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: āYou canāt play nothing on modern trumpet that doesnāt 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.
Drop Me Off At Harlem
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Any place in Harlem,
There's someone waiting there
Who makes it seem like
Heaven up in Harlem.
I don't want your Dixie,
You can keep your Dixie,
'Way from my hot Harlem.
Harlem has those southern skies,
They're in my baby's smile,
I idolize my baby's eyes and
Classy up-town style.
If Harlem moved to China,
I know of nothing finer,
Than to stow away on a plane, some day and have them
Drop me off in Harlem.
Harlem has those southern skies,
They're in my baby's smile,
I idolize my baby's eyes and
Classy up-town style.
If Harlem moved to China,
I know of nothing finer,
Than to stow away on a plane, some day and have them
Drop me off in Harlem.
If Harlem moved to China
I know nothing finer than to be in Harlem
The lyrics to "Drop Me Off in Harlem" are about the love and appreciation that the singers, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, have for the neighborhood of Harlem. They both express that they would rather be in Harlem than anywhere else, as they both have someone special waiting for them there. They sing about the beauty of Harlem's southern skies, which they see in the eyes of the women there, and the classy up-town style that is unique to the neighborhood.
The song also has a sense of pride and defiance as the singers declare that they don't want anything to do with Dixie, referring to the former Confederate States of America. They state that there is no one in Dixie who can take them away from Harlem, further implying that they believe Harlem is better than any other place.
Overall, the lyrics are celebratory and show the love and admiration that Armstrong and Ellington had for Harlem, which was a hotspot for African American culture during the Harlem Renaissance.
Line by Line Meaning
Drop me off in Harlem,
Take me to Harlem where I want to be.
Any place in Harlem,
I don't care where exactly in Harlem I am, I just want to be there.
There's someone waiting there,
There's someone in Harlem who is important to me and I want to see them.
Who makes it seem like Heaven up in Harlem.
Being with this person makes being in Harlem feel like paradise.
I don't want your Dixie,
I have no desire to go to Dixie (Southern US).
You can keep your Dixie,
I am not interested in anything related to Dixie.
There's no one down in Dixie who can take me,
Nothing in Dixie can compare to what Harlem means to me.
'Way from my hot Harlem.
Nothing can keep me away from Harlem, which is my home.
Harlem has those southern skies,
The skies in Harlem remind me of the South.
They're in my baby's smile,
My partner has a smile that reminds me of the South, and it makes me happy.
I idolize my baby's eyes and,
I think my partner's eyes are beautiful and I can't get enough of them.
Classy up-town style.
My partner embodies the stylish, sophisticated vibe of uptown Harlem.
If Harlem moved to China,
Even if Harlem was no longer in the United States, I would still want to be there.
I know of nothing finer,
There's no place I would rather be than Harlem.
Than to stow away on a plane, some day and have them,
If I had the chance to be in Harlem, I would do whatever it takes to get there.
Drop me off in Harlem.
I just want to be dropped off in Harlem and be surrounded by the place and people I love.
Lyrics Ā© Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: EDWARD KENNEDY ELLINGTON, NICK A. KENNY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@RenegadeGunn
Sugar: Damn I'm sure gonna miss that place you know we can never go back there again
Quick: Man there's other cities let's just find someplace where we can start over again
Sugar: But there's no place like Harlem
Benny: You ain't lying Sugar let me look at it one last time
Vera: Don't waste your time put your blind ass in the car
(BENNY AND VERA ARGUING)
Quick: So where you wanna go pops
Sugar: I don't know son but we got a tank full of gas and a trunk full of money
Quick: Sounds like a sweet combination
Sugar: Sweet as Sugar
(SUGAR WINKS AND BOTH SUGAR AND QUICK LAUGH AND GETS IN THE CAR)
Louis Armstrong: šµDrop me off in Harlem yeah good ol Harlem you have your fun under the home suns drop me off in Harlemšµ
(CAR ENGINE STARTS AND HEADLIGHTS SHINES BRIGHT THEN DRIVES OFF AS THE CREDITS ROLLS WITH THE CITY OF HARLEM IN THE BACKGROUND)
@brittanypatterson8544
just was in good ol Harlem NYC and had a very tasty red beans and rice with beef stew on a nice cold winter evening watching the snow come down and enjoying the beautiful ambienceš
@skywarp1
Just finished watching Harlem Nights. Funny classic movie
@librasmith9894
As a kid I was always drawn to this song at the end of the movie. Now I am happy to have found it on YouTube as an adult.
@Cappadoccia04
+Libra Smith same here.
@thephoenix81
Same here man, same here!!!
@MrFilthy35
Here here
@jojoUK120
Itās probably the least interesting track from a fantastic album- āthe great summitā
@geraldjohnson848
Duke Ellington. Louis Armstrong. Harlem, New York. 'Nuff said. Thanks for the upload. Blessings
@towringer
Quick: So, where you wanna go, Pop? Sugar Ray: I don't know, Son. But we got a tank full of gas, and a trunk full of money Quick: That sounds like a sweet combination Sugar Ray: Sweet as sugar.
@johnathanhillman
Before 90s show up