Paul Robeson - The Minstrel Boy

[saxondog2001]

The day Paul Robeson was born there was a great quantity of salt in the air. I love him!

[22grena]

Great voice

[luisalandaeta]

Gran cantante, no hay duda, lástima que como ser humano no presentase la misma grandeza, cuando, al disfrutar de las ventajas que su condición de pro soviético le daba, era recibido como héroe en la URSS, mientras sus connacionales eran esclavos en la misma tierra, y habiendo ellos pedido su ayuda, éste se la negase radicalmente. Eso sí, jamás se mudó a vivir como cualquier paisano en la URSS:

[BoudiccaBlanc]

My favorite rendition of the Minstrel Boy. :))

Thank you for sharing. :))

My father, a veteran of both WW1 & WW2 used to sing this during the summer when he'd be sitting outside on the porch. :))

[muisire]

I am now almost 74 years old and there are very few singers able to give me back my childhood - Paul robeson is one of them.

I grew up with this singer and I grew up with this song - thank you for this upload.

[MrBrownenvelope]

ONE person standing for right and freedom is all it takes,although this was originally an Irish song we gladly share it with all people of like mind.

[bullyboy1863]

A friend of mine sang this while we were marching into battle at the 150th anniversary of the 1st battle of bull run.

[doctorpsycho1960]

@bullyboy1863 A very appropriate setting for it, I must say.

[bilmar1966]

Thomas Moore would love this, John McCormack would love it,Tommy Makem would love it, and I love it!

Paul Robeson's singing of 'The Minstrel Boy' is the best version of this song ever.

Robeson magnifies the soul.

[VivaLaPol]

Brilliant rendition of a powerful song. As for this British thing, it's an Irish song written by an Irishman who remembered his friends who fought against the British empire to free their country. It makes as much sense to call the Irish of the time British as it would to call those born in India, British. Simply because a foreign government declares an act of union, doesn't mean the inhabitants of the stolen country suddenly become the nationality of the conqueror.

[compdude47]

Such a deep, rich bass voice. Well done.

[Ptbinstock]

Terrific rendition of this beautiful song!

[PiccoloGirl1612]

I love this Bass!!!! Such a good deep-low voice!!!

[marcibb]

Nice rendition thanks 

[thomasalanmac]

Why don't we all calm down and enjoy the lovely rendition by Mr. Robeson

.

[LeneAnette]

This is the kind of music who makes me smile.

[ifuliki]

Thomas Moore wrote a lot of lovely songs. Paul Robeson has no peer in my opinion.

Aled

[NosHabebitHumus]

Moore's poem is a proud, defiant lament for the dead -- Moore`s friends who died in the 1798 Rebellion - set to the tune The Moreen, not a drinking or a battle song. It is about steadfastness, about never surrendering the soul to the toils of the oppressor. Listen to the climax: "Said: No chains shall sully thee". Robeson`s father (born 1844) was a slave who escaped in 1860 and labored for the Union Army during the Civil War. The voice is deep; the emotion, profound.

[bschechter0428]

Great singer. Too bad he was an apologist for mass murderer Stalin and thought the US was worse while millions died in the USSR.

[marxotube]

@bschechter0428 The USA was FAR WORSE than the USSR in the 1950s!!!!

[bschechter0428]

@marxotube i cannot even reply to such foolishness. okay, let me try: millions in the gulag; tens of thousands executed for things like not cheering Stalin loud enough at a workers rally; supporting "Revolution" around the world that resulted in tens of millions of deaths.

In the USA: Jim Crow, which was being dismantled.

Nice Marxy. Go live in North Korea.

[marxotube]

@bschechter0428 Since 1945 every King and Tyrant has had a friend in Uncle Sam, the people's dreams of freedom have been drowned in blood by the stars and stripes. The Minstrel Boy of the 20st and 21st centuries have been all those heroes who have preferred death to American slavery!

[esh325]

@marxotube How about you leave your political bullshit out of this. Your USSR wasn't much better.

[marxotube]

@esh325 Paul Robeson lived and breathed Freedom. You can't just disagree with his politics and love his music. The soul of Communism is in all of his songs. IF you miss the political BS you miss the beauty of his song.

This is true of all his music, but particularly this one about national liberation.

I was only responding to anti-communist red baiting. So I didn't start this. But I'm not sorry it was. THATS who Paul is.

[esh325]

@marxotube Paul was a big commy, but this song if anything would be against an opressive ideology like communism.

[BrickLaneBetty]

@esh325  you KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ROBESON.

[esh325]

@BrickLaneBetty What do I have wrong?

[mpc91]

@marxotube - You talk of Freedom. Then you talk of Communism.

They are mutually exclusive. One cannot be free while depending on the labor of another. One cannot be free if he cannot reap the rewards of his own labors.

One cannot be free without the free market.

