Strange Fruit by sedaley

BFF you told the story, the pain, the anguish, the sadness of the racial violence in the South in every word. "Black Bodies Swinging In the Southern trees." Beautiful and oh so very sad. Lady Day would be very pleased <3

STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South.

The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.

While many people assume that the song "Strange Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, it actually began as a poem by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx who later set it to music. Disturbed by a photograph of a lynching, the teacher wrote the stark verse and brooding melody under the pseudonym Lewis Allan in the late 1930s. Meeropol and his wife Anne are also notable because they adopted Robert and Michael Rosenberg, the orphaned children of the executed communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

"Strange Fruit" was first performed at a New York teachers' union meeting and was brought to the attention of the manager of Cafe Society, a popular Greenwich Village nightclub, who introduced Billie Holiday to the writer. Holiday's record label refused to record the song but Holiday persisted and recorded it on a specialty label instead. The song was quickly adopted as the anthem for the anti-lynching movement. The haunting lyrics and melody made it impossible for white Americans and politicians to continue to ignore the Southern campaign of racist terror. (According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, between 1882 and1968, mobs lynched 4,743 persons in the United States, over 70 percent of them African Americans.)

he story of composer Abel Meeropol doesn't end with "Strange Fruit." Working in Hollywood six years later, Meeropol penned his other well-known composition, the patriotic, Oscar-winning paean to tolerance "The House I Live In," which was performed by Frank Sinatra in a film short in 1945 and has experienced a revival since September 11, 2001. The film explores how two such seemingly different political and still-resonant songs came to be written by the same man.

The tale of "Strange Fruit" - its genesis, impact and continuing relevance - is an amazingly complex one that weaves together the lives of African Americans, immigrant Jews, anticommunist government officials, civil rights leaders, radical Leftist teachers and organizers, music publishers, record company executives and jazz musicians. In many ways, the story of the song and its writer and interpreters is as moving and oddly haunting as the song itself.

Billie Holiday single-handedly brought this song from the shame and darkness it hid in and dragged the song into center stage and the spotlight. Those who didnt want to listen she made listen those who listened for the first time were captivated in the song and its meaning. She is/was as big a revolutionary mover and shaker as there ever was. The Hanging had to stop!

such a sad song.........amazing storytelling Shan! vocally beautiful!
very emotional!!! Awesome performance my friend!
;)
~stace

Great Singing on a very powerful song.......Absolutely Brilliant!!!!

A really haunting and powerful song.....those lyrics and the song's reason for being.....you sent chills through me listening and watching. So sad, but so beautiful too. Breathtaking rendition! xx

Now you see here! I thought I was the only one allowed to occupy a dark smoke filled bar. But I think as lovely as this is, I can make an exception. Just this once, mind you!

Oh my both looking and sound amazing and i have to agree with Freddy all the emotion you put into this told the story and was just so powerful that i am lost for words and cant even think what to put here. Ive always loved Billie Holiday and you are just as amazing as her with this song just an amazing and wonderful performance here :)

Absolutely Stunning! Emotion is running thick down the walls, and the vocals is just top of the creme! 666 Million stars from me :O)

Sometimes there are no words. Emotionally riveting, spiritually captivating. I applaud you Shan for bringing this to the forefront as Miss Holiday did herself so long ago. The vocals were stunning, and Freddy, thank you for setting the background scene. You two are quite a team...even when you aren't singing together!

Standing ovation, and HOF nom.

Buffy

Shan, you are truly Incredible!
No matter what song you sing, you always capture the emotion. That was sincerely outstanding!

:D

Look out! You're on fi---- oh sorry ;)

I'll be quiet and listen now :)

This is truly a poignant song and you truly gave it life and heart...

Beautifully painful (if you know what I mean lol)

Love it Shan :)))

imikimi - Customize Your World!

Amazing!

Sad sad song but such a beautiful singing!

Thanks to Freddy who commented and I found something I didn't knew!

Beautifully told story... Awesome as ever!!!

WITHOUT A DOUBT YOU ARE ONE OF THE MOST TALENTED AND CREATIVE GIRLS I KNOW~STUNNING PERFORMANCE

A very moving performance, you captured all the sombreness of the topic and told the story to perfection xx

Thanks for the history lesson Freddy...Things like this should be forgotten.

Shan, Ms. Holiday would be proud you did an OUTSTANDING job bringing the emotion and depth to her work!

brilliant Shan love the vid you look great and the vocals nothing less than spectacular