Strange fruit

STRANGE FRUIT

Distribution

Author

Writing Date

Abel Meeropol

1937

Singer

Release Date

1939

Billie Holiday

First interpretation

Society Coffee, New York

CONTEXT

ANALYSIS

Public reception

Shock Sadness Silence

United states of America Segregation Racism

A horrible scene Violence Death

Personal opinion

STRange fruit

« Strange Fruit » is a Billie Holiday song that was originally a poem written by Abel Meeropol in 1937.

Billie Holiday is an afro-american blues and jazz singer that fought all her life for civil rights.

She was born in 1915 and died in 1959 because of her alcohol and drugs addiction. Her most famous songs are "All of Me", "Summertime" and "Strange Fruit"

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This protest song is about racism in the USA and more precisely about the lynchings in the south of the country. Even after slavery abolition, black people continue to be persecuted especially in the South of the US. More than 3500 black people were lynched between 1890 and 1940.

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Analysis

A dead body

The strange fruit which is described in the song is in reality a dead body of a black man hanging on a tree.

A horror scene

The lyrics are very crude and describe the horror of the scene with precise terms like : « bulging eyes », « burning flesh » or « bodies swinging ».

Metaphors

Billie Holiday uses a lot of metaphors to soften the reality but the scene remains extremely violent and disgusting. She refers for example to the body as a rotted fruit that is eaten by birds and that is burning at the sun.

A voice

With her very powerful voice, Billie Holiday knowed how to express all the pain of this horrible situation and how to reach the audience.

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PUBLIC RECEPTION

Billie Holiday often played Strange Fruit at the end of her shows and always let the crowd speechless, so much that the room was always silent after she sang. This song acted as a thunderbolt in the US and morover, she really helped the civil rights fight at his very beginning.

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PERSONNAL OPINION

When I have heard this song for the first time, I was horrified and shocked by the violence and the power of the lyrics. As the crowd, I was speechless.In my opinion, this song is one of the greatest symbols of the civil rights movement ever made. It will remain in my memory for numerous years as maybe the saddest song I have ever heard.

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