Billie Holiday Lyrics
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.
and it's for my heart that i'll live
cause you'll never die.
Well if you want to know me, i'm a war. (B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.)
Come paint. (B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.)
Nothing you can do cause i'm stuck like glue to my guy.
I'm sticking to my guy like a stamp to a letter,
like birds of a feather, we stick together.
I'm telling you from the start, i won't be torn apart from my guy.
Nothing you could do could make me untrue to my guy.
I gave my guy my word of honor to be faithful and i'm gonna.
You best be believing, I won't be deceiving my guy.
My opinion is he's the cream of the crop.
As a matter of taste to be exact,
he's my dear as a matter of fact.
No muscle-bound man can tear me away from my guy.
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. (if she wants to go, if he wants to go, if she wants to go, if he wants)
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. (if he wants to go, if she wants to go, if he wants to go, if she wants)
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. (if she wants to go, if she wants to go, if she wants to go, if she wants)
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y. (if she wants to go, if she wants to go, if she wants to go, if she wants)
B.I.L.L.I.E.H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.
i'm a warrior (come paint) have mercy.. most beautiful part of the song.
also i think "I'm a war." is correct
My first thought was that it was about a heroin addict as well. The "guy" in the song is heroin. And Billie Holiday famously struggled with her heroin addiction. When she sings "we are birds of a feather" she's speaking of how she and Billie are tied together by their shared addiction.
The key to this song, the connection between the title and the Mary Wells 'My Guy' lyrics (written by Smokey Robinson incidentally), is perhaps Holiday's 'My Man'. Where 'My Guy' is the saccharine sweet ideal of teenage love, 'My Man' is it's dysfunctional, abusive counterpart, but both are a pledge of devotion to their guy/man.
they are so great this song is beautiful
The lyrics are slightly wrong. The 4th verse (starting "As a matter of opinion") should read "He's my ideal, as a matter of fact" rather than "he's my dear as a matter of fact".
And is there maybe a bit missing during the second to last refrain?
This song is absolutely heartbreaking. The section from Martha & the Vandellis is easy; a song about being faithful. How sweet. Then the band turn the whole thing around with the phrase, "If she wants to go". She's leaving despite all this talk of faithfulness. The 'birds of a feather' portion is the finale and can interpreted a handful of ways; 1) the girl is singing to her new man, 2) the man left behind is singing of the girl so either a) she's leaving him the way she found him or b) he wasn't faithful either. The fact that there is a decrescendo before repeating 'birds of a feather' leads me think its either 1 or 2b. However, I think it strange to interact with an entirely new character at the very end of a piece. This could be just reinforcing the idea that this is the last thing you see of this girl, her with her new guy. Or as in 2b, the guy was never faithful either, making you reconsider why this girl had decided to leave in the first place. Maybe she was faithful, she meant what she said. Then she found out about him cheating and went to find someone to treat her better. In that case all three endings work, actually.
This song is absolutely heartbreaking. The section from Martha & the Vandellis is easy; a song about being faithful. How sweet. Then the band turn the whole thing around with the phrase, "If she wants to go". She's leaving despite all this talk of faithfulness. The 'birds of a feather' portion is the finale and can interpreted a handful of ways; 1) the girl is singing to her new man, 2) the man left behind is singing of the girl so either a) she's leaving him the way she found him or b) he wasn't faithful either. The fact that there is a decrescendo before repeating 'birds of a feather' leads me think its either 1 or 2b. However, I think it strange to interact with an entirely new character at the very end of a piece. This could be just reinforcing the idea that this is the last thing you see of this girl, her with her new guy. Or as in 2b, the guy was never faithful either, making you reconsider why this girl had decided to leave in the first place. Maybe she was faithful, she meant what she said. Then she found out about him cheating and went to find someone to treat her better. In that case all three endings work, actually.
I saw Warpaint last night in Sydney, Australia. They were beautiful live. Right before they performed this song they said "This song is about a heroin addict."
fantastic live.
fantastic live.
Does anyone know the lyrics toward the end? "Nina was on your front porch, we need you to....????"
http://youtu.be/Rdm1H_EGWdE this is the version where i can hear that line the clearest. I think the lyric is "Nina was on your front porch and we need you to give us all a (hand?)". What do you think? Every site i've been to just skips over that part.
http://youtu.be/Rdm1H_EGWdE this is the version where i can hear that line the clearest. I think the lyric is "Nina was on your front porch and we need you to give us all a (hand?)". What do you think? Every site i've been to just skips over that part.