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.
Take the a Train
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To go Sugar Hill 'way up in Harlem
If you miss the 'A' train
You'll find you've missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on now it's coming
Listen to those rails a thrumming
All 'board get on the 'A' train
Louis Armstrong's song "Take the 'A' Train" is a jazzy tune that tells the story of how to get to Harlem. It was written in 1939 by Billy Strayhorn, who was Duke Ellington's composer and arranger. The song is named after the New York City subway line that travels between Brooklyn and Harlem.
The lyrics suggest that if one wants to get to Sugar Hill, one must take the 'A' train. Sugar Hill is a neighborhood in Harlem that was known for its wealth and affluent residents during the 1920s and 1930s. The song also makes it clear that missing the 'A' train would be a mistake as it is the quickest way to Harlem.
The urgency to catch the 'A' train is emphasized in the song as Armstrong sings "Hurry, get on now it's coming". The sound of the train is heard through the rhythm of the song with the lyrics "Listen to those rails a thrumming". The song has become a staple of the jazz genre and a symbol of the Harlem Renaissance.
Line by Line Meaning
You must take the 'A' train
In order to arrive at Sugar Hill in Harlem, you have to board the 'A' train
To go Sugar Hill 'way up in Harlem
The destination of the 'A' train is Sugar Hill, which is located in the upper part of Harlem
If you miss the 'A' train
Failing to catch the 'A' train will result in not taking the fastest means of transportation to Harlem
You'll find you've missed the quickest way to Harlem
If you do not board the 'A' train, you will have missed the most efficient way to get to Harlem
Hurry, get on now it's coming
Act fast and board the 'A' train because it is approaching
Listen to those rails a thrumming
Hear the faint sound of the rails making contact with the train as it approaches the station
All 'board get on the 'A' train
Everyone should board the 'A' train to reach Sugar Hill in Harlem expeditiously
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem
In a short while, you will arrive at your desired destination, Sugar Hill in Harlem, if you board the 'A' train
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Billy Strayhorn
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