Billie Holiday Strange Fruit - Metaphor of Terror

[Foolscapfantasy]

What do you think unjust war is, other than the strange fruit on a world scale? You think the receiving families who are innocent in Pakistan but die when predator drones waste their lives when trying to target terrorists? That's strange fruit, my friend, that same burning flesh as the man takes his best shot at ruling over everyone else's lives to increase his own pleasure and boost his own lacking sense of self. It's not just outward prejudice. It's what causes all the death.

[gotehorn]

Many young people today don't seem aware of how recent legal racism was. While slavery had been outlawed it wasn't until the 1960s civil rights legislation that there was an end to legal segregation and the enabling of full voting rights to all United States citizens. When this song was written racism was essentially legal and common in many states.

[TheVictor1100]

7 people dont give a shit about what happened to all of these people

[shaggymattrocks]

she has a very creepy voice...

[hogs1629]

this song is by nina simone.....billie holiday did a version of it

[BrianS1981]

@hogs1629 Billie Holiday first sang it in the 'thirties. Her career was over before Nina's even began! It was originally written as a poem by Abel Meeropol in '36 and first performed by Holiday 3 years later at Café Society in Greenwich (NY). Simone was only 6 when that performance happened.

[MrsTarmale]

BRILLIANT SONG.. Who would dislike such an honest song?

[plutonium78]

Amazing video!!

[cinamongirl1000]

I enjoyed this video. It points out that racism is not about blacks and whites.

Thank you for putting it together and sharing it on here.

Canadian Girl

[JFriedEggs]

Don't try and lay this thing on another country. We all know who She's talkin' 'bout!!!

[ostavia13]

i always love this song when i was 9 i heard this song once or twice in my life time now im 15 still sing this song♥

[ebamarie]

@ObamaTheRealLoser - Paul L. Dunbar didn't think it strange to write in dialect. This isn't an essay contest. ... I just thought "buttacudawey" was writing in short hand. I don't think it's "dat" serious "tho".

[CUPCAKESxARExRANDOM]

a lot of the pictures gave me serious chills...

[StanBennet]

The top ten song writers of all time voted that this was the #1 written song.

[buttacudawey]

dis song always gets to me...

[ObamaTheRealLoser]

@buttacudawey Can you speak proper English instead of talking like a slave?

It's "This" NOT "Dis"! And, yes, it is that serious!

[mickeymac64]

this video always makes me cry..im ashamed to be human when such people can do such vile things to each other...

please let us learn from history and celebrate other peoples differences instead of persecuting them

i sincerely hope that a time will come when humanity finally realises its potential to exist together peacefully on a planet that we can all be proud of

[paradais2]

Thank you for making this video. It's interesting to research intentions of this tragic song & see humankind's inhumanity to its own, esp those who are seen as different or inferior. The song was exposing the incomprehensible lynching of African Americans. Your video similarly, in my opinion, is a general statement, with examples, of how fear & hysteria can grip leaders or those in power, resulting in extermination of those just for being different Well done! Sad world. Has it changed much?

[RaveBabyFuu]

this song was written about a horrible lynching of 2 black men. the anniversary of this chaos was yesterday. august 6th

[mickeymac64]

a truly thought provking song

billie was very courageous to sing this especially considering that such atrocious acts were being publicy condoned in some areas

the video highlights every corner of our planet still to this day has wtnessed these acts of pure evil

will we ever learn....i truly hope so

[paradais2]

@mickeymac64 I agree Billie was brave. And while we might not be lynching those who are different, we still discriminate and we still kill in wars. Why can't we respect and negotiate difference?

[tammyleawatson]

I found the Vid. Educational.! Is that Not the Point. Why do we Over Analiyize everything as a Society? Something to ponder.

[fubar50cat]

well, the song is about racism, and the result, hanging! In a way you are denigrating this by equating acts of war, or political genocide with it. I mean we all agree, what you are showing is horrendous. But this song is a black woman that is confronting her entire society, point blank, about you guys are killing and hanging black men, guilty of anything, or not. The video is god though, just wrong song

[xternalfixator]

@fubar50cat lynchings are occurring around the world at this very moment more than ever before more people are hearing and singing this song as Billie Holiday sang Strange Fruit against racism of blacks in America, people around the world sing Strange Fruit protesting conditions of inhumanity in their own countries i think thats a good thing that is a tribute to the song and to Billie Holiday and the power of its universal message against injustice wherever & whenever it happens .

