[Dixielandjazz] strange fruit, a song that changed the world

Fri Oct 23 22:34:59 PDT 2015

For a dissenting view see this from Tom Reynolds in his book *I Hate Myself
& Want to Die:The 52 Most Depressing Songs Ever Written. *(Random House
2005.)
"7. Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday (1939). Strange indeed and insufferable
too. This notorious anti-lynching song unfortunately helped cement
Holiday's reputation as a wounded torch singer, gardenia optional.
Musically tedious, *Strange Fruit *is outfitted with grotesque lyrics
("bulging eyes," "twisted mouth," "burning flesh" that exploit the horrors
of lynching more than they condemn it. Holiday began her career as a superb
interpreter of swinging pop songs but eventually succumbed to the
melodramatics of songs such as this.While some Holiday acolytes feel no
vocalists are worthy enough to cover the song, it's really the other way
round. It's impossible for anyone to sing *Strange Fruit *without sounding
like an agitprop fanatic."

Joe Carbery.

On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 5:38 PM, Charles Suhor <csuhor at zebra.net> wrote:

> I heard Billie sing Strange Fruit when I was a student in D.C. in 1957.
> One of the finest moments ever.—Charlie
>
> > On Oct 23, 2015, at 4:01 PM, Marek Boym <marekboym at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: delanceyplace.com <delanceyplace at gmail.com>
> > Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 10:42 AM
> > Subject: strange fruit, a song that changed the world
> >
> >
> > 'Strange Fruit' one of 'the ten songs that actually changed the world.'
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> >
> >
> > Today's *encore* selection -- *Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song
> *by David
> > Margolick.  Billie Holiday (1915-1959), considered by some to be the
> > greatest of the female jazz vocalists, introduced 'Strange Fruit', a song
> > about lynching, into a world of songs about love and romance:
> >
> > "A few years back, *Q*, a British music publication, named 'Strange
> Fruit'
> > one of 'the ten songs that actually changed the world.' Like any
> > revolutionary act, the song initially encountered great resistance.
> Holiday
> > and the black folksinger Josh White, who began performing it a few years
> > after Holiday first did [in 1939], were abused, sometimes physically, by
> > irate nightclub patrons -- 'crackers' as Holiday called them. Columbia
> > Records, Holiday's label in the late 1930s, refused to record it. ...
> > 'Strange Fruit' marked a watershed, praised by some, lamented by others,
> in
> > Holiday's evolution from exuberant jazz singer to chanteuse of lovelorn
> > pain and loneliness. Once Holiday added it to her repertoire, some of its
> > sadness seemed to cling to her; as she deteriorated physically, the song
> > took on new poignancy and immediacy. ...
> >
> > "Lynchings -- during which blacks were murdered with unspeakable
> brutality,
> > often in a carnival-like atmosphere, and then, with the acquiescence if
> not
> > the complicity of local authorities, hung from trees for all to see --
> were
> > rampant in the South following the Civil War and for many years
> thereafter.
> > According to figures kept by the Tuskegee Institute -- conservative
> figures
> > -- between 1889 and 1940, 3,833 people were lynched; ninety percent of
> them
> > were murdered in the South, and four-fifths of them were black. Lynchings
> > tended to occur in poor, small towns -- often taking the place the famed
> > newspaper columnist H.L. Mencken once said, 'of the merry-go-round, the
> > theater, the symphony orchestra.' ... And they were meted out for a host
> of
> > alleged offenses -- not just for murder, theft and rape, but for
> insulting
> > a white person, boasting, swearing or buying a car. In some instances, it
> > was no infraction at all; it was just time to remind 'uppity' blacks to
> > stay in their place. ...
> >
> > "The night that she first sang 'Strange Fruit' [at Cafe Society in New
> > York] 'there wasn't even a patter of applause when I finished,' she later
> > wrote in her autobiography. 'Then a lone person began to clap nervously.
> > Then, suddenly, everybody was clapping.' The applause grew louder and a
> bit
> > less tentative as 'Strange Fruit' became a nightly ritual for Holiday,
> then
> > one of her most successful records, then one of her signature songs, at
> > least in those places where it was safe to perform."
> >
> > Lyrics:
> >
> > Southern trees bear a strange fruit
> > Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
> > Black body 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
> > Scent of magnolia, sweet and fresh
> > And 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 a tree to drop
> > Here is a strange and bitter crop.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > <
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> >
> > Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song
> > <
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> >
> > Author: David Margolick
> > Publisher: Harper Perennial
> > Copyright 2001 by David Margolick
> > Pages: 8, 19-20, 3-4
> >
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