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.
Flee As A Bird-Oh Didn't He Ramble
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
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Rambled all around in and out of town
Didn't he ramble, didn't he ramble
He rambled till the butcher cut him down
His feet was in the market place, his head was in the street
Lady pass him by, said look at the market meat
He grabbed her pocket book and said I wish you well
Didn't he ramble; I said he rambled
Rambled all around in and out of town
Didn't he ramble, oh, didn't he ramble
He rambled till the butcher shot him down
He slipped into the cat house, nmade love to the stable
Madam caught him cold, said I'll pay you when I be able
Six months had passed and she stood all she could stand
She said, buddy, when I'm through with you
Old groundhog gonna be shakin' yo' hand
And didn't he ramble; he rambled
Rambled all around in and out of town
Oh, didn't he ramble; he rambled
You know he rambled till the butcher cut him down
I said he rambled, Lord, till the butcher shot him down
Louis Armstrong's song "Flee As A Bird-Oh Didn't He Ramble" tells the story of a man who rambled all around town and got into trouble wherever he went. The lyrics describe his various misadventures, from stealing a woman's purse to getting caught with a prostitute. Despite the seriousness of the situations he finds himself in, the song has a light and playful tone, with the chorus emphasizing how much he loved to ramble.
The first stanza sets the scene, with the man's foot in the market and his head in the street. As he walks by, a woman remarks on how he looks like meat for sale at the market. He playfully steals her purse, but she pulls out a gun and threatens him.
The second stanza takes us to a cat house, where the man is caught in the act with a prostitute. She offers to pay him later, but after six months of waiting she has had enough and threatens him with violence. The chorus repeats, underscoring the man's love of wandering and the inevitability of his demise.
Overall, the song is a cautionary tale against reckless living, but it also captures the spirit of freedom and adventure that comes with true rambling.
Line by Line Meaning
Didn't he ramble; he rambled
Louis Armstrong asks if we remember how the subject of the song wandered aimlessly through life, without any specific plans or direction
Rambled all around in and out of town
He walked from place to place without any set destination
Didn't he ramble, didn't he ramble
Louis states the fact that the subject truly did roam around without any fixed path
He rambled till the butcher cut him down
He wandered in this way until he met his demise at the hands of the executioner
His feet was in the market place, his head was in the street
He was physically present in one place, but his mind was on something else entirely
Lady pass him by, said look at the market meat
A woman walked by and noticed the subject's distracted appearance
He grabbed her pocket book and said I wish you well
He stole from her but wished her no harm
She pulled out a forty-five, said I'm head of personnel
The woman was in a position of authority and intimidated the subject with a gun
He slipped into the cat house, nmade love to the stable
He entered a brothel and had sex with the horses in the stable
Madam caught him cold, said I'll pay you when I be able
The brothel madam caught him in the act and promised to pay him later
Six months had passed and she stood all she could stand
He waited six months for the money but the madam couldn't handle him anymore
She said, buddy, when I'm through with you Old groundhog gonna be shakin' yo' hand
The madam threatened him with physical harm and presented the image of animals celebrating his passing
You know he rambled till the butcher cut him down
The subject continued to wander to the point of being punished by execution
I said he rambled, Lord, till the butcher shot him down
Louis emphasizes again how the subject's aimless lifestyle led to his untimely death
Lyrics © CARLIN AMERICA INC
Written by: Will Handy, Claude Garreau
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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