Song of the Day 29 : Billie Holiday : Strange Fruit

One of only a few songs to have had a book written about it (Like a Rolling Stone another).  At least the book about of Strange Fruit was well written and understandable.   Strange Fruit has been covered by many people over the years - some of them getting its tone very wrong and in their hands it becomes just another song.

Billie's original and subsequent versions comes with the conviction of someone who actually has seen a lynching.  Amazingly the song was not written by Billie or an African American but a middle class, communist Jew.

While most sad songs are uplifting this one just makes me ANGRY

Strange Fruit

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.