Ol’ Man River: the Story & the Lyrics

16 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Music, Songs

Tags

Alexander Woollcott, Edna Ferber, Jerome Kern, Ol' Man River, Oscar Hammerstein II, Paul Robeson, Show Boat

The Story of a Musical

Ol’ Man River is a song written in 1927 for a musical: Show Boat. The music was composed by Jerome Kern. Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the lyrics and it is based on a novel by Edna Ferber.

Wikipedia has a wealth of information on this subject, but among various facts, I would like to emphasize that when Edna Ferber was “gathering material about a disappearing American entertainment venue, the river showboat,” the talented Edna found a “treasure trove of show-boat material, human, touching, true.” She spent several weeks on the James Adams Floating Palace Theater in Bath, North Carolina, United States, researching her novel. (Wikipedia)

Edna Ferber, Wollcott, Kern & Hammerstein

Jerome Kern loved the novel and asked Alexander Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) of the New Yorker and a member of the Algonquin Round Table, New York wits of the day, to introduce him to Edna Ferber.

At first, Edna resisted. She was afraid her Show Boat would be turned into a “girlie” show. These were the roaring and frilly twenties. But Kern explained that Oscar Hammerstein would write the lyrics, which meant this was going to be a carefully crafted Broadway show based on her book. She ended up agreeing and her name was on the necessary and very fine poster: adapted from Edna Ferber… She had won a Pulitzer prize for her novel So Big (1924).

A Sturdy Perennial

Performances of Show Boat dot the entire twentieth century and had a celebrated revival in 1994. It has been a sturdy perennial and it is a tribute to Kern and Hammerstein to have written a song that has allowed Paul Robeson to express the hardship of African-Americans.

Since Kern and Hammerstein, several versions of the song have been performed. So I listened very carefully and believe the lyrics I am providing, with the help of Wikipedia, match Robeson’s rendition. However, I could not understand some of the words.

Paul Robeson’s Lyrics

Ther’s an ol’ man

Called the Mississippi

That’s the ol’ man

I don’t like to be

What does he care

If the world’s got troubles

What does he care

If the land ain’t [is not] free.

Ol’ man river
Dat [That] ol’ man river
He mus’ know sumpin’ [must know something]
But don’t say nuthin’ [doesn’t say nothing]

He jes’ [just] keeps rollin’ [rolling]

He keeps on rollin’ along.

Spoken over the song:

And you get[s] a littl’ drunk

And you land[s] in jail

Then you show a little grit [courage]

And you land in jail

He don’ [doesn’t] plant taters/tators [potatoes]
He don’ [doesn’t] plant cotton
An’ dem dat plants’ em [And those who plant them]
Is [Are] soon forgotten
But ol’ man river

He jes [just] keep on rollin’ along.

You an’ [and] me, we sweat an’ strain

Body all achin’ an’ racket wid pain [Body all aching and wracked with pain]
Tote dat [that] barge
And lift dat bale
You show a little grit [courage]
An’ you land[s] in jail.

But I keeps laffin’ [laughing]

Instead of crying

I must keep fightin’ [fighting]

Until I’m dyin’ [dying]

And ol’ man river

He’ll just keep rollin’ along.

Micheline Walker©

August 16th, 2012

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“Ol’ Man River,” Robeson, Chateaubriand & the News

16 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Literature, Songs

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Atala, French Revolution, Le Devoir, Le Monde, Le Monde diplomatique, National Post, New York Times, Sorrows of Young Werther

: Atala au tombeau (1808), by Girodet de Roussy*

*Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (5 January 1767 – 9 December 1823)

Photo credit: Wikipedia

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand

In 1801, renowned French artist Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) published Atala, ou Les Amours de deux sauvages dans le désert and, in 1826, he published Les Natchez available as an e-book.

The sad love story of our deux sauvages, Atala, was a great success. It offered just the right element of exoticism and was written by a writer whose penmanship is both exemplary and legendary. He was Victor Hugo’s model: “Je veux être Chateaubriand ou rien” (I want to be Chateaubriand or nothing).

Le Mal du siècle

Chateaubriand is one of the fathers of French Romanticism. He created a character named René (1802) who suffers from what is known as le vague des passions or le mal du siècle, beautifully described in Wikipedia.

However, we need only click on le mal du siècle. I believe that le mal du siècle was aptly described by Charles Baudelaire (9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867). In “l’Albatros,” (Les Fleurs du mal; The Flowers of Evil), Baudelaire writes that while the albatross soars majestically in full flight, its long wings make it look clumsy on a ship’s deck.

Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,
Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher.

René is a French reincarnation of Goethe’s Werther. See The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774).

The River: the Meschacebé or the Mississippi

René is particularly fascinating because the love story takes place on the shores of the Mississippi or Meschacebé, which Chateaubriand describes in masterly prose, sight unseen. Moreover, Atala is rousseauistic (Jean-Jacques Rousseau [28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778)]) in that it glorifies nature and anything “sauvage,” untouched by the world. The real sauvages are in France. Consequently, Atala and Chactas are privileged human beings. They are bons sauvages. However, Atala’s mother has vowed that her daughter would remain a virgin. So Atala poison’s herself.

The French Revolution: Exile

In 1791, during the French Revolution, Chateaubriand took refuge in America. He returned to France in 1792, but had to leave France again. He fled to London where he earned a meagre living teaching French and doing translation work.(Wikipedia) He would later become quite wealthy.

He spent his final years in Paris, living as a recluse. The only person he visited was Madame de Récamier.