Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.
Armstrong was born and brought up in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands, and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he didn't travel far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver's band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythms and more improvisation, and Armstrong's role was mostly backing. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife Lil Hardin to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeters or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed, though, musical purists never lost any respect for him -- although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong's business affairs finally stablilized, and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood films, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the number-one position with Hello Dolly". Today many people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him."
The 62-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the US charts when "Hello Dolly" reached #1 in 1964. Four years later Satchmo also became the oldest artist to record a UK #1, when "What a Wonderful World" hit the top spot.
At Home
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Look at them syncopators
Goin' home, oh going home
Look at those demonstrators
Talk of town
Green and brown
Pickin' 'em up and layin' 'em down
That's what they like to call' em
They're in a class of their own
The only way for them to lose is to cheat 'em
You may try but you'll never beat 'em
Strut that stuff
They don't do nothin' different
Cake walkin' babies from home
Louis Armstrong's song "That's My Home" is all about the deep connection we feel to our homeland, the place where we truly belong. The lyrics paint a picture of a warm and welcoming place, where sunsets are always beautiful, flowers never die and people are always friendly. It's a place where you are always welcomed back, no matter where you go, a place where mama's love is true. Armstrong sings that even a little shack is home sweet home, as long as it is where he truly belongs.
The song expresses a deep nostalgia and longing for one's homeland, where the swanny river flows and the shady pine trees grow. It's a place where you don't have to say much because everyone knows how you feel and where you truly belong. Armstrong sings with great tenderness and sincerity about the place that has left an indelible mark on his heart, a place he can never forget.
Overall, "That's My Home" is a song about the memories, connections and feelings that are tied to one's homeland. It's a reminder that no matter how far we travel, or how many places we may call home, there is always one place that will feel truly special and irreplaceable.
Line by Line Meaning
When the sunset in the sky
As the sun sets in the sky
And flowers never die, babe
Where nature never perishes
Friends don't pass you by
A place where friends never leave one's side
Because that's my home
A place that one truly calls home
When the folks say, "How de do?"
Where people greet each other with sincerity
Like they mean it too, girl
With genuine warmth and affection
Where mama's love is true
A place where maternal love is unwavering
Because that's my home
A place that one truly calls home
I'm always welcomed back
A place where one is always welcome
No matter where I roam, always welcome
Regardless of where one travels to
Just a little shack to me
Even a small dwelling brings a sense of comfort
Is home sweet home
A place where one feels truly at peace
Where the swanny river flows
Where the Suwannee River flows
The shady pine trees grows
Amidst tall and shady pine trees
I needn't say no more
No further explanation is required
Because that's my home
A place that one truly calls home
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol CMG Publishing
Written by: CLARENCE WILLIAMS, CHRIS SMITH, HENRY TROY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@falanajerido6939
I had the experience last week to go to Louis Armstrong house what a glorious moment what a glorious day his present was there everyone make sure you experience it love Louis Armstrong
@falanajerido6939
Loving this
@user-lw4re4vw9x
I been living next to him my entire live without knowing
@lorascelsi8102
Love it.
@falanajerido6939
Thank you for posting
@rayarena879
I wonder why an undoubtedly rich man like Louis Armstrong decided to live in what is essentially a modest working to middle class neighborhood? I'm a New Yorker and I know that neighborhood. You would have thought that he would have lived in Beverly Hills or something.
@mallorydiener9020
if you watch the video, he says exactly why in his own voice at the end.
@lnone501
At the time now its a dump
@rayarena879
@lnone501 It's a dump now, but it was never a rich neighborhood. It was always a modest neighborhood with modest homes far below his standard of living.
@jazz3685
Maybe because of RACISM, Remember when Nat King Cole moved in that white neighborhood and they burnt the word “NIGGER” in his front lawn