Strange Fruit
| "Strange Fruit" | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by Billie Holiday | ||
| Released | 1939 | |
| Genre | Blues | |
| Label | Commodore | |
| Writer | Abel Meeropol | |
"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.
Author
"Strange Fruit" began as a poem about the lynching of two black men 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). Meeropol and his wife were also the adoptive parents of the children of the executed convicted spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in the 1950s. "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 black vocalist 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 in Marion, Indiana. "Strange Fruit" was eventually heard by Barney Josephson 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 in performing 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.
In her autobiography Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday suggests that she, together with Lewis Allan, her accompanist Sonny White and arranger Danny Mendelsohn put the poem to music, though the claim is dismissed by David Margolick and Hilton Als in 'Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song as "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday - whose autobiography had been ghost-written by William Dufty - claimed "I ain't never read that book."
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 and cheering."
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 of the 50s and 60s.
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, Sting, Robert Wyatt,
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. [1]
Bob Dylan cites Strange Fruit as an influence in the 2005 documentary No Direction Home. The movie also has a brief clip of Holiday singing.
Inspiration
The 1944 novel Strange Fruit by author Lillian Smith, is said to have been inspired by Billie Holiday's version of this song.
Inspired the short film, Strange orange fruit Fruit, written and directed by Christopher Browne. [2]
Seattle literary magazine the strange fruit takes its title from the song.
Oscar Wilde's 1898 poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" mentions a gallows tree as having a hanged man for its fruit:
For oak and elm have pleasant leaves
That in the spring-time shoot:
But grim to see is the gallows-tree,
With its adder-bitten root,
And, green or dry, a man must die
Before it bears its fruit!
An opera "Strange Fruit" was commissioned and premiered on June 15, 2007 at the Long Leaf Opera Festival [3]in Chapel Hill. Chandler Carter was the composer and Joan Ross Sorkin was the librettist. The opera was inspired by the novel of the same name by Lillian Smith.
Covers
The song has been covered by several artists :
- AaRON, a french melancholic pop duet
- Twilight Singers
References in Popular Culture
A Touched By An Angel TV show episode tells the story of Billie Holiday struggling to sing the song. The first person who started clapping after the first time the song was performed was the show's main character, the angel Monica.
In the film Still Crazy, the fictitious 1970s rock band are named Strange Fruit after the song.
In the film 9½ Weeks, this record is played by Mickey Rourke for Kim Basinger.
The hip-hop group Strange Fruit Project takes its name from the song.
Hip-hop group Sol.illaquists of Sound reference the song frequently in their song "Black Guy Peace" off of their 2006 LP "As If We Existed".
The Hip-hop group Arrested Development make indirect reference to Strange Fruit in their song, "Tennessee" see [4]
Rapper/producer Danny! takes the title of the song for his own composition about racial injustice, also entitled "Strange Fruit".
An episode of the CBS Primetime show Cold Case is titled "Strange Fruit", and is about a young black chess player who is lynched in 1963. The episode ends, like most episodes in the series do, with a montage featuring a song from the period. The Nina Simone version of the episode's namesake plays as a group of white men are arrested for the murder.
The Cinematic Orchestra used a sample of "Strange Fruit" on the song "Durian" from the album Motion (album).
Strange Fruit is the name for a recent installation project freely combining the related topics.
The song has also been covered by Nebraskan group ' Flowers Forever', sang by Derek Higgins, also part of Tilly and The Wall.
Hip hop producer Pete Rock recorded a song called "Strange Fruit" for his 1998 album Soul Survivor.
Strange Fruit is the name of an Australian performance group that sway on fibreglass poles. The use of the name has no connection with the Billy Holiday song.
Indie (or alternative) rock band The Twilight Singers recorded a cover of "Strange Fruit" at their album She Loves You.
References
Literature
- Clarke, Donald: Billie Holiday. Wishing on the Moon. München, Piper 1995. ISBN 3-492-03756-9
- Davis, Angela: Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. Diverse Ausgaben, z. B. Vintage Books 1999 ISBN 0-679-77126-3
- Margolick, David and Hilton Als: Strange Fruit. Billie Holiday, Café Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights. Running Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7624-0677-1
- Margolick, David and Hilton Als: Strange Fruit. The Biography of a Song., Ecco 2001. ISBN 0-06-095956-8
- Holiday, Billie (with William Dufty): Lady Sings the Blues, Autobiography.. Edition Nautilus, 1992. ISBN 3-89401-110-6
External links
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