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| View Larger Image | Songs of Free Men/ A Paul Robeson Recital | Audio CDAnonymous (Composer), American Anonymous (Composer), Marc Blitzstein (Composer), Harry T. (Henry) Burleigh (Composer), George H. Clutsam (Composer), Peter DeRose (Composer), Isaak Iosifovich Dunayevsky (Composer), Ivan Ivanovich Dzerzhinsky (Composer), Lehman Engel (Composer), Stephen [1] Foster (Composer), George Gershwin (Composer), Alexander Grechaninov (Composer), Jerome Kern (Composer), Lev Konstantinovich Knipper (Composer), Felix [1] Mendelssohn (Composer), Modest Mussorgsky (Composer), Avery Robinson (Composer), Earl Robinson (Composer), Oley Speaks (Composer), Lily Theresa Strickland (Composer)
| List Price: | $7.99 | | Price: | $7.98 | | You Save: | $0.01 (%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 1 to 2 days |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Format: | Live, Original recording remastered | | Studio: | Sony | | Release Date: | December 09, 1997 | | Sales Rank: | 55,937th |
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TRACK LISTING |
Disc: 1
- Track 1: Balm in Gilead [#]
- Track 2: Chassidic Chant [#]
- Track 3: From Border to Border
- Track 4: Oh, How Proud Our Quiet Don
- Track 5: Lord God of Abraham [#]
- Track 6: The Purest Kind Of Guy
- Track 7: Joe Hill
- Track 8: Peat Bog Soldiers
- Track 9: Four Insurgent Generals
- Track 10: Native Land
- Track 11: Song of the Plains
- Track 12: Cradle Song
- Track 13: Within Four Walls
- Track 14: By an' By
- Track 15: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
- Track 16: John Henry
- Track 17: Water Boy
- Track 18: My Curly Headed Baby
- Track 19: Mah Lindy Lou
- Track 20: Wagon Wheels
- Track 21: House I Live In
- Track 22: I Still Suits Me
- Track 23: Sylvia
- Track 24: Ol' Man River
- Track 25: It Ain't Necessarily So
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Amazon.com
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, lacking irony and swing. "Old Man River," though, gets a simple, dignified treatment. It's Songs of Free Men, though, that will just keep Robeson's artistry rolling along, especially in Sony's astonishing transfers. --Jed Distler |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)
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Pleased by James Walsh (St. Ann, Jamaica)  5 Stars
September 05, 2007
Really enjoyable set of songs. I never tire of hearing Robeson sing. These songs are my constant delight while on the road.
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Robeson on wax by Mark L. Scott (California, USA.)  4 Stars
June 19, 2007
I found this album in a thrift store last week, for a couple of dollars. It's the original pressing on four 78 RPM records, in a gatefold format. It's in pristine condition. I really bought it for the incredible cover art, although I hope to be able to listen to it in this format at some point.
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The voice, the sound quality and the interpretation by R. Moonilall 5 Stars
September 24, 2004
Put this on your stereo and if it is good enough the depth and richness of Robeson's voice will make your fillings rattle and your chest rumble. The power of his voice is awesome. This CD is superbly recorded with no audible noise at normal listening levels.
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A Voice from the 40s, often dated, often moving by Raphael Collin (Jersey City) 4 Stars
September 01, 2002
"Red diaper babies" have greeted this disc with nostalgic joy, and it captures a time and an aesthetic and a political belief with precision. Anyone interested in the emotional life of the pro-Soviet left of the 1940s should buy this disc. It's something like Henry Wallace set to music. There is much more to Robeson than that, however, and Sony has given us Robeson whole: there are songs by American masters of the musical, there are labor songs, religious songs, as well as the kind of faux-folk songs which the butcher supreme Josef Stalin encouraged and which were not taken seriously inside the USSR (except at gunpoint!!) but which were taken up by dupes around the world. This is Robeson at his least savory - willing propagandist for a vile mass murderer. Songs such as "Native Land" (fittingly, Robeson is referring to the Soviet Union) and the Red Army song are the equivalent of the "Horst Wessel Song", anthems of murder, and it is difficult to listen to the worst of them without retching. On the other hand, Robeson's commitment to American folk culture was real. "Balm in Gilead" is deeply beautiful; "John Henry" is heroic; "By an' By" is both resigned yet hopeful. "Joe Hill" captures an era in labor history. Anyone interested in American popular song should hear these. Turning to Broadway, his "Old Man River" is very fine, though Robeson changed the lyrics for political reasons and Leonard Warren has done the song better. I disagree with the editorial reviewer: "I Still Suits Me" is wonderfully playful and shows Robeson using his gorgeously rich voice to tease and poke fun. However, Marc Blitzstein's "Purest Kind of a Guy" is beyond saving - another example of Robeson recording an unworthy song by a political fellow-traveller. Ugh. But for every miss there are two hits. Robeson performs Mendelssohn's Elijah with nobility, and sings his favorite song, "Water Boy", with joyous pride: "There ain't no hammer that's on these mountains that rings like mine, boys, that rings like mine." No one need have any fears about the mono sound quality. The orchestra in the second half of the program is at times a little dwarfed by Robeson's voice, but it generally sounds clean and colorful, and the great artist's voice rings like no other.
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Robeson at his best 5 Stars
May 11, 2000
It's hard to believe that most of these recordings pre-date the advent of magnetic tape: the CD transfer is superlative. The songs and performance are beyond reproach. Notable is the imaginative packaging in miniature 'record album' format, complete with the original cover art by Alex Steinweiss, and a replica of the original Columbia record label applied to the CD.
In response to a previous question: Robeson's performance of Danny Boy (Londonderry Air) can be found on the Vanguard LP entitled "Robeson" (VRS-9037).
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| 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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| 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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| Paul Robeson Sings "Ol' Man River" & Other Favorites
by Paul Robeson
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| On My Journey: Paul Robeson's Independent Recordings
Paul Robeson (Performer), Anonymous (Performer), Harry T. (Henry) Burleigh (Performer), Pierre Garat (Performer), John Harle (Performer), J. Rosamond Johnson (Performer), Modest Mussorgsky (Performer), John Newton (Performer), Edward Cockram Purcell (Performer), Traditional (Performer), American Traditional (Performer), Czech Traditional (Performer), Finnish Traditional (Performer), Irish Traditional (Performer), Jewish Traditional (Performer), Polish Traditional (Performer), Scottish Traditional (Performer), Spiritual Traditional (Performer), Alan Booth (Performer), Judith Rosen (Performer)
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| Best of Paul Robeson
by Paul Robeson
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