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.
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
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Carry me back to old Virginny
There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime
There's where the old darke'ys heart am long'd to go
There's where I labored so hard for old massa
Day after day in the field of yellow corn
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born
Carry me back to old Virginny
There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go
Day after day in the field of yellow corn
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born
Carry me back to old Virginny
There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go
Day after day in the field of yellow corn
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born
The lyrics to Louis Armstrong's Carry Me Back to Old Virginny are a heartfelt and nostalgic tribute to the singer's birth state of Virginia. The opening line "Carry me back to old Virginny" sets the tone for the song as the singer expresses a deep longing to return to the place of his childhood, where he spent his days working in the fields of corn and cotton, listening to the sweet songs of the birds in the springtime. The repetition of the phrase "there's where" emphasizes the singer's admiration for the state of Virginia and his desire to return to the life he knew there.
As the song progresses, the singer reveals a sense of resignation and acceptance of his eventual passing, as he longs to live out the rest of his days in his beloved Virginia. His mention of the old Dismal Swamp suggests a familiarity and comfort with his surroundings, despite the hardships he may have faced as an African American living in the South during this time period. The final verse of the song speaks to the singer's faith and hope for a joyous reunion with his former masters in heaven, emphasizing the sense of familial love and loyalty he feels towards those who came before him.
Overall, Carry Me Back to Old Virginny is a touching tribute to the singer's roots and the struggle of African Americans in the South, as well as a testament to the power of music to convey deep emotions and experiences.
Line by Line Meaning
Carry me back to old Virginny,
Take him back to his beloved homeland of Virginia.
There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow,
Virginia is where crops like cotton, corn, and potatoes are grown.
There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
Virginia is where birds sing sweetly during spring.
There's where the old darke'ys heart am long'd to go,
Virginia is where the old, enslaved people wanted to return.
There's where I labored so hard for old massa,
That's where he worked tirelessly for his master.
Day after day in the field of yellow corn,
He spent days working in the yellow cornfields.
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
There's nowhere he loves more genuinely and sincerely than Virginia.
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.
Virginia is where he was born and holds a special place in his heart.
There let me live 'till I wither and decay,
He wants to live there till he dies, withers away and decays.
Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,
He wandered for a long time near the old Dismal Swamp.
There's where this old darke'ys life will pass away.
Virginia is where his life will come to an end.
Massa and missis have long gone before me,
His master and mistress have passed away before him.
Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore,
He hopes to reunite with them in heaven.
There we'll be happy and free from all sorrow,
In heaven, they will be happy and free from all pain and sadness.
There's where we'll meet and we'll never part no more.
They will finally reunite and never have to be separated again.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: James A Bland
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Anonymous
on What A Wonderful World
What A Wonderful World - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Musical Interlude
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They goin’ learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world