The anniversary of the recording of this song by Billie Holiday – 20 April 1939.
“Strange Fruit” began as a poem written by Abel Merropol, a Jewish high-school teacher from the Bronx, about the lynching of two black men. He published under the pen name Lewis Allan … this picture was cited by Merropol as the songs inspiration…
Merropol, his wife, and black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden. Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York’s first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday, who went on to perform the song at Cafe Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation, but later said that because the imagery in “Strange Fruit” reminded her of her father, she persisted in singing it and it became a regular part of Holiday’s live performances.
She approached her record label Columbia to record the song but they refused fearing retribution – but the did grant her a one-song release from her contract in order to record and release the song through an alternative jazz label – Commodore Records run by Milt Gabler (uncle of comedian Billy Crystal). In time, it became Holiday’s biggest selling record. And although the song became a staple of her live performances, it is said that she’d break down in tears everytime she performed it.
Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
