In 1928 (on his 25th birthday) Hines began leading his own big band. For over 10 years his was "The Band" in Al Capone's Grand Terrace Cafe — Hines was Capone's "Mr Piano Man". Hines recorded for Victor in 1929, then after a gap for Brunswick from 1932-1934, Decca from 1934-1935, then after another gap, Vocalion from 1937-1938 and Bluebird from 1939-1942 (nearly all among the best Black Jazz of the era). From the Grand Terrace, The Earl Hines Orchestra (or "Organization" as he more happily referred to it) broadcast on "open mikes", sometimes five nights a week and over many years, coast to coast across America — Chicago being well placed to deal with the U.S. live-broadcasting time-zone problem. Hines's band became the most broadcast band in America. Sometimes Nat "King" Cole was Hines's relief pianist (though Cliff Smalls was his favorite) and it was here with Hines that Charlie Parker got his first professional job...until he was fired for his time-keeping — by which Hines meant Parker's inability to show up on time despite Parker resorting to sleeping under the Grand Terrace stage in his attempts to do so. Hines led his big band until 1947, taking time out to front the Duke Ellington orchestra in 1944 while Duke was ill...but the big-band era was over. (Thirty years later, Hines's 20 solo "transformative versions" of his "Earl Hines Plays Duke Ellington" recorded in the 1970s were described by Ben Ratliff in the "New York Times" as "as good an example of the jazz process as anything out there".)
At the start of 1949 Hines rejoined Armstrong in the latter's "All Stars" "small band", where Hines stayed through 1951. He then led his own small combo around the States and Europe. At the start of the jazz-lean 1960s he settled in Oakland, California, opened a tobacconist's, and came close to giving up the profession. Then, in 1964 Hines was "suddenly rediscovered" following a series of concerts in New York. He was the 1965 "Critics' Choice" for Down Beat Magazine's "Hall of Fame". From then till he died he recorded endlessly both solo and with jazz notables like Cat Anderson, Buck Clayton, Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Paul Gonsalves, Sonny Greer, Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Budd Johnson, Jimmy Rushing, Stuff Smith, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Venuti and Ben Webster. Possibly more surprising were Elvin Jones, Peggy Lee, Charles Mingus, Dinah Washington — and Ry Cooder. But his most acclaimed recordings of this period were his dazzling and endlessly inventive solo performances, which could show him at his very best, "a whole orchestra by himself".[12] Solo tributes to Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin were all put on record in the 1970s. Hines also toured Europe again regularly at this time, and added Asia, Australia and the Soviet Union to his list of State Department–funded destinations. At the top of his form, Hines also displayed his endearing quirks (not to say grunts) in these performances. Sometimes he sang as he played, especially his own "They Never Believed I Could Do It - Neither Did I". In 1975 he made an hour-long "solo" film for British TV out-of-hours in a Washington nightclub: the "New York Herald Tribune" described it as "The greatest jazz-film ever made". He played solo in The White House and played solo for the Pope — and played (and sang) his last job a few days before he died in Oakland, quite likely somewhat older than he had always maintained.
Mood Indigo
Earl Hines Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You ain't never been blue,
Till you've had that mood indigo.
That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes
While I just sit here and sigh, "Go 'long blues".
I always get that mood indigo,
Since my baby said goodbye.
I'm so lonely I could cry.
'Cause there's nobody who cares about me,
I'm just a poor fool that's bluer than blue can be.
When I get that mood indigo,
I could lay me down and die.
You ain't never been blue; no, no, no,
You ain't never been blue,
Till you've had that mood indigo.
That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes
While I just sit here and sigh, "Go 'long blues".
The lyrics to Earl Hines's song Mood Indigo capture the feeling of deep sadness and loneliness that can overcome a person who has experienced heartbreak. The opening lines suggest that the listener has never truly known sadness until they have felt "that mood indigo," a powerful image of a deep blue hue that conveys a sense of heaviness and sorrow. As the song progresses, the singer describes the physical effect that this state has on them, with the feeling "stealin' down to my shoes." They sit and sigh, as if powerless to shake off the weight of their melancholy.
The second verse offers more detail about the singer's particular circumstance: they have just broken up with their lover and are left feeling utterly alone. The image of the evening with the lights low adds to the sense of isolation; it is a time when people are normally together, but the singer is on their own. They describe themselves as a "poor fool" who is "bluer than blue can be," conveying just how deeply their heart has been broken. Finally, they suggest that their sadness is so profound that they could "lay me down and die," a feeling of despair that will be all too familiar to anyone who has experienced intense emotional pain.
Overall, Mood Indigo is a powerful evocation of heartbreak, isolation, and loneliness. The use of color imagery and physical descriptions creates a vivid sense of the deep sadness that the singer is experiencing, while the repetition of the phrase "You ain't never been blue" reinforces the idea that this feeling is one that must be experienced to be truly understood.
Line by Line Meaning
You ain't never been blue; no, no, no,
You have never experienced sadness as deep as the one portrayed in this song.
You ain't never been blue,
You may have thought you have experienced sadness before, but this is a whole different level.
Till you've had that mood indigo.
Until you’ve felt the ‘mood indigo,’ you haven’t experienced the purest form of sadness.
That feelin' goes stealin' down to my shoes
The feeling of sadness is not just in my mind, it’s so strong that it’s physical and it feels like it’s in my shoes.
While I just sit here and sigh, "Go 'long blues".
All I can do when I’m feeling so sad is to let out a big sigh and hope that the sadness will go away.
I always get that mood indigo,
I always find myself falling into this deep state of sadness.
Since my baby said goodbye.
I’ve been feeling this way ever since my significant other left me.
And in the evenin' when the lights are low,
At night, when everything is dark and quiet, my sadness feels even more overwhelming.
I'm so lonely I could cry.
I am so lonely that it feels like it physically hurts me.
'Cause there's nobody who cares about me,
I feel like I don’t have anyone in the world who cares about me and my well-being.
I'm just a poor fool that's bluer than blue can be.
I feel like a complete fool for feeling so sad, but I can’t help it. I’m sadder than I ever thought was possible.
When I get that mood indigo,
When I can feel that deep sadness taking over me,
I could lay me down and die.
It’s so overwhelming that at times it feels like I could just lay down and die.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: DUKE ELLINGTON, IRVING MILLS, BARNEY BIGARD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind