Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

[Gourgandise]

This song was introduced to me in english class when I was 16 back in France. It touched me so deeply. The lyrics are brutal, and there is so much feelings going through her voice.

[RkoSerbia]

amazing

fuck racism

[5554132]

This is Not about anything but the lost of life, and the waste of that life, because of the belief that you where right in what you did, and the wrong it caused to others. because of your actions human beings are not born but watch from the place you cannot go?

[Etoilelibre]

Full of feelings.. Wow.

[TartanRose95]

Everytime I listen to this song I get chills up my spine. Only Billie could sing it in such a way to make it as beautiful as it is sad.

[22Phantasm]

This song just moves me to want to be a better person. If we all had a little more tolerance the world may be a better place.

[delakinski]

Shes just the one

[biscuits4dinner]

timeless & moving song

[Bleedinghellfire]

I still feel that this is the strongest political song of all time,

[jarr6]

PRZEJMUJĄCE DO GŁEBI SERCA....

[06bleach06]

very moving song and very spine chilling 

[vimarmillenium]

Happy Birthday for this 72 year singing to the liberty and tolerance.

[want2beSRV]

Every time I listen to this is makes me close to weeping

[samlamamma]

Romanies?

[HKTeeVee]

A lynch mob is a vicious animal with no head, a frenzied fever of hatred and fear overtaking reason, striking out against someone (representing a group) perceived as animal & evil. Along with alleged murderers etc, the mob brutally tortures and kills people guilty of political action, minor offenses, innocents, stand-ins for another accused (ie a husband), even unborn babies, often (then) with no penalty. Lynchings serve to scare an oppressed community into submission. It's a terrible thing.

[coffeebubbletea]

Billie Holiday is the only musician whose voice never fails to give me goosebumps.

[zarbar2]

This has got to be the saddest, scariest, truest, and yet most beautiful song I have ever heard. It's brilliant.

[Bleedinghellfire]

There is no song on this planet that is as political is this, and i'm half greek and half irish, and we def have some pwerful political tunes, but nothing and I mean nothing compares to this

[nicem989]

breath in, digest, exhale x

[k4boon]

horrible text

[rhythm61]

from Wikipedia

"Strange Fruit" began as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish high-school teacher from the Bronx. He wrote "Strange Fruit" to express his horror at lynchings, possibly after seeing Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

[amycupcakes1]

</3

[HoG1010]

i love that voice! something else: what kind of trumpet is that? any specialists here?

[ww2footage]

this song is silly sick fuck brain wash ... lynch was not about blacks , it was about criminals

[cepacol06]

@ww2footage dumbshit, take history class. did you even finish your high school diploma?

[ghostwhiskey]

love,nothing but love

[onlymassiss]

Worst text ever, and i am white!

[bubblechinnagirl1]

Thank you/!!!!!!!

[histerria]

i love how she got ehr message across with out the large astray of coussing like rappers. fantastic job!

[1953jazzman]

I can hardly imagine the amount of moral and physical courage that it must have taken on the part of everyone involoved in bringing this song to light, given the vehemence of racial prejudice at that time. Be sure to click on "more info" to read the excellent historical commentary that is included here! Fine work!!

[reic0002]

@StrawberryFairyShoes

I really couldn't agree more. on all counts.

[twoharborview]

Like most of the (so far) 61k+ folk who have visited, I came to hear the song. Not my business but I think you'd do us all a service if you would delete all comments irrelevant to the song and the singer, as well as your own responses to the flamers. Let the material speak for itself!

Thanks for giving us this video :-)

[tammyleawatson]

She almost did not Sing it! It took Some Alcohol to get her going. That is the story going around. What a Song!!

[lobeye1977]

beltin, beautiful..

[softylizzie]

a fantastic song................ billie sings it with great pain, confusion and complexity

i adore billie's voice

how troubled she really was deep deep down

[fubar50cat]

exemplary sound on this. Let me guess, it was one of her later, almost last recordings? She not only retained her voice, but some whould say that her voice was best the older she got! Anyway, thanks for putting this on strawberry, you made at least this one old fart happy!

[hohlakoi]

this song is haunting... 

[mrJxin594]

creepy  really chilling

[doveside1]

This song is the most meaningful song of slavery. The words hit me in the stomach and makes me want to cry. I remember hearing Diana Ross' version. But though beautiful, does not have the same punch as Billie's special talent. By far one of the best female singers in the world

[wernertrptube]

The volume of the trumpet solo doesn't fit the spirit of the song.

