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.
When Your Lover Has Gone
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When you're alone, the magic moonlight dies
At break of dawn, there is no sunrise
When your lover has gone
What lonely hours the evening shadows bring
What lonely hours--with memories lingering
Like faded flowers; life can't mean anything
What lonely hours the evening shadows bring
What lonely hours--with memories lingering
Like faded flowers; life can't mean anything
When your lover has gone
Louis Armstrong's "When Your Lover Has Gone" is a classic song that depicts the pain and anguish of losing a lover. The song is written in a melancholic tone, with the lyrics evoking imagery of loneliness and sadness. The first two lines of the song establish the theme of loneliness, as the singer muses sobrely about who cares for starlit skies and how the magic moonlight dies when one is alone. The image of a deserted night sky highlights the gloominess that comes with losing someone.
The next two lines of the song, "At break of dawn, there is no sunrise, when your lover has gone" serve to emphasize the depth of despair one feels when losing a loved one. The singer is suggesting that no matter how beautiful the morning can be, it is always shrouded in darkness when one's lover is no longer with them.
The second verse of the song is a repeat of the first verse, with slight variations to the wording. The verse reiterates the theme of loneliness, as the singer sings about the lonely hours the evening shadows bring, and how memories linger like faded flowers.
In summary, Louis Armstrong's "When Your Lover Has Gone" is a song about the pain and loneliness that comes with losing a lover. The song's lyrics are a poignant depiction of how the world can feel bleak, lonely, and empty when your lover is no longer there.
Line by Line Meaning
When you're alone, who cares for starlit skies?
When you're by yourself, who appreciates the beauty of the night sky?
When you're alone, the magic moonlight dies
Being alone makes everything lose its enchantment, even the moonlight.
At break of dawn, there is no sunrise
Even the sunrise isn't as beautiful without someone to share it with.
When your lover has gone
All of these things only become unbearable when your lover is no longer in your life.
What lonely hours the evening shadows bring
The darkness of the evening only brings loneliness and sadness without someone to share it with.
What lonely hours--with memories lingering
Memories of lost love persist, making the loneliness of the present even more unbearable.
Like faded flowers; life can't mean anything
Without your lover, life seems dull and colorless, like flowers that have lost their vibrancy.
When your lover has gone
All of the loneliness and emptiness described in the song is a result of losing one's lover.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Einar Aaron Swan
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