Spoken Intro/Kern/Ol' Man River - Abaca String Band

[chartsounds]

There we go again giving all the credit to a white man for a song written by Paul Robinson the song is about black struggle in an oppressive white rule society where blacks had to sit at the back of busses and could not drink from the same fountains as white people. Jerome Kern wrote a play called Showboat and Paul Roberson wrote and sang Ole Man River. Which was then taken over by Jerome’s publishers and took all the credits and royalties. This type of publishing theft is still going on.

[adeadgbe]

@chartsounds

This song was written for the musical Show Boat with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.  The song was first performed in the original stage production by Jules Bledsoe. Paul Robeson first performed it in the 1936 film version of Show Boat. Starting in 1938 Paul Robeson sang it with some changes in the lyrics that he made.