Of the many things that struck me as weird in Invisible Man, one was the narrator's obsession with Louis Armstrong's "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue". He describes it as if it's his favorite song-- he seems to listen to it quite frequently, and he chooses it of all songs to want to listen to simultaneously on five radio-phonographs. But for the amount of love he has for the song, or maybe for Louis Armstrong in general, it was strange to me that the infamous jazz musician was mentioned nowhere else in the book, which would imply that the narrator only realized his love for this music after he had already gone off the grid.
The narrator talks about music a lot throughout the book, but when I looked back at the earlier sections, I found him mostly referring to Western classical music. Like at his first Brotherhood speech, he talks about all of the extraneous noise, and how he "felt as though [he] had wandered into the percussion section of a symphony orchestra". Or even earlier, at the college, he likens Reverend Barbee to a conductor "leading an orchestra into a profound and final diminuendo". The only times he references or notices traditionally black music are when examples of it are thrown blatantly into his face. For example, he talks about the man with the blueprints singing the blues, but only because he was face to face with and in the immediate vicinity of him. Similarly, he talks about hearing spiritual music being sung at the college, but he doesn't actively think of this type of music like he seems to with classical music.
The only instance I noticed of the narrator thinking of a different type of music was after he had broken the racist bank at Mary's because of the knocking noise, which he describes as "a ragged rumba rhythm". Rumba is apparently "a rhythmic dance with Spanish and African elements, originating in Cuba", according to Google. So while this might be stretch, I think it could be significant that the narrator is comparing the knocking to a type of music associated with Africa after encountering and being angry at this racist bank. As he's becoming more "woke" (like the kids are saying these days!) he's reclaiming more and more of his cultural roots.
Which leads me back to my first point about Louis Armstrong-- that the narrator only began to appreciate him and his music after the events of the book have already transpired. Jazz is a type of music predominantly pursued and performed by black men, so it makes sense that only after the narrator has accepted his identity does he start listening to more jazz, or music by black people in general. Overall, I think the way Ellison uses music throughout the book is super interesting, and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have any!
The narrator talks about music a lot throughout the book, but when I looked back at the earlier sections, I found him mostly referring to Western classical music. Like at his first Brotherhood speech, he talks about all of the extraneous noise, and how he "felt as though [he] had wandered into the percussion section of a symphony orchestra". Or even earlier, at the college, he likens Reverend Barbee to a conductor "leading an orchestra into a profound and final diminuendo". The only times he references or notices traditionally black music are when examples of it are thrown blatantly into his face. For example, he talks about the man with the blueprints singing the blues, but only because he was face to face with and in the immediate vicinity of him. Similarly, he talks about hearing spiritual music being sung at the college, but he doesn't actively think of this type of music like he seems to with classical music.
The only instance I noticed of the narrator thinking of a different type of music was after he had broken the racist bank at Mary's because of the knocking noise, which he describes as "a ragged rumba rhythm". Rumba is apparently "a rhythmic dance with Spanish and African elements, originating in Cuba", according to Google. So while this might be stretch, I think it could be significant that the narrator is comparing the knocking to a type of music associated with Africa after encountering and being angry at this racist bank. As he's becoming more "woke" (like the kids are saying these days!) he's reclaiming more and more of his cultural roots.
Which leads me back to my first point about Louis Armstrong-- that the narrator only began to appreciate him and his music after the events of the book have already transpired. Jazz is a type of music predominantly pursued and performed by black men, so it makes sense that only after the narrator has accepted his identity does he start listening to more jazz, or music by black people in general. Overall, I think the way Ellison uses music throughout the book is super interesting, and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have any!
Great post! I hadn’t noticed the references to western classical music or rumba and your interpretation makes a lot of sense. One thing I’m still really curious about is the meaning of the narrator’s desire to have five phonographs. Maybe since his appreciation of Armstrong represents interest in his cultural roots, it shows that he wants to be completely emersed in that culture. Or maybe now that he appreciates that culture, he wants to adapt it to make it his own?
ReplyDeleteThis is a compelling suggestion. Early in his time in New York, Emerson invites the narrator to join him and his jazz-loving friends at a hip Harlem nightclub, and the narrator declines, citing his utter lack of experience with that culture. And the zoot-suit-wearing kids he encounters soon after Clifton's killing would be typical jazz fans, and the narrator reflects on his total disconnection from their youth culture. (Clifton, however, did apparently dress like them and hung out at jazz clubs.) It's an interesting idea that the narrator develops a taste for Louis Armstrong as a "poet of invisibility" as part of his self-reinvention after "dropping out."
ReplyDeleteAwesome post!! I'd been wondering about the significance of the song for a while and this post is a nice way to sum it up, and you pointed out some really subtle stuff too. I wonder if there are points in the novel when he rejects jazz specifically, or listens to classical music over jazz, but I can't think of anything. I hadn't noticed a lot of that stuff. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I didn't think about before now, but it's a great observation. As you noted, the use of music seems to be another way of subtly showing the Narrator's development. I think that the song itself can show development as well. I don't think that the Narrator thought about being black before he discovers his invisibility, but now he can acknowledge that he is. Also the Blue might represent the history of black people because I feel like he didn't acknowledge that much throughout the novel. Great post! :)
ReplyDeleteI agree. The narrator's broader change of heart, opinion, and visibility come across in a ton of ways-- his humor, his reactions, and here, his music. It makes total sense to me that he would only discover jazz once in his hole. Mitchell said this too: before then, he had never really been exposed to the youth (and thus jazz) scene, as we see when he watches the comic-reading zoot-suiter jazz cats on the train in wonder. His infinite possibilities, I suppose, include discovering black music.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering how revolutionary Louis Armstrong meant to be with this song. He does pause before "and blue," making the song briefly, "what did I do to be so black." It could be a quietly rebellious song, cloaked in blues for a broader audience. (Sounds like Grandfather to me.)
This post was especially interesting to me because it pointed out references to music that i never would have noticed while reading Invisible Man and then explained them. I love the point you made about how Ellison made a huge point about the song in the prologue and then seems to just drop it. I'm curious if he did that on purpose or just forgot about it. Great post!
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