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.
Ill Never Be Free
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
My arms go cold thinking of you
No one can take your place, darling, in my embrace
I'll never be free
And when my lips burn with desire
No other kiss can put out the fire
Though I may try and try, no one can satisfy
[Chorus]
I'll never be free from your smile so tender
The sweet surrender in your eyes
How can I be free when I still remember?
How you could thrill me with a sigh
Just like a chain bound to my heart
Your love remains while we're apart
Each kiss I gave to you
Made me a slave to you
I'll never be free
[Chorus]
That kiss I gave to you
Made me a slave to you
I'll never be free
In "I'll Never Be Free," Louis Armstrong sings about a love that continues to hold on to him even after it has ended. The first verse expresses how each time he embraces somebody new, he thinks of his previous lover and his arms chill. No one could ever take his lover's place in his arms, and he will never be able to free himself of her memory. The second verse conveys that he has a burning desire that no other kiss could fulfill, and he is unable to find satisfaction. Thus, his longing for his former lover burns deep within him.
The chorus repeats why he can never be free, which is because of the way his previous lover's smile deeply touched him, and the sweet surrender he saw in her eyes. He cannot forget this and how she used to thrill him. Louis expresses his feelings towards his lover through the metaphor of chains bound to his heart. The final lines of the last verse repeat the sentiment that he will always be tied to his lover because despite giving her every kiss he could, he remains her slave.
"I'll Never Be Free" is a classic Jazz song that is over 70 years old. It was written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss in 1941, and has since been covered by other artists such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Van Morrison. Below are some interesting facts about the song:
Line by Line Meaning
Each time I hold somebody new
Whenever I embrace someone else
My arms go cold thinking of you
I feel a sudden chill, as thoughts of you freeze me out
No one can take your place, darling, in my embrace
Nobody else can replace you, my love
I'll never be free
I'll never be liberated from this overwhelming feeling
And when my lips burn with desire
When passion sets my mouth on fire
No other kiss can put out the fire
No other kiss can quench my thirst
Though I may try and try, no one can satisfy
Despite my efforts, nobody else can satisfy me
This longing in me
This yearning inside me
[Chorus]
Refrain
I'll never be free from your smile so tender
I'll never be free from your gentle, affectionate smile
The sweet surrender in your eyes
The surrender of your eyes in sweetness
How can I be free when I still remember?
How can I be emancipated when I still recollect?
How you could thrill me with a sigh
How a simple sound from you could thrill me
Just like a chain bound to my heart
Just like a fetter clasped to my heart
Your love remains while we're apart
Your love persists even when we're not together
Each kiss I gave to you
Every time I kissed you
Made me a slave to you
Forced me into submission to you
I'll never be free
I'll never be emancipated
[Chorus]
Refrain
That kiss I gave to you
That one particular kiss I gave you
Made me a slave to you
Compelled me into servitude to you
I'll never be free
I'll never be liberated
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss
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