Strange Fruit (no intro)

Abel Meeropol, a white, Jewish schoolteacher in New York, wrote "Strange Fruit" in 1938 and shared the piece with Billie Holiday. Popularized by Holiday, the song expresses the horror of lynchings in the Jim Crow South and was used as a weapon in anti-lynching campaigns. "Strange Fruit" has haunting chords, a diminishing heartbeat, and juxtaposes the pastoral scenery of the South with the ugliness of racist violence.

Southern trees bear a 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
Bulging eyes, and a twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia, so clean and fresh
And the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

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Watch our documentary from our last trip to South Africa in March 2010 (Directed by Chris Hanson)
http://vimeo.com/12116564

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Strange Fruit
• Stanford Talisman
• a cappella
• a capella
• African American music
• Jim Crow
• Billie Holiday
• Abel Meeropol