[bigjohnstone]

@StrawberryFairyShoes right its about the REAL message and BILLie thanks for uploading one of the best song and history over it that most black dont even know this song ... so F.... em

[bigjohnstone]

wow one of the best song of all time found it out by the movie tales from the hood , great movie , check it out...

[PalaceOfExile]

@bigjohnstone Haha so did I. I've had that movie for a long, long time. I actually searched "Strange Fruit" thinking it was another piece of music I had heard but it was a great find nonetheless.

[TheSeersTower]

Absolutely amazing... 

[javiervarelarodrigue]

God bless Billie Holiday!

[rolandrog]

This is a perfect song for Billie's voice and articulation.

[TheNoirGarcon]

WOW no words!!! AMAZING!!!

[fastclickchic]

just heard this song today in history class, and it shook me to my bones. what a haunting song, it makes me feel some sort of hollow and fearful nostalgia for a time that I was not even born into. RIP to all who died from this terrible, racist manifestation of the deepest depths of human hatred that is called lynching.

[Pioneer674]

A more accurate comment would be slaves were treated like animals

[superfred5551]

This was a poem brought to her by an english teacher. At first Billie refused to sing it but did. This song later became her signature piece.

[hazelblueyes]

we had to do a socratic seminar about this song...and it gives me goosebumps...i feel sick...and creeped out...like something bad is going to happen... she is magnificent...but i don't think i like this song...it just gives me the heebee jeebees.... :S

[MushyApplesInMyPants]

Those saying that americans are horrible people for allowing slavery; STFU. Not all americans supported slavery, there were A LOT who did not. As a 1st generation American in my family, I'm highly offended. You are all truly ignorant for thinking that all americans were/are this way. (I'm only speaking to the "america is horrible" thinkers)

[astrozombie94x]

@MushyApplesInMyPants this is true and also not only america had slaves, a fairly large percentage of europe did too :S. rather sad to think about really eh?

[tranurse]

@astrozombie94x well, slavery was outlawed in saudi arabia in the 1960's. and it still goes on today, all over the world.

[astrozombie94x]

@MushyApplesInMyPants

[LaDominadora]

Black slaves were considered CHATTEL, not human beings so how can you say cattle was treated better than people considered animal? America and Americans are sick.

[raifenzen]

that makes me cry realy .from that warm voice i v understand what was happened those days .billie u r amazing

[mrsavozav]

if she has not self distructed we would see some rare and intertaining music that nina simone prodused in her latter years.

[monzongcha]

WOW! AmAZING!!!!! Definantly one of the most important songs ever!!!

[THEDubbleHelixx]

We're doing a project on the Harlem Renaissance, and I was lucky enough to get the Music and Dance category. I've never heard of this song before, but it is absolutely brilliant. The metaphor they use is genius, and the tune does well to convey the message of the song. It's horrifying, yet beautiful all at once. Sad, how the world was. This is truly a great song.

[aetoy]

I've no words to describe how much I love this song...she's the best singer EVER!

[sadmoon108]

reading the original poem and hearing billie sing it puts a knife through my heart. it's so trouble to imagine but she sings it so beautifully.

[BillMc2174]

Is this the second time she recorded this song? Wonderful, thanks for posting.

[kidsrule3007]

Its creepy and sad, and yet painfully true

[Rachel3300]

i like this song but it makes me sad and scared

[bellachelito]

@Rachel3300 I guess it was meant to make us feel sad and scared but above all it calls out for our commitment not to allow these horrible things to happen again.

[irishdance2004]

I'm reading to Kill a Mokingbird in My english class and we were talking about her and we saw this video in class. Really changed my perspective on the whole racial issue!

[thomasmoredamian]

One of her very, very best....WHAT a gal! I wish the vocalists of today had HALF her soul when it comes to selling a song....

[lilbadma18]

wow Billie's voice really makes this song so strong. Well done Billie!

[yurherenow]

diana ross' version sounds better. diana owns this song now.

[aelishaful]

so haunting

[LimitedEditioneo]

I heard this today in US history class and just had to look it up.

So pretty.

[Homero4real]

I don't think "pretty" is the word for this song...  lol

It has a frightening but truthful message, sadly.

[PintendoPwii]

I did the same thing

it is such a somber yet beautiful song

made me tear up a bit

[javiervarelarodrigue]

God save Billie!!!

[cheesycat07]

@javiervarelarodrigue

Too late...

[dnillelee]

Thanks,

this is my first time listening to the song, and I am impacted.

[zanyshizzle]

I remember hearing this song when I was 14 in a history lesson. Extremely harrowing , the whole class was deathly quiete during and after the song.

[errbarkkill]

She is virtually family to me. RIP. I love your music.

[Lilopad100]

SOoooooooo amazing

[selui61]

Can anybobdy tell me what album is this version? I can't find it...

That trumpet and the tempo is amazing!!

[stjohnofb]

It doesn't get any better than this. Vocal artistry in this class is a class of one.  She is immortal.

[TWILIGHTandFF7LoVeR]

It's sad and how she sings it makes the message come. The pictures come in my head though! :'(

[bluffer812]

Strange Fruit, she made this song after a trip down south and saw a lynching victim black man hanging from tree. that was indeed a strange fruit. You can feel the pain and hurt in this song. CLASSIC

[sheenque]

This was written by a Jewish man, Abel Meeropol, who lived in the Bronx. She made the song her own, however, and her true emotion can be felt in every recording.

[bluffer812]

thanks, bogus info i got from freind.

[Cjcfman]

this did not happen, maybe in the movie about her life, but not in reality

[bluffer812]

thank u.

[phadkap]

epic

[xXxKohanaxXx]

What album is this song on?

Its very passionate with the trumpet then just the piano playing on her other albums.

[allymills]

Wow. never heard of this song until today. That's intense and graphic.

[abeverly1]

:(....

[richhartwig]

powerful song....for a woman...billie had huge balls to be singing it at the time she did

[negrafuerte3]

I agree...it was the horrible truth that alot of people didn't wanna except even during that painful period

[Applebaum]

people dont even want to except it now trust me

[1957thunderbird312]

its a creepy song...but it gets the message across..and i mean its an eerie song

[shino889]

this song makes me cry, to think we are capable fo such horrible crimes just because of the color of people's skin or the way they think, billie holiday's voice singing this makes me cry

[Tiedyekid42]

me 2

[smaellett]

@shino889

it's beautiful especially because of her voice.

[courtneyweber43]

@shino88 i argree, i think its horrible to wut they did to ppl just cuz they are a different race, they hung the ppl

[BillieCoss]

@shino889 The whites commited thoses crimes SO SHUT UP !!!!!!!!!!!

do you like BLOWJOB????

[shino889]

@BillieCoss so sorry love, dont talk idiot . . . . .seriously man, if you have nothing smart to say or write, please remain quiet, it's just embarassing to you and those have to read you, btw, Im latino, mexican and proud to be, what's your escuse for being a douche?

[SavingSmilesForYou]

@BillieCoss

You categorize wrong... It was not the whites that committed the crimes, not every white person would do it. It's creditted to something deeper and it's scary. It was done by the inhuman. And what a shame that we live in a world full of them. :(

[suzib77]

I always thought that lynchings took place in the "deep south", but was told there was lynchings as late as the 1940's in San Jose.....

[jasonito23]

He got that comment from Stic man of Dead Prez. He did the a comparison of cattle and slavery, but came to it from a different angle.

[3plus3is7]

That was such a sincere song.

[fyq1337]

sad song =(

[tomfreyr]

thanks for posting and have to say that I like the Nina Simone version best, she got the spot on feelings

[opaypay]

Im doing a research on Holiday, and this song is so meaningful and vivid to me. The comments that I've read are ludicrous. The comparison between slavery and lynchings and cattle and slaughter is plain stupid. I see it as one person saying something idiotic and others feeding off of their idiocracy. Slaves were murdered purely because they were hated, and animals feed people. As far as I'm concerned, there is no comparison. Rest In Peace Billie Holiday.

[jasonito23]

I'm also doing a paper on this song, comparing it to Langston Hughes's short story "Home." Both placed in circulation in the 1930's. This song was written by a Jewish man in 1937 and World War II began in 1939, same year Billie first sang it. The US condemned Germany for exterminating Jews while, lynchings were still occuring in the US. Another form of ethnic cleansing.

[kizzynicholeshow]

ok,

as an animal right activist and vegetarian,

i am going to say, shut the fuck you,

you cant even compare lynching to the slaughter of animals.

factory farmed animal are killed for a purpose, frivolous, yes,

but a purpose nonetheless.

lynching has no purpose. it gets no one anywhere.

so shut up.

