Billie Holiday

Billie's Blues (I Love My Man)

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Billie's Blues (I Love My Man) Lyrics

Lord I love my man, tell the world I do
I love my man, tell the world I do
But when he mistreats me
Makes me feel so blue
My man wouldn't give me no breakfast
Wouldn't give me no dinner
Fought about my supper and put me outdoors
Had the nerve to lay a matchbox on my clothes
I didn't have so many
But I had a long, long way to go
Some men like me talkin' happy
Some calls it snappy
Some call me honey
Others think I got money
Some tell me baby you're built for speed
Now if you put that all together
Makes me everthing a good man needs

Submitted by

joker4mentor On Mar 18, 2005

Good Morning Heartache

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Keep it true to the song

Fix what’s wrong, but don’t rewrite what the artist wrote. Stick to the official released version — album booklet, label site, verified lyric video, etc. If you’re guessing, pause and double-check.

Respect the structure

Songs have rhythm. Pages do too. Leave line breaks where they belong. Don’t smash things together or add extra empty space just for looks.

Punctuation counts (but vibe-editing doesn’t)

Correct typos? Yes. Re-punctuating a whole verse because it ‘looks better’? Probably not. Keep capitalization and punctuation close to the official source.

Don’t mix versions

If you’re editing the explicit version, keep it explicit. If it’s the clean version, keep it clean. No mashups.

Let the lyrics be lyrics

This isn’t the place for interpretations, memories, stories, or trivia — that’s what comments are for. Keep metadata, translations, and bracketed stage directions out unless they’re officially part of the song.

Edit lightly

If two lines are wrong… fix the two lines. No need to bulldoze the whole page. Think ‘surgical,’ not ‘remix.’

When in doubt, ask the crowd

Not sure what they’re singing in that fuzzy bridge? Drop a question in the comments and let the music nerds swarm. Someone always knows.

JoKeR4MeNToR

Submitter

2005-03-18 19:17:16

3 Meanings

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by OAMM

19y ago

I love this song. Billie is simply amazing. But "Had the dark clay make black spots on my clothes" is the wrong lyric. it's "Had the nerve to lay a matchbox on my clothes".

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by girlybat

18y ago

ITA w/ the PP about the lyric correction. i had always thought that line meant that her old man set her clothes on fire, but a friend suggested that her old man sold her clothes for a matchbox of dope. makes sense. that'd sure give me the blues.

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by girlybat

18y ago

ah, this article says he was kicking her out. link: http://weeklywire.com/ww/03-23-98/austin_cols_ventura.html

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