Black And Blue

(By Thomas 'Fats' Waller, Harry Brooks, and Andy Razaf;
recorded by Louis Armstrong in ’29 and ‘55)

Cold empty bed,
Springs hard as lead,
Feel like Old Ned,
Wish I was dead
What did I do to be so black and blue?

Even the mouse
Ran from my house
It laughed at you
And scorned you too
What did I do to be so black and blue?

I’m white inside
That don’t help my case
‘Cause I can’t hide
What is in my face (accompanied by indecipherable scat)

How would it end
Ain’t got a friend
My only sin
Is in my skin
What did I do to be so black and blue?

---

I have lately come to realize that before Louis Armstrong got old and smarmy on TV, he was very, very hip. If I meet Louis in the afterlife, I’ll have to apologize deeply to him. I guess about the time I was getting interested in music, folk music and the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were hot, but Armstrong was singing “Hello, Dolly” and some other sentimental bland crap that I couldn’t stand! But the music he made earlier in his career had a lot of spunk and musicality! I was just born badly out of synch with his hits! Maybe if I could have heard him in a live (or a not-for-TV) performance, I’d have learned something about what was good!

---