[chandru1103]

I get what they are saying though. Its not racism, its speciesism. I mean human tragedy is awful, and this song is great for depicting that human tragedy. I had to do a paper on lynching photographs and it really was one of the most depressing things I have ever written. But one could argue that we have species motivated murder all the time. Not that I am saying they are equal but, ethically and philosophically, it could be argued.

[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?

[deathtothesystem]

Heh, Frosh.

[StrawberryFairyShoes]

First of all I normally don't respond to comments made on my videos but can not possibly compare eating meat to slavery with the lynching of African Americans, I'm not against vegaterians but seriously there is a big difference between racial motivated crimes and murder and the killing of animals for food.

Go ahead and don't eat meat but stop prostituting your morals and don't make offensive comparisons.

[ww2footage]

@StrawberryFairyShoes its bs , they were lynched because they were rapists and robbers not because they were black

[StrawberryFairyShoes]

@ww2footage How many white rapists and robbers were lynched? And even if they were does that make it okay? Now stop trolling I've seen you posted racist comments on other videos in order to get reactions. It won't work here. Go away.

[ww2footage]

@StrawberryFairyShoes from 1882 to 1962 about 4800 people were lynched , from which about 1200 were whites and about 3500 were blacks - now you know some facts finally you typically "know nothing" american

[StrawberryFairyShoes]

@ww2footage Your "statistics" only prove my point. Now shoo go away!

[lordofzeapes]

vade retro!

[AndriusMiramar]

That's not true! Where do you take your numbers from? Read "On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century", by Sherrilyn A. Ifill (Beacon Press, 2007): Lynching was a method to repress basicly blacks in the United States, a nation grounded on racism: the elimination of native and blacks prove it.

[EmpressWadadli]

@ww2footage is this for one state or for the whole continental united states?

[sneakyam]

@EmpressWadadli - until the USA can come to terms with its history then it;s for all states and territories

[Thebestmc999]

@StrawberryFairyShoes you are so right!

[lconeill1949]

@ww2footage Thats bs & if you dont believe it look in the history books or just listen to some of the really old black folks. It was just like hitlers reign. Dont be stupid. When that little black girl was going to a white school she had to have a police escort.. And what about Rosa Parks. You like to post your comments...go to black history on your computor & read some of the things they went through. Lincoln freed the slaves & some people still cant stand it.

[DesmondE]

@ww2footage

If they were convicted of a crime in court, why would they have been lynched?

Or are you just trolling for fun to rouse feathers?

[EmpressWadadli]

@ww2footage

Your amazing....simple-ly amazing.

[Fabimann]

is this the outroguitarlick: GGGbEbC Am6???

[JeremyRaikou]

What an amazing trumpeter. o_o

[JadexBabeeeeex]

This is a song about the dead people hanging of treees wich the ku klux klan had lynched

[AroundTheBlock135]

not just klanners but most white men

[crock703]

most huh?

[jimmytrinh95]

what fruit is it

[desseretta2001]

the fruit were the dead bodies of lynched Africans

[jimmytrinh95]

Thanks

[chandru1103]

Weirdest response to a comment like that...ever!

[BreAna1393]

Fruit= Black people hanging from trees... It's sad, and sick.

[Teknobard357]

yeah, that's kind of the point. Racism is ugly, and this song calls that out in the best and worst ways.

[andythefork]

lol

[Pearlofeire]

Very controversial indeed but someone had to speak against racism.

[jazzylinn]

this is my favorite version!

[kizzynicholeshow]

this song completely embodies everything i love about thirties and forties blues.

billie's voice is so haunting and beautiful and the recording technology they had at the time, in my opinion, does complete justice to the music, it just sounds better.

INCREDIBLE.

this may be one of the most beautiful songs i have ever heard.

[jrg5683]

I completely agree.

[badmofu]

I agree 100% on your assessment of the sound quality.

[JBforeverandeverr]

i love this recording the best.

[duplinee]

what is the date of this recording?

[StrawberryFairyShoes]

I'm not sure but I think its 1944.

[Gajjaba]

1939

[StrawberryFairyShoes]

Pretty sure this is the 1944 recording. Two recordings were made one in 1939 and one in 1944.

[robrecht1009]

love it