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.
Canal St. Blues
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The evening sun go down
I hate to see
The evening sun go down
It makes me think, oh
On my last lone round
Feelin' tomorrow
Like I feel today
Feelin' tomorrow
Like I feel today
I'll pack my dreams
And make my getaway
St. Louis woman
With her diamond rings
Pulls my man around
By her apron strings
Wasn't for powder
And his store-bought hair
The man I love
Wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere
I got the St. Louis blues
Just as blue as I can be
He's got a heart that's like a
Rock cast in the sea
Or else he wouldn't have gone
So, so far from me
In Louis Armstrong's St. Louis Blues, a deep sense of melancholy and longing is conveyed. The singer confesses that watching the evening sun set makes him recall his departed loved one and his own lonely existence. He compares his current feelings to how he expects to feel tomorrow, and in both cases, he decides to escape by packing up his dreams and leaving. The lyrics suggest that the singer is unable to move on from the painful breakup and that he may feel stuck in his current predicament. The St. Louis woman mentioned in the third verse seems to be the cause of his heartbreak; she entices his man with her wealth and beauty, causing him to be unfaithful to the singer. The chorus "I got the St. Louis Blues, just as blue as I can be" captures the essence of this moody song and the singer's lament over his sense of despair and loss.
Line by Line Meaning
I hate to see
I don't want to witness
The evening sun go down
the sunset happening
It makes me think, oh
It reminds me
On my last lone round
about my loneliness
Feelin' tomorrow
I expect
Like I feel today
to feel the same as now
I'll pack my dreams
I'll take my aspirations
And make my getaway
and leave this place
St. Louis woman
A woman from St. Louis
With her diamond rings
wearing expensive jewelry
Pulls my man around
Having my man under her control
By her apron strings
At her whim
Wasn't for powder
If not for cosmetics
And his store-bought hair
And hair products he purchased
The man I love
The man I adore
Wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere
Wouldn't move away from me
I got the St. Louis blues
I'm feeling down from St. Louis life
Just as blue as I can be
As sad as possible
He's got a heart that's like a
My man has a heart that is
Rock cast in the sea
As unmovable as a rock resting in the ocean
Or else he wouldn't have gone
Otherwise, he wouldn't have left
So, so far from me
So far away from my reach
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing, HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC CO.,INC., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: William Christopher Handy
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@falanajerido6939
And Louis was great
@roornc
Music does not get better than that.
@TheZackBriggs
I love that growl from the muted trombone solo. Louis Armstrong is a beast!
@JuanFecit
¡Grande la All-Stars de Louie!
@amd77j
This joint's a jumpin!!!!
@pupulehapa
you're right, my dad saw that this afternoon and told me.
@p0k7lm
the great ones !!!🎵🎶🎼🎺
@falanajerido6939
I love this
@p0k7lm
Super Classy🎵🎺🆒👍😎
@JuanFecit
Maravilloso, muchisimas gracias...