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.
Loveless Love
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Like some friendships when your money's gone
Love stands in with the loan sharks when your heart's in pawn
If I had some strong wings like an aeroplane
Had some broad wings like some aeroplane
I would fly away forever
Never to come again
For love, oh, love, oh, loveless love
Has set our hearts from gold-less gold
From milk-less milk and silk-less silk
We are growing used to soul-less souls
Such grafting times we never saw
That's why we have a pure full law
In everything we find a flaw
Even love, oh, love, oh, loveless love
Just to fly away from loveless love
The lyrics of Louis Armstrong's "Loveless Love," written by W.C. Handy, are a commentary on the nature of love in our lives. The singer compares love to a hydrant, turning on and off like a faucet, inspiring his muse to explore the fickleness of relationships in comparison to money. like some friendships, love has a lifeline that sometimes ends when the money runs out. The comparison between love and the loan shark highlights the monetary aspect of bad relationships that often hold individuals captive. Love, which is supposed to be pure, can become compromised by loans, debts, and financial obligations in a relationship.
The second verse of the song delves deeper into the singer's plight, as he wishes to escape the drama altogether. He calls for freedom that an airplane represents, and with broad wings like an airplane, he would fly away and never return. The song's chorus, "For love, oh, love, oh, loveless love, Has set our hearts from gold-less gold From milk-less milk and silk-less silk We are growing used to soul-less souls," accentuates the impact of loveless love in society. The lack of true love results in a life of emptiness, and material possessions have lost their importance in that relationship. The last section deals with the despair of our present society, where everything is imperfect, even love. The flaws of love are evident in today's world, which forces lovers to escape to a new paradigm of freedom, where they can break free from the shackles of loveless love.
Line by Line Meaning
Love is like a hydrant: it turns off and on
Love is inconsistent and unpredictable, it can be present one moment and gone the next
Like some friendships when your money's gone
Friendships can also be inconsistent and may end when money is no longer in the picture
Love stands in with the loan sharks when your heart's in pawn
Love can also resemble a loan shark who takes advantage of when your heart is vulnerable and in need
If I had some strong wings like an aeroplane
If I had the capability to fly away, like an airplane
Had some broad wings like some aeroplane
If I had wings that were wide enough to carry me away
I would fly away forever
I would escape and never return
Never to come again
I would never return to the loveless love that I have experienced
For love, oh, love, oh, loveless love
This is a lament for a love that appears to exist, but lacks true substance and is ultimately unsatisfying
Has set our hearts from gold-less gold
Love has left our hearts unfulfilled, like gold that has no real value
From milk-less milk and silk-less silk
Love has taken away our satisfaction, like milk that has no cream and silk that has no softness
We are growing used to soul-less souls
We are becoming numb to the people around us who pretend to love, but do not truly show it
Such grafting times we never saw
These are tough times that we have never experienced before
That's why we have a pure full law
That's why we have strict rules and regulations in place, to protect ourselves from heartache and deceitful love
In everything we find a flaw
We have become so disappointed and jaded that we find flaws in everything, including love
Even love, oh, love, oh, loveless love
Even though love is supposed to bring happiness, it is hard to navigate and accept love that lacks true substance
Just to fly away from loveless love
To escape from the loveless love that is hard to accept and navigate
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC CO.,INC.
Written by: W. C. HANDY
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