[bittersweet6229]

@xternalfixator @xternalfixator

i agree - her song is certainly about a certain issue close to her heart - the slaughtering of black people - but it transgresses its first degree message . I guess Billie - this exceptional, sensitive woman and singer with a unique voice - would have been pleased with this video based on her beautiful, so deeply touching song song.. Good work :-)

[vilellamanda]

@fubar50cat I agree with you !

[Shreddur666]

@fubar50cat you're just tryina argue bud, this song is just about cruelty possible from one human to another, it's a good song to go with the video

[bnjmne]

@fubar50cat I agree, you can't relate the song to any genocide or war around the world. If I were to relate this to our age, I would put images of those who are still being death sentenced today, now not hanged in trees but electrocuted or "mercifully" poisoned.

[AJIX]

War must be waged before peace can be brought

[bttzd]

☸ڿڰۣ—

[Mgarcosta]

Maravilloso video.

Felicidades.

Saludos.

[GuerraCivilTV2]

muy buen video compañera gracias por compartir

[grummeper]

5 ***** for this great song and your fine video - non for the terror!

[pathoscatz1]

brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!! i have always loved that song and you have brought it to the now and kept its past

[catirepintao]

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be viewed in full context, such as the Rape of Nanking, where Japanese soldiers massacred an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians. Japanese soldiers killed an estimated 10-20 million Chinese civilians during its invasion of China in the 1930s and 1940s.

[insanemistosingsmore]

I'm sorry, but can you explain what that has to do with a video containing a song dealing directly with the lynchings during the Reconstruction--immediately after the American Civil War? I don't mean to say anything bad about your comment, I'm just a little confused.

[xKingPola3ux]

wow, i'm studying this poem now in my grade 9 english academic class. soo creepy and meaningful, andyone else from mrs.baxter's class?

[insanemistosingsmore]

No, but we're studing it too!

[obdiane]

Wow...what a world we live in. Why, must we continue to be so cruel? Why?

[theconfusion105]

Why? Why? Tell 'em that it's human nature.

-Michael Jackson

[obdiane]

Huh, that would be funny ,if it was not so painfully true.

[titierry55100]

very well done in my opinion.... I hope that one day american poeple will stop thinking they are allowed to kill over the planet without responding of their crimes. Arretez de combattre au nom de la Liberté... vous etes des prospecteurs de petrol c'est tout

[Nesciio]

I hope so too. Also, I hope all fanatical muslims, Germans, Japanese, Serbs, Croats, British, Cambodians, Hutu's, Tutsi's and all other tribes, the Chinese communists, Nepalese and Indian Maoists, the Vietnamese, the Burmese junta, all South America, the Dutch, the British, Israeli's, Palestinians, Russians, Georgians, Azarbedjanis, Turks, Kurds and all I've forgotten will learn the same. I hope we, all of us, mankind may live to learn, forgive and reconcile. Then perhaps, we may get somewhere

[mabumanssur]

but the problem in South America is not exactly about races...(wich can be very, very worse)

[BigWinehousefan]

I love this song

[Lovesanime24]

It doesn't matter who wrote it or what, She still experienced similar things, which is why it was so....so difficult for her to even sing it, because just the memory's, and mental pictures alone cause her sickness. So stop arguing over who wrote it or not jeez.

[gilbertpinson]

No argument, just wanted to point out the writer of the piece was Jewish, seeing as xternalfixator seemed so reluctant to mention Jews in this video, including during the WWII genocide.

[xternalfixator]

gilbertpinson

it seems you were reluctant

to give your full attention to the piece

you might consider reviewing 0:35, 1:50, 3:20

(notwithstanding nicholas berg 2:48)

[pianohands21]

at the end he syas music and lyrics written by jewish school teacher

[spiralmind100]

Awesome version of it.

[alfalfaomega]

thanks so much...it's incredible video.

[vayoungn]

Of course this is a powerful piece. However, I just wanted to note that the lyrics were actually written by Abel Meeropol, who wrote the poem in 1939. Later, Billie Holiday turned it into a song.

[gilbertpinson]

Billie Holiday only ever wrote one song: God Bless the Child. It was in reference to the fact that her mother would no longer give her money to support the drug habit that eventually killed her.

It is important to note that Abel Meeropol was a Jewish man. Despite the anti-semetic voice of some major black activists in the US, the Jewish community was and continues to be moved and frightened by such extreme racism.

[llddau]

@gilbertpinson well done, true, thanks a lot. Now I know how the song got in my soul. First song and singer to really make me cry, and still nearly every time.

[LiLSteffie940]

I'm only 17, but I love this song.

[camilo1252]

perfect !!!! desgarra el alma is great good bless billy holiday

[hoglo729]

I disagree, the trumpet is brilliant.

[vilellamanda]

@hoglo729