Analysis: "I Get a Kick Out of You"

[University of Michigan, 2008]

Billie Holiday's performance of "I Get a Kick Out of You" is an excellent example of music that has a strong relationship to the text.  Not only does Billie's voice employ word painting throughout the song by working with timbre and pitch, but the instrumentation responds to the text with the use of call and response.  In addition, the harmonies often reflect the lyrics of the song.

Word painting is an important way that Billie strengthens the meaning of the text. The word "kick" is sung eight times throughout the song, and each time Billie sings it in a curt staccato.  She places little emphasis on the second "ck," as if she wants to get the word out as fast as possible.  It sounds like a quick kick itself, and after each time she says it there is a pause in the phrasing as she takes a breath; she never connects "kick" to the word that follows it, as if she needs to get her feet back on the ground to continue singing. 

Another example of word painting is the word "don't" in section B (the second time it's sung). "You obviously don't adore me," Billie sings, and the word "don't" is accentuated as the pitch of her voice rises.  The timbre of her voice is more like speech than song, and she exclaims the word a short staccato.  By singing it in this way, Billie sounds surprised that someone does not like her, adding meaning to the word choice of "yet" in "yet I get a kick out of you."  The person she is singing about obviously doesn't adore her, and ideas or events that are might be considered exciting to some (drugs, alcohol, planes) don't entertain Billie at all.  Yet she is still amused by this person.  The amusement can be heard in the timbre of her voice; it's more playful and rough—even laughing at times—instead of beautiful and melodious as a song like a love ballad might sound.  The instrumentation, as well, sounds lighthearted and jocular, and in the first and second saxophone solo the melody bounces along in good humor.

A third example of word painting is in the third A section.  "Flying too high with some guy in the sky," Billy sings, and the notes rise higher and higher in pitch, corresponding with the height described in the lyrics.  Finally, with "my idea of nothing to do," the melody drops in pitch, reflecting her boredom with planes, and a slight upward inflection in pitch is heard in the word "nothing," as if Billie is trying to spice up the boring nature of planes. 

Instrumentation interacts directly with the text in "I Get a Kick Out of You" by making use of the call-and-response technique.  After every two measures of singing, a muted trumpet plays a snippet of music, answering the vocals and creating a musical conversation between Billie's voice and the trumpet.  Music responds to the text even more in the third A section; in response to Billie's "I get no kick in a plane," the muted trumpet soars up and down as if the melody itself were on a plane.

Even the harmony interacts with the text in this song.  Whenever the harmony moves from a V (dominant) chord to a I (tonic) chord—an authentic cadence—the text seems to be asking a question or needing a response.  "So tell me why should it be true" is on the dominant chord, and just as the dominant always wants to resolve (usually to the tonic) so too does this line pose a question.  The answer in the text never comes (as expected) but the next line's harmony resolves on the tonic chord, and so the listener is

satisfied.  This harmonic progression happens again with "That would bore me terrifically too," and "my idea of nothing to do."  Both are statements that want something more interesting (bored/nothing to do) to be said.  "Yet I get a kick out of you" remedies Billie's boredom both in the text's subject (whoever the song is about) and in the music (by resolving on the tonic chord).

The interaction between music and text can play a very important role in conveying a song's meaning, as in "I Get a Kick Out of You."  Not only does Billie Holiday alter the timbre, pitch, and dynamics of her voice to better express the meaning of the words she is singing, but the instrumentation responds to the words as well with its call and response, timbre, melodies and harmonies.