Born Ruth Alston Weston on 30th January 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia, she attended I. C. Norcom High School, a historically black high school. Brown's father was a dockhand who directed the local church choir, but the young Ruth showed more of an interest in singing at USO shows and nightclubs. She was inspired by Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington. In 1945, Brown ran away from her home in Portsmouth along with a trumpeter, Jimmy Brown, whom she soon married, to sing in bars and clubs. She then spent a month with Lucky Millinder's orchestra, but was fired after she brought drinks to the band for free, and was left stranded in Washington, D.C.
Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Brown at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager. Willis Conover, a Voice of America disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records bosses, Ahmet Ertegün and Herb Abramson. Brown was unable to audition as planned though, because of a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital stay. In 1948, however, Ertegün and Abramson drove to Washington from New York City to hear her sing in the club. Although her repertoire was mostly popular ballads, Ertegün convinced her to switch to rhythm and blues. His productions for her, however, retained her pop style, with clean, fresh arrangements and the singing spot on the beat with little of the usual blues singer's embroidery.
In her first audition, in 1949, she sang "So Long", which became a hit. This was followed by "Teardrops from My Eyes" in 1950; written by Rudy Toombs, it was the first upbeat major hit for Ruth Brown, establishing her as an important figure in R&B. Recorded for Atlantic Records in New York City in September 1950, and released in October, it was on Billboard's List of number-one R&B hits (United States) for eleven weeks. The huge hit earned her the nickname "Miss Rhythm", and within a few months Ruth Brown became the acknowledged queen of R&B.
She followed up this hit with "I'll Wait for You" (1951), "I Know" (1951), "5-10-15 Hours" (1953), "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953), "Oh What a Dream" (1954), "Mambo Baby" (1954), and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960). She also became known as "Little Miss Rhythm" and "the girl with the teardrop in her voice". In all, she was on the R&B charts for 149 weeks from 1949 to 1955, with sixteen top-ten blues records including five number ones, and became Atlantic's most popular artist, earning Atlantic records the proper name of "The House that Ruth Built".
During the 1960s, Brown faded from public view to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of comic acting gigs, including roles in the sitcom Hello, Larry and the John Waters film Hairspray as local DJ Motormouth Maybelle, as well as Broadway appearances in Amen Corner and Black and Blue, which earned her a Tony Award for her performance and a Grammy award for her album Blues on Broadway, featuring hits from the show.
Brown's fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as "The Queen Mother of the Blues".
She has become an iconic symbol to many black women for later generations, where she is also a favourite artist and inspiration for later blues artists such as Bonnie Raitt. Brown recorded and sang along with fellow rhythm and blues performer Charles Brown, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and toured with Raitt on Raitt's tour in the late 1990s, "Road Tested". Her 1995 autobiography, Miss Rhythm, won the Gleason Award for music journalism.
Brown died in a Las Vegas-area hospital on 17th November 2006, from complications following a heart attack and stroke she suffered after surgery in October 2006. A memorial concert for her was held on 22nd January 2007 at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
Old Man River
Ruth Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Here we all work while the white folk play
Pulling' them boats from the dawn till sunset
Getting no rest till the judgment day
Don't look up and don't look down
You don't dare make the white boss frown
Bend your knees and bow your head
Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
Let me go 'way from the white man boss
Show me that stream called the River Jordan
That's the old stream that I long to cross
Old Man River, that Old Man River
He must know something, but he don't say nothing
He just keeps rolling, he keeps on rolling along
He don't plant taters, and he don't plant cotton
And them what plants 'em is soon forgotten
But Old Man River, jest keeps rolling along
You and me, we sweat and strain
Bodies all aching and wracked with pain
Tote that barge and lift that bale
You get a little drunk and you land in jail
I get weary and so sick of trying
I'm tired of living, but I'm feared of dying
And Old Man River, he just keeps rolling along
Ruth Brown's song "Old Man River" is a soulful tribute to the backbreaking and relentless work of black laborers on the Mississippi River. The opening lines paint a stark image of the harsh reality that the workers face: while white people are able to enjoy leisure activities, black people are forced to work relentlessly from dawn until sunset. The imagery of pulling boats and getting no rest until the judgement day is intended to show the never-ending toil these workers must go through without any promise of reward or respite.
The next few lines of the song reveal the power dynamic at play, with the assumption of the white boss's superiority and the fear of making him angry. The description of "bend[ing] your knees and bow[ing] your head" depicts the subservience and lack of agency of the black laborers who must perform their work with precision and without complaint. The lyrics also highlight the futility of their work- while they carry out the arduous labor, the real power and wealth lies with the white people who reap the benefits without facing any of the hardship.
The final verse speaks to the black workers' desire for freedom from their oppressors and the longing for a better life beyond the reaches of their current circumstances. The line "let me go 'way from the white man boss" encapsulates the yearning of black workers for freedom from the oppressive relationships with their white employers. The allusion to the River Jordan- a symbolic river in the Bible- is a nod to the history of African Americans as slaves and their Biblical origin for the story. Finally, the chorus references the titular Old Man River, who in his endless flow represents the unchanging and unshakeable force of their plight.
Line by Line Meaning
Here we all work 'long the Mississippi
We all work along the Mississippi river.
Here we all work while the white folk play
We work while white people play.
Pulling' them boats from the dawn till sunset
We pull boats from dawn till sunset.
Getting no rest till the judgment day
We get no rest until judgment day.
Don't look up and don't look down
We dare not look up or down.
You don't dare make the white boss frown
We cannot make the white boss frown.
Bend your knees and bow your head
We must bend our knees and bow our heads.
And pull that rope until you're dead
We must pull that rope until we die.
Let me go 'way from the Mississippi
Let me leave the Mississippi.
Let me go 'way from the white man boss
Let me go away from the white man boss.
Show me that stream called the River Jordan
Show me the River Jordan.
That's the old stream that I long to cross
I long to cross that old stream.
Old Man River, that Old Man River
Old Man River.
He must know something, but he don't say nothing
Old Man River knows something, but he does not speak.
He just keeps rolling, he keeps on rolling along
Old Man River just keeps rolling.
He don't plant taters, and he don't plant cotton
Old Man River does not plant potatoes or cotton.
And them what plants 'em is soon forgotten
Those who plant them are soon forgotten.
But Old Man River, jest keeps rolling along
But Old Man River just keeps rolling.
You and me, we sweat and strain
We sweat and strain.
Bodies all aching and wracked with pain
Our bodies ache with pain.
Tote that barge and lift that bale
We tote barges and lift bales.
You get a little drunk and you land in jail
If you get drunk, you may land in jail.
I get weary and so sick of trying
I get tired and sick of trying.
I'm tired of living, but I'm feared of dying
I am tired of living, but scared of dying.
And Old Man River, he just keeps rolling along
And Old Man River just keeps on rolling.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave
Written by: Jerome Kern, Oscar Ii Hammerstein
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind