Where are you now?
Broken up or still around?
The CIA says you're a guilty man
Will we see the likes of you again?

Can anyone make a difference anymore?
Can anyone write a protest song?
Pinky lefty revolutionary
Burnt at the stake for

A voice so pure, a vision so clear
I've got to learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

Went to Cuba to meet Castro
Never got past sleepy Moscow
A giant man with a heavenly voice
MK Ultra turned you paranoid

No passport 'til 1958
McCarthy poisoned through with hate
Liberty lost still buried today
Beneath the lie of the USA

Say what you want
Say what you want

A voice so pure, a vision so clear
I've got to learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

"Now let the Freedom Train come zooming down the track
Gleaming in the sunlight for white and black
Not stopping at no stations marked coloured nor white
Just stopping in the fields in the broad daylight

Stopping in the country in the wide open air
Where there never was a Jim Crow sign nowhere
And no lilly-white committees, politicians of note
Nor poll tax layer through which coloured can't vote

And there won't be no kinda colour lines
The Freedom Train will be yours
And mine"

A voice so pure, a vision so clear
I've got to learn to live like you
Learn to sing like you

Sing it loud, sing it proud
I will be here, I will be found
Sing it loud, sing it proud
I will be here, I will be found


Lyrics submitted by angelgarbage

Let Robeson Sing Lyrics as written by Nicholas Jones James Bradfield

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Let Robeson Sing song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

9 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    General Comment

    It's about Paul Robeson internationally, famous actor and singer. he was a political activist on behalf of oppressed peoples for nearly fifty years. But the 'Went to Cuba to meet Castro' has nothing to do with robeson

    Thom Webbeon April 10, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    "Sing it loud, sing it proud I will be heard, I will be found Sing it loud, sing it proud I will be heard, I will be found"

    Those lines send shivers down my spine, especially when hearing this song live. Absolutely fantastic.

    It's sad, if it wasn't for this song I probably wouldn't have heard about Paul Robeson. He has such an amazing story!

    cherry_blossomon April 07, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I assumed the line about Cuba was a reference to the Manics' visit to Cuba a few years back. Don't quite understand the part about Moscow, though, I don't know if it's supposed to be figurative rather than literal (Moscow, obviously, representing Russian Communism - or Stalinism, to be precise). Good song, particularly the snipe at McCarthyism and 'the lie of the USA.'

    richeyeon April 23, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Paul Robeson had planned a trip to Cuba in 1961. Before then, however, he attemped suicide in a Moscow hotel room. His son contends that his father was victim of the CIA's MKULTRA experiments, and had been given a drug called BZ while there.

    This is obviously a controversial topic, so confirming or debunking these statements I'll leave to those still interested.

    tikbalangon June 01, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    the 'went to cuba to meet castro, never got past sleepy moscow' is a reference to the left in general. When you say revolution, you think russian revolution, then communism. So before you go to meet castro, you go to moscow. Then when you think moscow, you think stalin and think 'actually, it aint that good'

    countcube69on July 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    God, I LOVE this song, its beautiful.

    DoopTheDestroyeron July 24, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "But the 'Went to Cuba to meet Castro' has nothing to do with robeson"

    Went to Cuba to meet Castro, never got past sleepy Moscow. Did he intend to go to Cuba, at some point?. I always assumed that was the link?

    Dr Strangeloveon December 17, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The song is about aparthied and also socialist aspirations. One day our day will come. Burn all racists (this is metaphorical of course wouldn't want any scumbag, I mean human, to be burnt lol).

    TheDarkSide10on September 11, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Robeson spent years in Moscow as a guest of the Communist party. He even recorded a version of the Soviet national anthem. He remarked that Moscow was the one place he felt comfortable as a black man amongst a largely white population feeling that Soviet citizens didn't see his race before seeing him as a comrade if that makes sense. The 'sleepy moscow' line may be a reference to the fact that under Stalin; and even more so under Kruschev and those that followed, the revolutionary spirit of Lenin had largely been lost in consolidation and beurocracy, whereas Cuba and South America had become the great hope of socialism with truly people powered revolutions that had not (at that time) yet fallen into dogmatism or counterrevolution. Basically Moscow wasn't making things happen anymore and so was sleepy whereas Cuba was at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism. The MK Ultra thing has never been proved, but Robeson spent time in a uk sanitarium and was by all accounts never the same afterwards. He was black listed during the McCarthy witch hunts and denied foreign travel after he fell under suspicion. Afterwards he chose to exile himself from the US first in living for a time in the UK and also I n the Soviet Union. Incidentally whilst in the uk he spoke at the National Eisteddfod of Wales - a Welsh folk festival where he was extremely well received and perhaps gives a link to the Manics Welsh Roots. He returned to the US later in life as a broken man (perhaps due to attempted mind control attempts by the CIA and MI5) and shunned publicity til his death in 1976.

    Cheap Tarnished Glitteron August 21, 2017   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Album art
Blue
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Album art
Page
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.