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.
On Treasure Island
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Line by Line Meaning ↴
Fight fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time
Hold still right before we crash 'cause we both know how this ends
A clock ticks 'til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again
'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense
Don't speak as I try to leave 'cause we both know what we'll choose
If you pull then I'll push too deep and I'll fall right back to you
'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
Why are you my clarity? (clarity)
Why are you my remedy? (remedy)
Why are you my clarity? (clarity)
Why are you my remedy? (remedy)
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life
We take a dangerous leap into the unknown where our old memories and experiences resurface
Fight fear for the selfish pain, it was worth it every time
Even though we experience pain and fear, we choose to endure it for our own selfish desires and find it worth the cost
Hold still right before we crash 'cause we both know how this ends
We stop everything just before the inevitable crash, because we both know how it will end
A clock ticks 'til it breaks your glass and I drown in you again
Time passes until it shatters your fragile defense and I fall in love with you all over again
'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need
You are the part of me that I wish I could do without
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why
I relentlessly pursue you, even though I don't understand why I continue to fight for a tragic love
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love is doomed to failure, why are you the only one who can heal me?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
If our love is crazy and confusing, why are you the only thing that makes sense in my life?
Walk on through a red parade and refuse to make amends
We continue to march on, ignoring the chaos and refusing to make things right
It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense
Our love hurts us deeply, and we lose all rational thinking
Don't speak as I try to leave 'cause we both know what we'll choose
We don't speak as I try to leave, because we both know we will choose to stay together
If you pull then I'll push too deep and I'll fall right back to you
If you try to push me away, I'll cling even tighter and fall deeper in love with you
'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need
You are the part of me that I wish I could do without
Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why
I relentlessly pursue you, even though I don't understand why I continue to fight for a tragic love
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love is doomed to failure, why are you the only one who can heal me?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
If our love is crazy and confusing, why are you the only thing that makes sense in my life?
Why are you my clarity? (clarity)
Why are you the only thing that makes sense in my life?
Why are you my remedy? (remedy)
Why are you the only one who can heal me?
Why are you my clarity? (clarity)
Why are you the only thing that makes sense in my life?
Why are you my remedy? (remedy)
Why are you the only one who can heal me?
If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?
If our love is doomed to failure, why are you the only one who can heal me?
If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?
If our love is crazy and confusing, why are you the only thing that makes sense in my life?
Contributed by Annabelle V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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