Strange Fruit: A protest song with enduring relevance.

[dipsydoodle]

First recorded in 1939, the protest song Strange Fruit came to symbolise the brutality and racism of the practice of lynching in America's South. Now, more than seventy years later, such is the song's enduring power that rapper Kanye West sampled the track on his latest album Yeezus.

"The smell of the honeysuckle brings all of it back. That's the smell prevalent in the area we lived in. The honeysuckle was in bloom.

"Because words can't describe how we felt that night, how I felt. It was a combination of grief, shock, fear.

"You have a sorrow that grips you for what happened to Emmett."

Simeon Wright, now in his seventies, is recalling the August night in 1955 in Mississippi when his 14-year-old cousin Emmett Till was dragged out of the bed they were sharing at Simeon's house.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25034438

[malaise]

1. An amazing song

We have the CD - Billy oh Billy - that voice!!!

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I've got a cd with her singing it, too.

I haven't listened to it in a long time. We're supposed to be getting some rain soon, so I'll get it out then. I love to listen to her when the weather is moody like that.

[malaise]

4. Great idea

Billy makes me rain tears.

[Skidmore]

10. I have one too. In fact, I have several Billie Holiday albums.

She was a great singer and her singing never ceases to stir something in the soul.

[dipsydoodle]

6. I've must have nearly everything she recorded

including the late Verve Studio Master Takes.

Wonderful Lady.



off topic - this was never put out on vinyl. Watching it is close to looking at Art Kane's A Day In Harlem :

[malaise]

7. Don't think we have all

but we have more than a few.
A Classic dat!

[dipsydoodle]

8. I've now found and ordered it on DVD

Its on Jazz Masters: Vintage Collection - 1958-1961

[Warren DeMontague]

3. She was incredible.

Wrenching tune.

[Hoyt]

5. Interestingly, they played that song in last week's Criminal Minds TV show.

It was about a Black man who was horribly mutilated by a mob when he was falsely accused of raping a white girl decades ago. The scene with that song were quite emotional.

[kelliekat44]

9. If you think this is something, wait until you hear Nina Simone's version. WARNING GRAPHIC VIDEO

[babydollhead]

11. here is Jeff Buckley's amazing cover of this song

[MrMickeysMom]

12. Thank you, dipsydoodle...

… very much, indeed.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. A bit of history...

this was written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish Communist in NYC, in 1937, and performed first by Laura Duncan who helped write the music. At one point early on Duncan sang it at Madison Square Garden, and that eventually led to Holiday picking it up. Meeropol was a prolific poet and also wrote hits for Peggy Lee and Sinatra.

The song has been covered by a lot of people, from Katy Sagal to Lou Rawls to Nona Hendryx. And, of course, Diana Ross.

Meeropol is also famous for adopting the Rosenberg's two sons, Robert and Michael, who took his name after their parents were executed. Robert and Michael are still kicking with Michael a retired left wing economics professor and Robert taught anthropology for a while but then became editor of Socialist Review and went to law school. His daughter Rachel continues the battle at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Some family.