[Dixielandjazz] Strange Fruit

[Charles Suhor]

Also, Lillian Smith took "Strange Fruit" as the name of her protest 
novel in 1944, still in print.

Charlie Suhor

On Feb 2, 2007, at 3:49 PM, Steve Barbone wrote:

> Excerpted from Wikipedia, about why Strange Fruit is so haunting. 
> Those who
> have seen the photograph also understand the pain and fear Billie 
> Holiday
> must have experienced while performing it.
>
> Interestingly enough, Meeropole also wrote "The House I Live In," 
> which was
> performed by Frank Sinatra near the end of WW 2 and has been revived 
> since
> September 11, 2001. Interesting how two entirely different political 
> songs
> were written by the same man. And that both still resonate today.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
> "Strange Fruit" began as a poem about the lynching of a black man 
> written by
> a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx Abel Meeropol, who used the pen 
> name
> Lewis Allan (the names of his two children, who died in infancy). 
> "Strange
> Fruit" was written as a poem expressing his horror at the 
> lynchings,and was
> first published in 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine. 
> Though
> Meeropol/Allan often asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his 
> poems
> to music he set Strange Fruit to music himself and the song gained a 
> certain
> success as a protest song in and around New York. Before Holiday was
> introduced to the song, it had been performed by Meeropol, by his 
> wife, and
> by a black vocalist called Laura Duncan, who performed it at Madison 
> Square
> Garden.
>
> Meeropol said later that he had been inspired by seeing Lawrence 
> Beitler's
> photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. "Strange 
> Fruit"
> was eventually heard by Barney Josefson the founder of Cafe Society, 
> New
> York's first integrated nightclub, who introduced it to Billie Holiday.
> Holiday performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939, a move that by her 
> own
> admission left her fearful of retaliation. Holiday later said that the
> imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death, and 
> that this
> played a role in her persistence to perform it. The song became a 
> regular
> part of Holiday's live performances.
>
> Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about recording the 
> song,
> but her producer John Hammond - the man credited with originally 
> discovering
> her - did not support her choice, and Columbia refused to record the 
> song.
> Holiday arranged to record it with Commodore, Milt Gabler's 
> alternative jazz
> label in 1939. She would record two major sessions at Commodore, one 
> in 1939
> and one in 1944. "Strange Fruit" was highly regarded and in time became
> Holiday's biggest selling record. Though it became a staple of her live
> performances at the time, Holiday's accompanist, Bobby Tucker, later
> commented that Holiday would break down after every performance of it.
>
>
> Meaning
>
> The "strange fruit" referred to in the song are the bodies of African
> American men hanged during a lynching. They contrast the pastoral 
> scenes of
> the South with the ugliness of racist violence. The lyrics were so 
> chilling
> that Holiday later said "The first time I sang it, I thought it was a
> mistake. There wasn't even a patter of applause when I finished. Then 
> a lone
> person began to clap nervously. Then suddenly everyone was clapping."
>
>
> Impact
>
> The club owner immediately recognized the impact of the song on his 
> audience
> and insisted that Holiday close all her shows with it. Just as the 
> song was
> about to begin, waiters would stop serving, the lights in club would be
> turned off, and a single pin spotlight would illuminate Holiday on 
> stage.
> During the musical introduction, Holiday would stand with her eyes 
> closed,
> as if she were evoking a prayer.
>
> The song was ultimately to become the anthem of the anti-lynching 
> movement.
> The dark imagery of the lyrics struck a chord, and can be said to have
> planted one of the first seeds of what would later become the civil 
> rights
> movement. "Strange Fruit" was certainly ahead of its time, since the 
> civil
> rights movement began 15 years after its release. . . .snip to
>
> In 2002, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of
> Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
>
> It is number one on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's list of 100 
> Songs of
> the South.
>
>
>
>
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