"What did i do to be so black and blue" - Louis Armstrong
Lyrics
Cold empty bed, springs hard as lead Pains in my head, feel like old Ned What did I do to be so black and blue? No joys for me, no company Even the mouse ran from my house All my life through I've been so black and blue I'm white inside, but that don't help my case Cause I can't hide what is on my face I'm so forlorn. Life's just a thorn My heart is torn. Why was I born? What did I do to be so black and blue? I'm hurt inside, but that don't help my case Cause I can't hide what is on my face How will it end? Ain't got a friend My only sin is in my skin What did I do to be so black and blue? Tell me, what did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? What did I do? Tell me, what did I do to be so black and blue? What did I do to be so black and blue? |
Ralph Ellison employs blues and jazz, specifically that of Louis Armstrong, into the novel to highlight the narrator’s journey to define him. Jazz primarily developed among African American musicians, and depends on an individual's own style and improvisational talent; that is how Armstrong's work serves to underline the black struggle for identity. It also makes an appropriate soundtrack for a novel about the search for such individuality. Armstrong, widely considered the most important soloist in the history of jazz, alone almost transformed jazz, which originally evolved as a collective, ensemble-based music, into a medium for individual expression in which a soloist stood out from a larger band.
In the Prologue, the narrator listens to Armstrong’s “What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue.” This track relates exactly to the theme in Invisible Man, as it represents one of jazz’s earliest attempts to make an open commentary on the subject of racism. Fats Waller originally wrote the song for a musical comedy in which a dark-skinned black woman would sing it as a lament, ruing her lighter-skinned lover’s loss of interest in her. Later Armstrong transformed the piece into a direct commentary on the hardships faced by blacks in a racist white society. Like in Invisible Man, the song’s lyrics emphasize the conflict between the singer or speaker’s inner feelings and the outer identity imposed on him by society. The narrator listens to Armstrong sing that he feels “white inside” and that “my only sin is in my skin.” By placing this song in the background of his story without ever commenting on it, Ellison provides subtle reinforcement for the novel’s central tension between white racism against blacks and the black struggle for individuality. |