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.
My Dream Man
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ain't no use a listenin'
For his tired footsteps
Climbin' up the stairs
Old man sorrow's
Come to keep me company
Whisperin' beside me
When I say my prayers
He come around
He come up, he come around
Ain't that I mind workin'
Workin' means travelers
Journeyin' together
To the promised land
But old man sorrow
Mountin' all the way with me
Tell me that I'm old now
Since I lose my man
Since I lose my man
Since I lose my man
Louis Armstrong's song "My Dream Man" is a heartfelt and sorrowful ballad about the loss of a loved one. The lyrics signify the feeling of desperation and desolation that the singer experiences after losing her man. The first two lines "My man's gone now, Ain't no use a listenin'" indicate that her man has left her, and she does not want to hear anything more about him. She is in deep grief, and the thought of her man's footsteps climbing up the stairs haunts her.
The lines "Old man sorrow's come to keep me company, Whisperin' beside me, When I say my prayers" suggest that this loss has brought sorrow upon the singer, and she is now asking for help from a superior being. She is looking for an answer from someone higher through prayers, but sorrow is the only reminder of her man. When she sings "He come around, he come up, he come around," she means that she is searching for a new love, but the memory of her man is still vivid and haunts her. The singer is profoundly affected by the loss of her man, and she feels like she is old, as expressed in the line "Tell me that I'm old now, Since I lose my man," and she can't move on from what had happened.
In conclusion, Louis Armstrong's "My Dream Man" is an emotional song about the effect of loss on a person's life. The song portrays the feeling of sorrow and grief that a person may feel after losing a loved one. The lyrics are an introspective reflection of the singer's search for love, which is now influenced and haunted by the memory of her past lover.
Line by Line Meaning
My man's gone now
The man I loved has left me.
Ain't no use a listenin'
I don't hear his voice anymore, there's no point in listening.
For his tired footsteps
He is not coming back, I cannot hear the sound of his footsteps anymore.
Climbin' up the stairs
I cannot hear him walking up the stairs anymore.
Old man sorrow's
Loneliness and sadness have taken over my life.
Come to keep me company
I am constantly reminded of my loss, and my sorrow is always present.
Whisperin' beside me
My sadness is always there, like a whisper in my ear.
When I say my prayers
Even as I pray, my sadness is still with me.
He come around
But even with my sadness, I still hold onto hope that he will return.
He come up, he come around
I think about him often, and am constantly reminded of our love.
Ain't that I mind workin'
I don't hate work, because it helps me pass the time.
Workin' means travelers
By working, I am able to surround myself with other people traveling through life, which is comforting.
Journeyin' together
We are all traveling through life, and it helps to know that we are not alone.
To the promised land
We are all headed toward a better place, even if it is not on this earth.
But old man sorrow
My sadness is always with me, even as I try to distract myself with work.
Mountin' all the way with me
My sadness is a constant companion that I cannot escape.
Tell me that I'm old now
My sadness makes me feel like I have aged far beyond my years.
Since I lose my man
Ever since I lost the man I love, my life has been filled with sadness and loneliness.
Since I lose my man
Even as time passes, I still feel the pain of his absence just as strongly.
Lyrics © RALEIGH MUSIC PUBLISHING
Written by: IRA GERSHWIN, GEORGE GERSHWIN, DU BOSE HEYWARD, DOROTHY HEYWARD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@andypinter1
What a wonderful sound!
@thendrjazz
Armstrong's fifth session with the Henderson band, just over a month after his first which was Oct. 7.
@thatrecord5313
Who is Sam Hill?