In his 1979 film 'Manhattan', a suicidal Woody Allen recites a list of the things that make life worth living. Among them is Louis Armstrong's recording of 'Potato Head Blues' (recorded by Louis Armstrong and his 'Hot Seven' in 1927), something that Thomas Ward called "one of the most astonishing accomplishments in all of twentieth century music." And that's really all I'm going to say about the importance of Armstrong in the canon of twentieth century popular music. By the time of 'What A Wonderful World', he'd had long since moved away from such innovation to settle into the role of the grinning light entertainer that most are familiar with.'What A Wonderful World' is a later recording, providing Armstrong with an Indian summer hit (he died in 1971) that has come to define him in popular consciousness in a way that 'Potato Head Blues' could never hope to. A song that's become so definitively associated with 'Louis Armstrong' so as to make all other versions redundant. Yet in a supreme twist of irony, my ears now actively prefer to hear any other version except this one. It's not the song's fault, and it's not Armstrong's, but the conjoiner of the two set off alarm bells of discomfort that make what's meant to be easy listening decidedly uneasy.
Bob Thiele and George Weiss wrote it as a counterpoint to the political chicanery and racial inequality rife in late sixties America, intending it as an optimistic celebration of a more harmonious world that was within everyone's reach. Yet growing up, I'd always regarded 'What A Wonderful World' as a novelty song sung by a comedy performer playing it for laughs ("An ah zink to ma sell, wha ah wunnerfull wurlllzzzzz"). It's only with age did I come to recognise and appreciate the attempt at sincerity from a man not a born singer in any classic sense.
Yet although such sincere sentiment is fine on paper, Armstrong's grizzled vocal casts him in the role of an aged 'Uncle Tom' figure marvelling at the scope of opportunity this brave new world has to offer now that the white man has kindly removed the yoke. When Armstrong sings "I hear babies crying, I watch them grow, they'll learn much more than I'll never know" I physically wince; rather than gaze in wide eyed wonder I instead ponder the ignorance and bigotry that denied Armstrong's 'character' getting that education themselves. The same ignorance and bigotry that put a bullet into Martin Luther King Jr the very month this sat at number one.
Maybe I'm being too sensitive over this, and maybe I'm reading too much into it - after all, it wouldn't be the first time. Nevertheless, for me Armstrong does subvert the message of 'What A Wonderful World' to the extent that it re-focuses my gaze from the outward world he's viewing to the racial perspective of the person singing it, in this case a perspective that's limited to mere acceptance of the status quo and the hope of a better tomorrow. And in that I despise the way that the song and his humble delivery of it makes a very big man look needlessly small. But on that observation I'll make no further comment save to question, for those worthy of recognition in the eyes of the world, whether it's better to be recognised for the wrong thing than for nothing at all?
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