Celebrity Jukebox #25: Paul Robeson

When I started looking up famous actors and actresses for this feature, I was shocked by just how few of them were people of colour. It's only in the last couple of years that diverse on-screen representation has really caught on, to the point that we're now starting to hear white male actors whinging they can't get the parts anymore. Here's the World's Smallest Violin playing just for them.

Singer, actor, professional footballer and game-changing political activist Paul Robeson is held up by many as the first true African American superstar, paving the way for the likes of Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. Of course, he paid the price for being a pioneer when the FBI blacklisted him as a subversive during the McCarthy era. 

Woody Guthrie was naturally an admirer of Robeson's, although his song wasn't recorded until Billy Bragg and Wilco took charge of his archive in the 90s...

Billy Bragg & Wilco - My Thirty Thousand

Black 47 were a controversial white American Celtic rock band who counted among their roster former Dexys saxophonist Geoff Blythe. This was their own tribute to Robeson...

Black 47 - Paul Robeson (Born to be Free)

I was surprised not to find loads of black stars name-dropping Robeson (Sidney & Denzel are far more frequently rapped about). Here's a couple of notable exceptions...

Black Thought - Soundtrack to Confusion (Streams Of Thought Vol. 2)

I'm colder than Paul Robeson leadin' Othello

I'm older than the barcode, it ain't easy to tell though

(Points for that rhyme.)

And this, from the Wu Tang founder, which is bang up to date...

RZA - Under The Sun

Sword swing, like that old king from Camelot

Voice like Paul Robeson

Wit' a Mayweather robe on

(Not as many points for that rhyme.)

Of course, it was inevitable that Gil Scott-Heron would acknowledge Robeson...

Gil Scott-Heron - Bicentennial Blues

The blues grew up in Satchmo’s horn, 

On Duke’s piano and Langston’s poetry, 

On Robeson’s baritone

...and only slightly less so that he'd be a hero of the Manics, considering both his long career of political activism, spurred on by his support of Welsh miners in the 1930s. Their tribute samples Robeson's spoken word performance of Freedom Train from that time. Powerful stuff.