NRR Project: 'Strange Fruit' (1939)

 

‘Strange Fruit’

Music and lyrics by Abel Meeropol

Performed by Billie Holiday

Recorded 1939

3:12

 

“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

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

 

Here is a 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”

Strange Fruit was originally a poem, composed in 1937, penned in outrage over the lynching of Black people in the South, which was endemic in America during the early part of the 20^th century. Its author sought people to set the poem to music, but was unsuccessful. Finally, the poet himself (now under the name of Lewis Allan) made a song out of it. A few New York singers, most notably Laura Duncan, performed the song, most notably at Madison Square Garden.

Billie Holiday heard the song and wanted to record it; her label, Columbia, declined. However, it gave her permission to record the song with another label. She did – and the recording sold more a million copies, making it the biggest-selling recording of her career. Holiday feared reprisals over her performance of it, but did it anyway. It was usually performed at the end of her appearances, with no encore.

This powerful denunciation of racial violence was named the Best Song of the Century.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Marian Anderson performs at the Lincoln Memorial.