Studio Press

Louis Armstrong was a famous jazz trumpeter and jazz vocalist, whose career started in the 1920’s and lasted half a century, into the 1970’s. While he was one of the most skilled and influential jazz musicians of his time, one of the main reasons that he was so popular was because of how entertaining he was to watch and to listen to. He was in a number of Hollywood films featuring some of the biggest stars of the time, and was also known for his goofy antics on the stage during his big band concerts.

Because he always seemed such a happy-go-lucky character in public, many people criticized him for his behavior. Some people saw his actions as an attempt at demeaning hisself to be an entertainer for white audiences. He endured much criticism from both white and black audiences during his career.

Another thing I want to point out is that Louis Armstrong’s career took place during a time when the country was adjusting to integrating blacks into society. Much of the nation was still segregated during his childhood and early career. As an artist, Louis Armstrong would sometimes translate his experiences into his music.

In the song “Black and Blue”, Armstrong sings about a rough, impoverished life with oppression experienced in a variety of forms. The lyrics are as follows:

Cold empty bed...springs hurt my head
Feels like ole ned...wished I was dead
What did I do...to be so black and blue

Even the mouse...ran from my house
They laugh at you...and all that you do
What did I do...to be so black and blue

Im white...inside...but, that dont help my case
Thats life...cant hide...what is in my face

How would it end...aint got a friend
My only sin...is in my skin
What did I do...to be so black and blue

How would it end...i aint got a friend
My only sin...is in my skin
What did I do...to be so black and blue

Society in the 1920’s treated blacks and whites completely different. Even a black man as well-known and well-loved as Louis Armstrong was subjected to discriminatory treatment. Black musicians had to travel in more cramped and dangerous forms of transportation, were often required by their white-owned record labels to travel strenuous tour schedules, and were not given as good of pay or accomodations as similar white musicians of the time. In the first verse, Louis Armstrong sings about the poor conditions he has had to endure. The example he uses is a ragged bed with not enough cushion to cover up the springs and set in a cold room.

A mouse, something associated with the poorest of living conditions, was not even willing to share the poor status of Louis Armstrong’s house, as he mentions in the second verse. This is reminiscent of the living situations of many black people in America during the early 1900’s. The inequality in job opportunity and wages forced many black families to live in poverty, which is definitive of Louis Armstrong’s childhood as he grew up in New Orleans, LA. He goes on to say that “All they do is laugh at you…and all that you do”. I think Louis Armstrong is talking about how, even while he was an incredibly talented musician, arguably one of the best jazz trumpeters ever, society, meaning “white/normal” society, laughed at his efforts to succeed. The record label executives knew he was the best trumpeter they had ever heard, yet they treated him much worse than other white jazz musicians.

In the third verse, he says, “I’m white…inside…but, that don’t help my case. That’s life…can’t hide…what’s in my face”. Because of how society has been set up by the white man, it has been instituted that to be white is normal. By saying that he is white, Armstrong is saying that he is, on the inside, normal and the same as every other man; that he deserves equal treatment as every other man that is white. Unfortunately, being white on the inside doesn’t “help his case”. As Iris Young says in Five Faces of Oppression, “ stereotypes confine them to a nature which is often attached in some way to their bodies, and which thus cannot easily be denied”. Armstrong’s skin color is something he cannot change, and no matter how much he changed his inner character to fit the “white norm” that society had set, he was still viewed as black and thus was subject to black stereotypes.

His final verse in this song sings “How would it end…I ain’t got a friend. My only sin…is in my skin. What did I do…to be so black and blue?”. Oppression can leave a person feeling helpless, as if they “ain’t got a friend”. White people mistreated Louis Armstrong through discriminatory practices of the time and some black people frowned on him for being an “Uncle Tom”, (because of how he portrayed himself in relation to white people during shows and concerts). Also, by saying that his sin is in his skin, he claims the blame for the problem and names it as something that he cannot change. “What did I do…to be so black and blue?”, sounds a lot like internalized racism, discussed by Gloria Yamato in Something About the Subject Makes it Hard to Name. Yamato says, “If it seems that your color is the reason, if it seems that your ethnic heritage is the cause of the woe, it’s because you’ve been deliberately beaten down by agents of a greedy system until you swallowed the garbage.” Armstrong has clearly bought into the idea that his “sin”, his skin color, is why he’s mistreated. He has black skin, he is sad from constant oppression, and it’s all his fault.

In conclusion, I wonder as to the purpose of this song. Was Armstrong simply emoting his feelings about his life and hardships? Or was this song meant to inspire more open-minded thought among both his black and his white listeners/viewers? Whatever the purpose, both of these things are accomplished. Not only do I sympathize with Armstrong’s situation, but I find myself considering the social constructs that shaped his ideas about his skin color and mistreatment.