st louis blues lyrics meaning

(6 fans), Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was a musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. s overwhelming talent helped her overcome a humble Tennessee upbringing. (Armstrong would record his own version of the song in 1929 with his orchestra, which, like Smith, s take, would eventually be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.) Photo by Carl Van Vechten. Reminiscing on a chance encounter with a distraught woman in the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, W.C. https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/2164854/Bessie+Smith. I tricked the dancers by arranging a tango introduction, breaking abruptly into a low-down blues. s performance, an example of interpretive singing in terms of connection to the lyrics and emotional believability that blues belters have been trying to honor for all the years hence. Fans of the St. Louis Blues have been noticing that Laura Branigan's smash single from the early 1980s has been playing in the locker room after wins these days. Web. “St. Around 1892, he claimed to have come across a woman who described the source of her own anguish with an incisive and memorable line: “My man’s got a heart like a rock cast in de sea.”. Handy’s use of the minor paved the way for Smith to imbue the song with heartache of bottomless depths. But every once in a while, a big hit manages to elucidate something important about the... Part 1 of a new series Anytime you speak to an expert about what they consider the greatest... John Prine's longtime guitarist on three essential Prine lines Jason Wilber. She goes to this punishing place so that listeners can achieve catharsis, whether they, re reliving their own excruciating experiences or just vicariously stopping by. [7], Singer and actress Ethel Waters was the first woman to sing "Saint Louis Blues" in public. "Mrs Robinson" was originally called "Mrs Roosevelt," most likely after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. s dreams of success as a black blues musician seemed to be dying in the early 1890s, as he bounced around the Midwest jobless and destitute. Handy said his objective in writing the song was "to combine ragtime syncopation with a real melody in the spiritual tradition. [11] She said she learned it from Charles Anderson and featured it herself during a 1917 engagement in Baltimore. As Smith wrote in his autobiography. Louis Blues” has become one of the most famous, celebrated, and recorded jazz standards in history. Early instrumental versions of the song are notable for the striking, tango-flavored opening. St. Louis Blues Lyrics as written by William C Handy, Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing. My eyes swept the floor anxiously, then suddenly I saw lightning strike. "Saint Louis Blues" (or "St. Louis Blues") is a popular American song composed by W. C. Handy in the blues style and published in September 1914. Louis Blues” featured a 24-year-old Louis Armstrong on cornet. "Humor and sadness; joy and sorrow;... By the time Bessie Smith had the opportunity to put her inimitable stamp on. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. [5][6], The form is unusual in that the verses are the now-familiar standard twelve-bar blues in common time with three lines of lyrics, the first two lines repeated, but it also has a 16-bar bridge written in the habanera rhythm, which Jelly Roll Morton called the "Spanish tinge" and characterized by Handy as tango. Handy recorded his best version of the song in 1922 and three years later, in 1926, Fats Waller would play it on … Public Domain, Library of Congress. s use of the minor paved the way for Smith to imbue the song with heartache of bottomless depths. Playlist. Handy may have indeed been the “Father Of The Blues,” as he called himself in his autobiography, but it’s hard to imagine the genre developing as it did without Smith’s performance, an example of interpretive singing in terms of connection to the lyrics and emotional believability that blues belters have been trying to honor for all the years hence. Since first appearing in 1914, “St. Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Peermusic Publishing. [7] The tango-like rhythm is notated as a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note and two quarter notes, with no slurs or ties. He remembered the woman’s line and began to pen “St. Non-lyrical content copyright 1999-2020 SongMeanings, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display, An Introduction to Bessie Smith: Her Best Recordings 1923-1933, Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer Lyrics. STANDS4 LLC, 2020. "St. Louis Blues" is an American popular song composed by William Christopher Handy in … He remembered the woman. Inspiration for the NHL's St. Louis Blues, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "American Memory from the Library of Congress – List All Collections", "Ethel Waters: American Singer and Actress", Sheet Music at Duke University digital collection, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saint_Louis_Blues_(song)&oldid=982646202, Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Cleanup tagged articles with a reason field from March 2019, Wikipedia pages needing cleanup from March 2019, Articles to be expanded from September 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 October 2020, at 13:03. Louis Blues” was also notable for the fact that a section of the song was recorded in a minor key. Louis Blues,” courtesy of W.C. Handy’s ingenuity and Bessie Smith’s unreal talent, still do it like none before or since. It’s super easy, we promise! MTV reversed the word "joint" in Tom Petty's "You Don't Known How It Feels" so it was unintelligible, but gave the video a VMA anyway. It was only natural that she would take on what is perhaps the preeminent blues song of the era. Early instrumental versions of the song are notable for the striking, tango-flavored opening. St. Louis woman with her diamond ring Pulls that man around by her If it wasn't for her and her That man I love would have gone nowhere, nowhere I got the St. Louis Blues Blues as I can be That man's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me I … More songs with kinds of music in the title, More songs with names of cities in the title, More songs that are also the names of movies. It was one of the first blues songs to succeed as a pop song and remains a fundamental part of jazz musicians' repertoire. Get instant explanation for any acronym or abbreviation that hits you anywhere on the web! Public Domain, Library of Congress. (Armstrong would record his own version of the song in 1929 with his orchestra, which, like Smith’s take, would eventually be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.) Something within them came suddenly to life. Handy’s dreams of success as a black blues musician seemed to be dying in the early 1890s, as he bounced around the Midwest jobless and destitute. The dancers seemed electrified. Lyrics.com. An instinct that wanted so much to live, to fling its arms to spread joy, took them by the heels.”. sort form. Lyrics powered by LyricFind It seems odd, but to that point, the blues, a genre of music known for conveying pain and sadness, was generally played in major keys all the way through. Handy to the point where it was the most popular and well-known blues song in existence. Handy said he had been inspired by a chance meeting with a woman on the streets of St. Louis distraught over her husband's absence, who lamented, "Ma man's got a heart like a rock cast in de sea", a key line of the song. It is played in the introduction and in the sixteen-measure bridge. Test your MusicIQ here! When "St Louis Blues" was written the tango was in vogue. In doing so she became the youngest ever solo artist to write and perform a #1 hit.

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