Strange Fruit
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- For other uses, see Strange Fruit (disambiguation).
Strange Fruit is a song most famously performed by Billie Holiday that condemns American racism, particularly the practice of lynching and burning African Americans that was prevalent in the South at the time when it was written.
Originally written by Lewis Allan (Abel Meeropol), a (White) school teacher, as a poem for a trade union magazine. Allen later added music and the song was presented to Holiday, who had been a victim of racism throughout her life and described herself as a "race woman," after a performance she gave at Café Society in 1939. While she later claimed in her autobiography that, together with her accompanist Sonny White, she put the song to music and introduced the piece into her next show, Meeropol did write the music himself.
The "strange fruit" referred to in the song are the bodies of African American men hanged during a lynching: "Black bodies swingin' in the southern breeze, / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." They contrast the pastoral scenes of the South with the ugliness of racist violence: "Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh, / And the sudden smell of burning flesh." 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."
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 became an instant success and came to be the piece most identified with Holiday, though it has been performed by countless others including Josh White, Pete Seeger and Nina Simone. In 1939 The New York Post described Strange Fruit: "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise."
The text
Strange Fruit by Lewis Allan
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and 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,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
(presented under "fair use" and copyright guidelines for poems)