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.
Just You Just Me
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Let's find a cozy spot
To cuddle and coo
Just us, just we
I've missed an awful lot
My trouble is you
What are your charms for?
What are my arms for?
Use your imagination!
Just you, just me
I'll tie a lover's knot
'Round wonderful you!
The lyrics to "Just You Just Me" by Louis Armstrong are a declaration of love to a special someone. The song encourages intimacy between two people, suggesting they find a cozy spot to cuddle in. The singer admits they have missed their partner immensely and their trouble is them. The lyrics then ask the partner what their charms are for and what the singer's arms are for, emphasizing the importance of imagination and creativity in their relationship. Finally, the singer promises to tie a lover's knot around the "wonderful you" they are speaking to.
The lyricism of "Just You Just Me" is simple and straightforward, yet it's effective in communicating the depth of the singer's feelings. The use of repetition in the lyrics - "just you, just me," "just us, just we" - highlights the exclusivity and intimacy of the relationship. The lyrics also employ metaphor and imagery to compare the love between the two people to a lover's knot, symbolizing the unbreakable bond between them.
Line by Line Meaning
Just you, just me
There's nobody else here, it's just the two of us
Let's find a cozy spot
We should find a warm and comfortable place to be together
To cuddle and coo
To embrace and speak affectionately to one another with soft sounds
Just us, just we
No one else matters, it's just us two
I've missed an awful lot
I've been away and have missed a lot of time with you
My trouble is you
You're the only problem I have, because I want to spend all my time with you
Oh, gee!
An exclamation, expressing surprise or excitement
What are your charms for?
What is it that makes you so appealing or attractive to me?
What are my arms for?
I want to hold and embrace you, because that's what my arms are for
Use your imagination!
Let's think of all the exciting and romantic things we could do together
I'll tie a lover's knot
I want to show my commitment and love for you by tying a knot that represents our bond
'Round wonderful you!
Around the wonderful and amazing person that you are
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JEFFREY DAVID STEVENS, MARV GREEN
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