As Paul Robeson was refused a passport to travel to Europe, the concert on side 1 was performed live in a studio in New York on 16 May 1957, and broadcast to the audience at St Pancras Town Hall, London;
Side 2 is a studio recording.

Musicians

Paul Robeson: vocals;
Winifred Harrison (an alias of Harriet Wingreen): piano (side 1);
Alan Booth: piano (side 2)

Tracks

Note that the Topic album cover and the record label omit Messages of Greeting as track 5 of side 1 even if the album does have six tracks.

Side 1: Transatlantic Concert

1. Water Boy
2. Scandalize My Name
3. Lullaby
4. All Through the Night
5. Messages of Greeting
6. Ol’ Man River

Side 2: Studio Recordings

7. My Curly Headed Baby
8. Star Vicino
9. Song of Freedom
10. Schlof mein Kind
11. Kevin Barry
12. No More

Track 1 Negro convict song;
Track 3 Franz Schubert;
Track 4 trad. Welsh song;
Track 6 Jermome Kern;
Track 7 George H. Clutsam;
Track 8 Salvator Rosa;
Track 9 Bedřich Smetana;
Track 10 Jewish lullaby, arr. Brown;
Track 12 Negro anti-slavery song, arr. Brown

Acknowledgements

The Bell cover picture was supplied by Alistair Banfield. The La Gloria cover picture is from the Durbeck Archive.

Musicians

Paul Robeson: vocals;
Alan Booth: piano

Tracks

Side 1

1. Goin’ Home
2. Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

Side 2

3. Eriskay Love Lilt
4. Curly Headed Baby

Track 1 words Arms Fisher, music largo from Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony “From the New World”;
Track 2 words Alfred Tennyson, music Roger Quilter;
Track 3 words trad. Hebridaen, music Margaret Kennedy-Fraser;
Track 4 George H. Clutsam

Musicians

Paul Robeson: vocals;
Alan Booth: piano

Tracks

Side 1

1. Joe Hill
2. The Wilno Ghetto Song

Side 2

3. Jerusalem
4. Whirlwinds of Danger
5. Chi Lai

Track 1 words Alfred Hayes, music Earl Robinson;
Track 2 words anon., music Gubutik;
Track 3 words William Blake, music Hubert Parry;
Track 4 arr. Waldemar Hille;
Track 5 music Nien Erh

Review

This review is from Gramophone, June 1961:

I see that Topic, the label mostly concerned with raw folk material, has issued two EPs of Paul Robeson (TOP62 and 63) in Freedom Songs and Songs of Liberty (notice the nice differentiation!) in the course of which he sings in English, Yiddish, Polish, Norwegian and Chinese, and on TOP60, Stan Kelly, variously accompanied by accordion, guitar or piano by Leon Rosselson, plunges us back into the grim Victorian era with bitter cynical humour against landlords. It doesn’t need great powers of perception to determine the political colours of these performances, which seem to me to be rather out-of-date in the Affluent Society and the Welfare State; I prefer my Robeson, too, when he is not singing about workers marching for freedom and that sort of thing. There is no denying the majesty, if I may use the term in this connection, of his voice, however; at 63, it is as resonant and masterly as ever.

Musicians

Paul Robeson: vocals;
Alan Booth: piano

Tracks

Side 1

1. The Four Rivers
2. A Mighty Fortress

Side 2

3. The House I Live In
4. Hymn for Nations

Track 1 words J. Meyers, E. Elison, music J. Garnay;
Track 2 sung in English and Norwegian; words anon., music J.S. Bach;
Track 3 words Lewis Allan, music Earl Robinson;
Track 4 words Josephine Bacon, music from Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony

Review

This review is from Gramophone, June 1961:

I see that Topic, the label mostly concerned with raw folk material, has issued two EPs of Paul Robeson (TOP62 and 63) in Freedom Songs and Songs of Liberty (notice the nice differentiation!) in the course of which he sings in English, Yiddish, Polish, Norwegian and Chinese, and on TOP60, Stan Kelly, variously accompanied by accordion, guitar or piano by Leon Rosselson, plunges us back into the grim Victorian era with bitter cynical humour against landlords. It doesn’t need great powers of perception to determine the political colours of these performances, which seem to me to be rather out-of-date in the Affluent Society and the Welfare State; I prefer my Robeson, too, when he is not singing about workers marching for freedom and that sort of thing. There is no denying the majesty, if I may use the term in this connection, of his voice, however; at 63, it is as resonant and masterly as ever.

Musicians

Paul Robeson: vocals;
Winifred Harrison: piano

Tracks

Side 1

1. Kevin Barry

Side 2

2. Ol’ Man River