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.
Limehouse Blues
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Never go away
Sad, mad blues
For all the while they seem to say
Oh, Limehouse kid
Oh, oh, Limehouse kid
Goin' the way
Poor broken blossom
And nobody's child
Haunting and taunting
You're just kind of wild
Oh, Limehouse blues
I've the real Limehouse blues
Can't seem to shake off
Those real China blues
Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown
Rings on your fingers
And tears for your crown
That is the story
Of old Chinatown
The lyrics to Louis Armstrong & Dukes Of Dixieland's song Limehouse Blues are lamenting the ever-present China blues that never seem to dissipate. These are blues that are imbued with a certain sadness and madness that never seem to dissipate. This persistent sadness is personified in the Limehouse Kid, who is reminiscent of someone who is going down the same path as others before him. This individual is likened to a poor broken blossom who is nobody's child. The Limehouse Kid is described as being haunting and taunting, and just kind of wild, which makes it clear that he is someone who is lost and misunderstood.
The second verse of the song delves deeper into the themes of the first, with the Limehouse Blues being described as a real and persistent kind of sadness. The rings on your fingers and tears for your crown are symbolic of the story of old Chinatown, which is one of sadness, poverty and heartbreak. The last two lines of the song sum up the overall theme succinctly - these are the lyrics that reflect the tales of struggle and despair that are typical to the old Chinatown. The Limehouse blues, like the China blues, are real and never go away, and they continue to haunt and torment people's lives.
Line by Line Meaning
And those weird China blues
The haunting sadness that comes from China, never disappears
Never go away
It seems to always persist
Sad, mad blues
This sadness has a madness to it
For all the while they seem to say
The blues seem to have a message
Oh, Limehouse kid
Talking to a young person from Limehouse
Oh, oh, Limehouse kid
Reemphasizing that it is a kid from Limehouse
Goin' the way
Going down the same path
That the rest of them did
Like everyone else from Limehouse
Poor broken blossom
A pathetic, shattered flower
And nobody's child
A child with no one to care for them
Haunting and taunting
A ghostly and teasing presence
You're just kind of wild
Free and unrestrained
Oh, Limehouse blues
The blues of Limehouse
I've the real Limehouse blues
I have the genuine blues of Limehouse
Can't seem to shake off
Can't rid myself of
Those real China blues
The authentic misery from China
Rings on your fingers
Jewelry on your fingers
And tears for your crown
Crying while wearing a crown or becoming the ruler
That is the story
This is the narrative
Of old Chinatown
About the former Chinatown
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: THOMAS 'FATS' WALLER
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