Paul Robeson ? Black actor, writer, activist, and posessor of a BEAUTIFUL bass voice...He was active in the late 1920s thru the McCarthy era, when his socialist leanings & the general prejudice of the day got him in trouble. Most of the recordings I've heard by him were long before the "Hi-Fi" era, but like Caruso, the power & majesty of his voice still comes thru. You owe it to yrself to seek out some of his stuff..it can be found on YouTube, for one. The one I like very much is a song called "Lonely Road" from 1936's "Song of Freedom".

Hello,

Here is one of the few Robeson CDs ever released. Great artist, but knew
how to make enemies...

From what I've read, the guy was practically a genius...College, law degree, spoke umpteen languages, stellar football player in college, all this in a time when opportunities for blacks were dreadfully few & far between..His one failing, if you can call it that, is that he never learned a simple truth: Discretion is the better part of valor...If he hadn't been quite so strident in EXPRESSING his beliefs, no telling what he could have accomplished. Writing what was basically a love letter to Stalin on the occaision of Stalin's death when YOUR country is in the midst of a seething hatred of all things Communist was, well, kinda ill-advised. I appreciate his sentiments, & admire the courage of his convictions & all, but some things just aren't too smart.

IIRC, I believe he was from, or maybe settled in NJ.
Wasn't he blacklisted/blackballed for his political views, or something to that effect?

A genius and a true hero when this country had too many hero Wanna-be's. Much like today sadly.

I just remember his great rendition of 'Old Man River" in Showboat.
Writing a love letter to the biggest mass murderer in history regardless of your views is a little odd.
Can we talk about his voice some more?

Actually there are over 80 Robeson cds available...Amazon.com has about 50 of them, I think. The world's best DVD company, Criterion, (sorry, no argument on this one!) also put out a pretty incredible box set of Robeson feature films (with a great booklet). Quite a guy...but the USA was not ready for such an intelligent black man during his lifetime. We might not be ready even now...

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If you guys like bass voices, and don't like political innuendo, do consider the
Canadian Joseph Rouleau. He too was compared to Chaliapin! And he made
recordings in the high-fidelity era. But since he is still alive, I guess he's not
so well known... No harm meant to Robeson, of course.

His voice sends shivers up 'n' down my spine....But basso-profundos are about as out of fashion as leisure suits or wide lapels now...Helluva shame. His voice is worth, to me, about 1000 squeaky-ass James Blounts, for instance.

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wow

Wow 80 cds. Does anyone know of a choice one. I'd love to hear his voice here.

Wow 80 cds. Does anyone know of a choice one. I'd love to hear his voice here.

I have some older vinyl, no CDs. All that I have heard is truly astounding. A bass voice that could also cover 3 octaves is really rare.

"Youse Guys" ?

Soon you'll be talking about da Bears. :D

Well, y'all make fun of me if I say "Y'all", so...(grin)

I was just given originals of all of his albums, as a gift (along with originals of just about every musical or opera I can think of, and several Deutche Gramaphone classical LPs...over 100 in all). The vinyl is in pristine condition. I'll have to give some a listen...

Enjoy,
Rich P

Here at Penn State, there is a Paul Robeson Center. Presumably due to the Pennsylvania connection, I don't know of any link between his life and Penn State.

We have another basso profundo in Brian Dickerson, saw him on an Andre Rieu in Wonderland show, fantastic voice. Living in Canada during Robeson's career we didn't get our knickers in a twist over his politics.

Hi Sandy G,

No way will I make fun of Y'all! It's my heritage. Appalachians speak proper English in the proper UK style. Paul Robeson is vastly underrated. Look for his Columbia recordings and Vanguard recordings for fine music. Songs for Free Men is essential! :tresbon: