On June 28 in 1928, Louis Armstrong created one of history’s landmark musical recordings in Chicago with “West End Blues.” The composition was written and originally recorded by Armstrong’s mentor, Joe “King” Oliver, but Armstrong established himself as a genius and major influence of American music with the recording he made that day. Among other acknowledgements, NPR lists “West End Blues” as one of the 100 most influential musical works of the twentieth century.
The 26-year-old Armstrong and his Hot Five that day recorded the piece with a piano solo by Earl “Fatha” Hines and included one of the first recordings of scat singing by Armstrong. Most historians, though, recognize that what made the recording so special was Armstrong’s 15-second trumpet introduction and his eight-bar solo toward the end of the piece.
Composer and historian Gunther Schuller wrote about Armstrong’s first four notes of “West End Blues” in Early Jazz: Its Roots and Early Developtment (1986): “The way Louis attacks each note, the quality and exact duration of each pitch, the manner in which he releases the note, and the subsequent split second silence before the next note – in other words, the entire acoustical pattern – present in capsule form all the essential characteristics of jazz inflection.” (p. 116)
Billie Holiday summed up the impact of the song a different way, writing that sometimes “West End Blues” made her so sad, she’d “cry up a storm.” But “[o]ther times the same damn record would make me so happy.”
Ken Burns’s TV series Jazz features a great discussion of this composition named for the West End on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. While the segment is not available on YouTube, the series is available on Netflix streaming. For a more detailed discussion of the music in the piece and its legacy, check out this excellent post from The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong blog. Or just close your eyes and listen to “West End Blues” again.
Nils Lofgren added some lyrics to help Danny Whitten finish what became a classic love song, “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.”
Nils Lofgren is a great talent who has had a spectacular career, often as a band member in the shadows of other stars like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. One piece of information I recently discovered is that he contributed to the classic ballad “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” even though he is not in the song’s credits.
The song is by Danny Whitten and was originally recorded by Crazy Horse. Whitten struggled with finishing the song and Lofgren liked the song and encouraged him to finish it. Eventually Lofgren took the initiative to write a few more lines to finish the song. Crazy Horse released the song in 1971, and then in 1975 Rod Stewart had a hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. with the song, which appeared on his album Atlantic Crossing.
The song has a typical broken-heart theme, with the singer lamenting lost love. But “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” is one of the great heartbreak ballads of the twentieth century. The melody and the contradictions of the lyrics raise the song to another level, with the singer asking a lover to listen while at the same time saying he does not want to talk about it.
I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart. If I stay here just a little bit longer, If I stay here, won’t you listen to my heart, whoa, heart? I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke this old heart.
Stewart rerecorded the song in 1989, and later he performed the song with Amy Belle. Other artists have covered the song too. The Indigo Girls did a nice cover for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia (1993), and Everything But the Girl had a hit with the song in 1985 when they released it as a single in the UK.
YouTube used to have a video of Lofgren talking about the song, but it has disappeared. But here is the audio of a live version of Lofgren playing the song with a short introduction.
What do you think of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”? Ballad classic? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On June 21, 1965, the Byrds helped launch the folk-rock movement with their release of their debut album with the title track of a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Below, The Byrds perform the song on television in the 1960s.
The Byrds — with Roger McGuinn singing lead as Gene Clark and David Crosby provided the harmony — recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man” in January for their debut album even before Dylan had a chance to record it himself. When Dylan heard what the Byrds did to his song, he reportedly exclaimed, “Wow, man, you can even dance to that!” By the time the Byrds released their album on June 21, 1965, Dylan was in the studio finishing up “Like a Rolling Stone.”
In this video below from a 2009 webcast, Chris Hillman of The Byrds tells how the band came to reinterpret “Mr. Tambourine Man” and how jazz great Miles Davis helped the band get its first record contract. Check it out.
This week, CNN premiered a short digital film of Bruce Springsteen discussing his life and his music, Wrecking Ball: A Conversation with Bruce Springsteen. He discusses how his upbringing affects his music and explains that his work has been about judging the distance between “American reality” and the “American dream.” He refers to current events like the recession and Occupy Wall Street, and he explains the critical and “often angry” patriotism that resides in his songs. He also revleals why he had to include the spiritual element of “Land of Hope and Dreams” on his latest album, Wrecking Ball, and he talks about his “elemental” relationship with the late Clarence Clemons (at around the 16:00 mark). Check out the film below:
“You have to be constantly listening and interested in listening to what’s going on every day,” Springsteen explains near the end. “You have to remain interested in life.” I am glad that the man has kept up his interest for so long.
What do you think of the new film? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In the years leading up to July 4, 1976 in the United States, you could not escape American Revolution Bicentennial fever and celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There were parties, celebrations, ships, special coins, speeches, Bicentennial Minutes every night on television, and much more. But there is very little this year to mark the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, which officially started 200 years ago today when the U.S. declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812. Basically, we had a bicentennial and all I got was a website.
Several years ago I worked with some young people from England and I was surprised to learn that they had never heard of the War of 1812. It is probably true that today most Americans know very little about the war, which makes it understandable that there is little about the bicentennial of a war that accomplished little. Even with some rewriting of history it is difficult to make the War of 1812 about lofty principles such as we do with other American Wars like the Revolution (freedom), the Civil War (freedom), and World War II (defeating Hitler). The 1976 Bicentennial events, in many ways, were not celebrating war but celebrating ideas. The date corresponded not to a war but to the signing of a document about equality — even though we continue to work on expanding what “equality” means.
By contrast, the War of 1812 was largely about sea rights, land rights, and the seizing of American sailors. The war involved a lot of complicated issues, such as U.S. expansion into Native American lands, that are worth exploring but beyond the scope of a short blog post. At the end of the war when the U.S. and England signed the Treaty of Ghent on February 17, 1815, many questions were still left open. Neither side won the war, but many Americans saw it as a victory that they had held their own against the powerful British Empire.
The war did have some lasting musical influences. A battle at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry gave Americans its national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner,” which we wrote about in a previous Chimesfreedom post. Another War of 1812 battle inspired a pop hit in the 1950s when Johnny Horton sang about the war’s most famous fight in the song “Battle of New Orleans.” The humorous take on the battle in the song is reflected in The Ed Sullivan Show performance below of the song that was number one on both the country and pop charts in 1959.
We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin; There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago; We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on, Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
The actual Battle of New Orleans was a big victory for the U.S. over the British, but it happened after the war had officially ended. One outcome of the battle is that it helped launch the political career of future president Andrew Jackson, referred to by his nickname “Old Hickory” in the song.
Regarding the song, Jimmy Driftwood (1907-1998), an Arkansas school principal, wrote “The Battle of New Orleans” in 1936 as a way to get his students interested in history. Driftwood, who was born James Corbitt Morris, initially recorded “The Battle of New Orleans” but radio stations would not play it because the original version had “hell” and “damn” in the lyrics. For example, in Horton’s cleaned-up version, he sings, “We held our fire ’til we see’d their faces well./ Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave ’em … well.”
Driftwood wrote several hits throughout his career, including “Tennessee Stud.” For the music to “Battle of New Orleans,” he used an old American fiddle tune called “The Eighth of January,” which is the date of the famous battle. Here is a lively rendition of that tune:
Johnny Horton (1925-1960), who had the biggest hit with “Battle of New Orleans” in 1959, was a country and rockabilly singer who had other historical hits with songs such as “North to Alaska.” He also married Hank Williams’s widow Billie Jean Jones, and the couple had two daughters.
If you want a video with a little more history than Horton’s song, check out this short summary of the war:
Finally, while there is little U.S. national celebration of the War of 1812 Bicentennial, that does not mean the event is being ignored. For example, Ohio, whose own history was affected by the war, has several events over the next few years. Meanwhile, Maryland issued War of 1812 license plates and plans for a three-year commemoration. Also, Canadians recognize the war as playing an important role in their country’s national identity. But wherever you are, have a safe and happy bicentennial!
Painting of Battle of New Orleans by Edward Percy Moran (public domain) via.
Why do you think most people are ignoring the 1812 Bicentennial? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On June 28 in 1928, Louis Armstrong created one of history’s landmark musical recordings in Chicago with “West End Blues.” The composition was written and originally recorded by Armstrong’s mentor, Joe “King” Oliver, but Armstrong established himself as a genius and major influence of American music with the recording he made that day. Among other acknowledgements, NPR lists “West End Blues” as one of the 100 most influential musical works of the twentieth century.
