Uploaded by banjostead on Apr 24, 2008
The words of Old Man River were (thankfully) to change many times since the original version was written by Hammerstein and Kerr. The first line "Niggers all work on the Mississippi etc" moved on to "Darkies all work..." and eventually through being "The old Man I'd like to be" it eventually became "The Old Man I don't like to be". Harry Belafonte explains other changes within the song.
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All Comments (332)
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A hero that stood out from the rest.
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Big paul died today 1976 can everyone shut up for one day?
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@biswaborkakoty And your racism shows how civilized you are as well. You must be pretty small minded and possess a KKK mentality
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@flamingo365 your language reflects how civilized you are?
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@biswaborkakoty shut the fuck up you blue waffle minge eating faggot, fuck that racist shit right there
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@biswaborkakoty Are you suggesting that only blacks in the US are civilized? I bed to differ.
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This is Robeson's song. No one can do it as well as he did.
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no ppl on here arent saying its a "black thing"
we are just saying that it was a terrible occurence in history.... thats all we are not trying to make YOU feel guilty (i dont know were you would get that notion from) ... so just calm down man
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yo, thats really rascist dude
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Absolutely correct
banjostead 1 week ago
Interesting concept; but if you think more deeply about the mistreatment of black people in the 1930's (and since of course) he changed the lyric in about 1940, then you can understand why he didn't want to be associated with the river where 'slavery' and segregation was the norm.
banjostead 5 months ago 4
Remember, at the time, he was rejected by most of the black population as well. Martin Luther King especially did not welcome his help.
banjostead 9 months ago 6