And it is people of your ilk who have enslaved BILLIONS to your high headed dogma.

If communism was so great, why did they have to build walls manned with machine guns to keep people in?

[Dragonx0562]

@marxotube

and your reason/excuse for the pogroms, the gulags of stalin, and lenin?

The Great Leap Forward and Cultural revolution of Mao?

The Construction of V.I. Lenin NPP, at Chernobyl, which lead to the accident at Reactor 4?

I'm not putting a HAlo on the US of McCarthy, don't put one on the Hammer and sickle, either

[BrickLaneBetty]

@Dragonx0562 without the US govt's atrocities and the liquidation and ethnic cleansing/rape of resources that was colonialism then there never would have been an interest for PR in the USSR in the first place-he said it himself. he wanted them to control their own destiny and the US to work towrds peace not a Communist USA. You perhaps need to read more about him so many factoids and false claims exist .

The Vietnam war was right of Stalin's book so was King Leopold.

Which came FIRST?

[esh325]

@BrickLaneBetty And what does that have to do with excusing the attrocities the USSR committed? I'm not saying it's right, but every great power has killed people. The USSR,USA,Roman Empire, English empire, etc.

[SolofTarsus5]

@esh325 And at some point maybe we will define a "great power" as a people who will not kill others and will not accept a government who does.

[Dragonx0562]

@BrickLaneBetty

and by that reasoning, then I'm sure you're holding the rest of the world accountable for their dirty laundry of LONG LONG AGO. The spanish inquisiton perhaps, or the numerous crusades? 

[BrickLaneBetty]

@Dragonx0562 You don't have to go that far back. Try about an hour ago.

[Dragonx0562]

@BrickLaneBetty

Ending thread due to Rule 14 violations.

[99Collie88]

Seems like this man can sing most anything and make it sound like it was written for him.

[Lordandmasterpa]

Wow what a powerful voice! Robeson was one of a kind.

[stvnwy246]

Great Song, I rmember this was on Star Trek Episode called 'The Wounded' , character Miles O'brien sang it with his former Capt., before being Court Martialed.

Thanks

[stuman06]

boo ;)

[1967mustanggta]

This is the fight song of our youth football team in Brazil Ind. ; The 14th Indiana Lions

sing along:

The mighty Lions are the team to beat and I'm proud to be a part of them.

The gold and purple shall not know defeat In the end we're bound to show you something.

And come what may when the smoke has cleared

The game is won and we are out of here

Left behind a trail of misery and fear

For we are the mean and mighty Lions!

[johncrighto]

Good song. he has a good voice for it. Although i must say, i think he lacks the emotion needed to make this song. This song is supposed to be a drinking or a battle song, so there is much emotion in this, adrenaline rushes, danger, so on, not to mention whiskey and rum and beer, but i don't think he captures the spirit of it. This is coming from an irish descendant.

[retiredsecurity]

Paul does justice to the song as he too came from a people that suffered

[retiredsecurity]

Ireland NEVER belonged to the British Empire period. Ireland will always belong to the Irish..

[ProtoNobilissimus]

@retiredsecurity

Erin go Braugh

[SolofTarsus5]

@retiredsecurity Indeed, he was not English, he was British. Historical fact is not a second-place to nationalistic pride. Ireland was a part of the British Empire, if one includes the home islands. I am only too happy to see a united Ireland, but the fact is that this song was written by a man who was British at the time it was authored.

[cameramanAL]

@SolofTarsus5 True, but, it was written for three of his friends who took part in a rebellion against British rule in Ireland. That also has to be taken in to account. Agreed?

Talk about two complicated Islands...

[donbbk]

@retiredsecurity Thats correct but sadly we sold out to the EU

[exarkunrocks]

@retiredsecurity false. ireland, like the rest of the world, belongs to one man. PAUL ROBESON

[chrisdcarney]

@retiredsecurity what a load of crap I consider myself both english and irish as does my daughter the comments on here are not nationalist they are racist crap

[nunquamrecedo]

so very true: songs are made for the pure and free never to sound in slavery -

powerful words by one of England's greatest poets- Thomas Moore

And by what a performer! Paul Robeson's singing gives these words an extra dimension!

[esh325]

Thomas Moore is Irish not English!

[nunquamrecedo]

Absolutely, my apologies for this mistake, in fact I realized this shortly afterwards allthough technically speaking (no offense intended) could it be that Ireland during that period belonged to the British empire? In which case I hope you wil forgive me

[esh325]

No forgive I will burn you on a stake! J/k lol. Yes Ireland belonged to the British empire until 1922.

[nunquamrecedo]

What a jolly bonfire that would be!

[MrTommyTurk]

@esh325 That is my name!

[Maxdesander]

powerful version of the old Irish ballad, but what else would you expect from Robeson, (a man who was wronged in so many ways ).