Ol' Man River

The point of this exercise was to highlight how the lyrics got changed over the course of the twentieth century. So, to make the comparisons simpler, I rearranged the verses so they’re in the same order across all five versions. In fact, the first Robeson version and the Gordon MacRae version both push the intro verse to later in the song (amongst many other variations).

It’s also worth noting that Paul Robeson was singing his revised version (with the more defiant lyrics) in recitals as early as 1936. But I used the ones he sang on his famous “Paul Robeson at Carnegie Hall” album in 1959, as it was a more satisfying narrative arc.

If you want to read more about the song, there’s a decent Wikipedia page here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol%27_Man_River

Or if you want an in-depth discussion, there’s a great chapter in Will Friedwald’s book “Stardust Melodies” (which you can buy on ebay for next to nothing).

Also, more on Paul Robeson here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson

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