The incredible jazz vocalist, Billie Holiday, was born April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Billie had a very troubled and unstable life with her mother when she was a young girl. She was even sent to a house for troubled African-American girls for about a year when she was 9 years old. In the 1920's Billie had worked as a prostitue in Harlem for a time. Around 1930, Billie began singing in local clubs and renamed herself "Billie" after the film star Billie Dove. At the age of 18, Billie was discovered by producer John Hammond while performing in a Harlem jazz club. She is now considered one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time.
I noticed that, in this song particularly, that she has a very melancholy feel in the lyrics and they way she sings the words. Her songs mainly consist of piano and that creates a very dreamy vibe. This song is about a man that she once loved. It seems like she's dreaming about the past in the lyrics.
This song is about telling someone (the man she's talking about) how much you love them and don't want to lose them. It's also about how you only want that one person and nobody else. Her voice has a kind of Snow White fairytale-like tune and texture in this song. It's one aspect that makes this a perfect love song.
In this song her voice sounds much more powerful and is even a bit raspy. She's definitely showing off her vocal ability in this song. She's talking about how some people have it so easy and how they don't realize it.
This song has a much different sound than her other ones. This song has a scary and depressing tune to it. She sings very raspy at time 0:31, 0:57, and 1:16. I read the lyrics and it seems that in this song shes talking about slavery. The tune of this song is very different from the fairytale-like melody of "Love Me Or Leave Me".
Comments (2)
Margaret M said
at 8:46 pm on Dec 1, 2012
This page is great! You do a really good job of describing the mood of each song. Also, I love the video you picked for "Strange Fruit." Because it's an actual performance, you can see Billie's emotions in her facial expressions while hearing it in her voice. I have two suggestions. Firstly, I like the biography you gave, but I want to know more about her life! Second, you might want to include some more technical analysis of her songs. But overall this is an awesome page!
Marina M said
at 1:08 pm on Dec 2, 2012
I listened to "The Very Thought of You" before I read your description and I really think that you captured the song well. I agree that it is a very melancholy song and I think what you said about the dreamy vibe was really true. I isn't something that I might have thought to say but I certainly agree with it. I also really like the layout of your page. It is very clear.
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