (Composer), Anonymous (Composer), Eric Ansell (Composer), Joe [1] Bishop (Composer), Eubie Blake (Composer), William Blake (Composer), Edward Boatner (Composer), Carrie Jacobs Bond (Composer), Allen Boretz (Composer), J. Kiern Brennan (Composer), Lawrence [1] [Trombone] Brown (Composer), Thomas Brown (Composer), Harry T. (Henry) Burleigh (Composer), Charles Wakefield Cadman (Composer), J.W. Calcott (Composer), Hoagy Carmichael (Composer), Libbie Davidson Carpenter (Composer), Ruthland Clapham (Composer), George H. Clutsam (Composer)
170-track digitally remastered 7-CD album set containing all the HMV recordings, as well as the 1928 Columbia recording of 'Ol' Man River' from Show Boat with the Drury Lane chorus and orchestra that was not released until 1976 for contractual reasons. Also included are the two HMV recordings of 'Ol' Man River', the first made in 1930 as a solo with Ray Noble's Orchestra and the second in 1936 with chorus and orchestra conducted by Clifford Greenwood.).
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