Analysis of the Blues Form in Billie Holiday's Video Performance of "Fine and Mellow"

Listen and view this sample of the blues in the AAB format and follow along with the lyrics. The sample is also a good example of how the blues influenced jazz as well.

Billie Holiday was a well known and respected jazz vocalist during the 1940s and 1950s. Her unique, smoky voice and manner of phrasing the lyrics made her a star in the jazz world.

She is a tragic figure in the sense that she was often addicted to heroin. Even when she was in the hospital she had a friend smuggle heroin into her room. The police learned about it, busted her, and handcuffed her to her bed rail.


Lyrics to "Fine and Mellow," sung by Billie Holiday

My man don't love me, he treats me oh so mean
My man he don't love me, he treats me awful mean
He's the lowest man, that I've ever seen

He wears high trimmed pants, stripes are really yellow
He wears high trimmed pants. stripes are really yellow
But when he starts in to love mee is so fine and mellow

Love will make you drink and gamble, make you stay out all night long
Love will make you drink and gamble, make you stay out all night long
Love will make you do things, that you know is wrong

Treat me right baby, and I'll stay home everyday
Just treat me right baby, and I'll stay home night and day
But you're so mean to me baby, I know you're gonna drive me away

Love is just like a faucet, it turns off and on
Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on
Sometimes when you think it's on baby, it has turned off and gone