Old song, new meaning now: Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, 1938

[Ian David]

This song was originally written about the Jim Crow era and lynch mobs of The South.

Strange Fruit
By Billie Holiday

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

Composed by Abel Meeropol (aka Lewis Allan)
Originally sung by: Billie Holiday
http://www.bluesforpeace.com/lyrics/strange-fruit.htm


Also:

Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit: Using Music to Send a Message
By Donna Hendry

Overview

Music can help people express a range of feelings and topics. Many early African-American songs, such as "The Drinking Gourd," were used to pass secret messages during the period of slavery. As Reconstruction passed into the Jim Crow Era, predominately African-American music such as jazz and blues evolved. This music explored the feelings of frustration, poverty, and depression that many African-American communities experienced. This music also began advocating for social change. Songs that promoted social activism were rare before the mid 1960s. One of the earliest of these songs, "Strange Fruit," was sung by the blues singer, Billie Holiday--she first sang it in a New York club in 1938. Though it was popular, Holiday's recording company, Columbia Records, refused to produce the song due to its controversial nature. A small record company picked it up, and it has now been commonly accepted as Holiday's signature song.

More:
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_lp_billie_holiday.htm

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Abel Meeropol

The composer, Abel Meeropol, was a schoolteacher and a "Red" who adopted the orphaned children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Meeropol wasn't so much a Communist as a reformer, and an early civil rights activist.

Just a little FYI piece -- the song is an important part of American cultural history in many ways.

--p!

[stellanoir]

2. This oh so haunting song played in my mind

with the initial images of survivors in the trees, and every reference to, or image of the all corpses in NO.

Thanks for posting.

[enough]

3. Thanks