Ol' Man River
E258802
Ol' Man River is a classic American song from the 1927 musical "Show Boat," renowned for its powerful, soulful melody and poignant commentary on African American hardship and resilience.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ol' Man River canonical | 6 |
| Ol’ Man River | 2 |
| "Ol' Man River" | 1 |
| performing the song Ol' Man River | 1 |
| “Ol’ Man River” (through scenes with Joe) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2341938 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ol' Man River Context triple: [Jerome Kern, notableWork, Ol' Man River]
-
A.
Red River Valley
Red River Valley is a fertile agricultural region and historic cultural area along the Red River, known for its farming communities and role in the development of the south-central United States.
-
B.
Go Down, Moses
"Go Down, Moses" is a 1942 collection of interrelated short stories by William Faulkner that explores themes of race, family, and the legacy of the American South through the history of the McCaslin plantation.
-
C.
My Darling Clementine
My Darling Clementine is a classic 1946 Western film directed by John Ford that dramatizes the events leading up to the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
-
D.
Statesboro Blues
"Statesboro Blues" is a classic blues song popularized in rock music by The Allman Brothers Band, especially through their influential live performances.
-
E.
My Blue Heaven
My Blue Heaven is a 1950 American musical comedy film best known for its lighthearted story and performances by stars like Jane Wyatt.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ol' Man River Target entity description: Ol' Man River is a classic American song from the 1927 musical "Show Boat," renowned for its powerful, soulful melody and poignant commentary on African American hardship and resilience.
-
A.
Red River Valley
Red River Valley is a fertile agricultural region and historic cultural area along the Red River, known for its farming communities and role in the development of the south-central United States.
-
B.
Go Down, Moses
"Go Down, Moses" is a 1942 collection of interrelated short stories by William Faulkner that explores themes of race, family, and the legacy of the American South through the history of the McCaslin plantation.
-
C.
My Darling Clementine
My Darling Clementine is a classic 1946 Western film directed by John Ford that dramatizes the events leading up to the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
-
D.
Statesboro Blues
"Statesboro Blues" is a classic blues song popularized in rock music by The Allman Brothers Band, especially through their influential live performances.
-
E.
My Blue Heaven
My Blue Heaven is a 1950 American musical comedy film best known for its lighthearted story and performances by stars like Jane Wyatt.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
popular standard
ⓘ
show tune ⓘ song ⓘ |
| associatedWork |
Show Boat
ⓘ
surface form:
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat ⓘ
surface form:
Show Boat (1951 film)
|
| composer | Jerome Kern ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| firstPerformanceYear | 1927 ⓘ |
| genre |
popular music
ⓘ
protest song ⓘ show tune ⓘ torch song ⓘ |
| hasCulturalSignificance |
iconic song of African American struggle in musical theatre
ⓘ
standard of the American songbook ⓘ |
| hasLegacy | frequently recorded and covered by numerous artists ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
African American work songs
ⓘ
spirituals ⓘ |
| introducedIn |
Show Boat
ⓘ
surface form:
Show Boat (1927 musical)
|
| keyAssociation | commonly performed in D-flat major (varies by arrangement) ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| lyricalFeature |
recurring refrain about the river "just keeps rollin' along"
ⓘ
use of dialect in original lyrics ⓘ |
| lyricist | Oscar Hammerstein II ⓘ |
| musicalForm | ballad ⓘ |
| musicalWorkType | solo song ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first person ⓘ |
| notablePerformer |
Bing Crosby
ⓘ
Frank Sinatra ⓘ Judy Garland ⓘ Jules Bledsoe ⓘ Mahalia Jackson ⓘ Paul Robeson ⓘ Sam Cooke ⓘ William Warfield ⓘ |
| originalContext | sung by the stevedore Joe reflecting on life and the river ⓘ |
| originalMedium | stage musical ⓘ |
| originalPerformerCharacter | Joe ⓘ |
| originalProduction |
Show Boat
ⓘ
surface form:
Show Boat (1927 Broadway production)
|
| partOf | Show Boat ⓘ |
| performanceTradition | often performed by bass or baritone singers ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1927 ⓘ |
| setting | Mississippi River ⓘ |
| subjectMatter | contrast between human suffering and the indifferent flow of the river ⓘ |
| tempoMarking | typically slow and solemn ⓘ |
| theme |
African American hardship
ⓘ
Mississippi River ⓘ labor and toil ⓘ racial injustice ⓘ resilience ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ol' Man River Description of subject: Ol' Man River is a classic American song from the 1927 musical "Show Boat," renowned for its powerful, soulful melody and poignant commentary on African American hardship and resilience.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
"Ol' Man River"
subject surface form:
Jerome Kern
this entity surface form:
Ol’ Man River
this entity surface form:
“Ol’ Man River” (through scenes with Joe)
subject surface form:
Joe (Show Boat)
subject surface form:
Joe (Show Boat)
this entity surface form:
performing the song Ol' Man River
subject surface form:
Paul Robeson
this entity surface form:
Ol’ Man River