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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStrange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance.
First recorded in 1939, the protest song Strange Fruit came to symbolise the brutality and racism of the practice of lynching in America's South. Now, more than seventy years later, such is the song's enduring power that rapper Kanye West sampled the track on his latest album Yeezus.
"The smell of the honeysuckle brings all of it back. That's the smell prevalent in the area we lived in. The honeysuckle was in bloom.
"Because words can't describe how we felt that night, how I felt. It was a combination of grief, shock, fear.
"You have a sorrow that grips you for what happened to Emmett."
Simeon Wright, now in his seventies, is recalling the August night in 1955 in Mississippi when his 14-year-old cousin Emmett Till was dragged out of the bed they were sharing at Simeon's house.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25034438
malaise
(268,997 posts)We have the CD - Billy oh Billy - that voice!!!
LuvNewcastle
(16,845 posts)I haven't listened to it in a long time. We're supposed to be getting some rain soon, so I'll get it out then. I love to listen to her when the weather is moody like that.
malaise
(268,997 posts)Billy makes me rain tears.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)She was a great singer and her singing never ceases to stir something in the soul.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)including the late Verve Studio Master Takes.
Wonderful Lady.
off topic - this was never put out on vinyl. Watching it is close to looking at Art Kane's A Day In Harlem :
malaise
(268,997 posts)but we have more than a few.
A Classic dat!
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Its on Jazz Masters: Vintage Collection - 1958-1961
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Wrenching tune.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)It was about a Black man who was horribly mutilated by a mob when he was falsely accused of raping a white girl decades ago. The scene with that song were quite emotional.
kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)babydollhead
(2,231 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)very much, indeed.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)this was written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish Communist in NYC, in 1937, and performed first by Laura Duncan who helped write the music. At one point early on Duncan sang it at Madison Square Garden, and that eventually led to Holiday picking it up. Meeropol was a prolific poet and also wrote hits for Peggy Lee and Sinatra.
The song has been covered by a lot of people, from Katy Sagal to Lou Rawls to Nona Hendryx. And, of course, Diana Ross.
Meeropol is also famous for adopting the Rosenberg's two sons, Robert and Michael, who took his name after their parents were executed. Robert and Michael are still kicking with Michael a retired left wing economics professor and Robert taught anthropology for a while but then became editor of Socialist Review and went to law school. His daughter Rachel continues the battle at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Some family.