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.
hobo you can't ride this train
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Even A-number one and all 'em cats, yeath man
All aboard for Pittsburgh, Harrisburg oh all the burgs
Hobo, you can′t ride this train
Now I'm the brakeman and I'm a tough man
I ain′t jokin′ you, can't ride this train
After all you all right with me
I think I will let you ride
The lyrics to Louis Armstrong's "Hobo You Can't Ride This Train" depict a train brakeman addressing a group of hoboes attempting to ride the train. The song begins with the brakeman acknowledging the presence of a lot of hoboes on the rods (the undeveloped parts of the train), including some of the most notorious ones. He then lists various destinations the train is heading to but ultimately tells the hoboes they cannot ride. In the chorus, Armstrong repeats the phrase "Hobo, you can't ride this train" four times emphatically, effectively barring the hoboes from boarding.
The lyrics suggest that the brakeman is a no-nonsense individual who takes his job seriously, making it clear that he is the one in charge of who gets to ride. The song highlights the struggle of hoboes during the Great Depression who resorted to sneaking onto trains in order to travel in search of work. It also touches on the power dynamic between the working class and those without a steady income, with the brakeman acting as a symbol of authority and the hoboes being seen as a threat.
Overall, "Hobo You Can't Ride This Train" is a bluesy, powerful song that sheds light on the struggles of a particular time and class of people in American history.
Line by Line Meaning
I bet there's a lotta hoboes Lord set on them rods
There are many hoboes who travel on railroads as a form of transportation
Even A-number one and all 'em cats, yeath man
Even the most skilled hoboes are among those who travel on the rails
All aboard for Pittsburgh, Harrisburg oh all the burgs
This train is going to all of the cities with 'burg' in the name
Hobo, you can't ride this train
Hoboes are not allowed to ride on this particular train
Now I'm the brakeman and I'm a tough man
I am the brakeman in charge of this train and I am a strict enforcer of the rules
I ain't jokin' you, can't ride this train
I'm not joking, hoboes are not allowed on this train
Boys, you ain't so bad
I don't think you hoboes are bad people
After all you all right with me
In fact, I think you guys are alright
I think I will let you ride
I am going to break the rules and let you hoboes ride on this train after all
Writer(s): Louis Armstrong
Contributed by Anna S. 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