Existing comment:
"Old Man River"
Paul Robeson is cast as the stevedore Joe in the musical Showboat, music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Robeson sings the show's most memorable song "Old Man River" which he would later change the lyrics to become a song of resistance and perseverance.
Hammerstein: "Ah gets weary/ and sick of tryin; Ah'm tire of livin'/ and skeered of dyin':"
Robeson sang: "But I keeps laffin'/ Instead of cryin'/ I must keep fightin';/ Until I'm dyin'" |