djzyonseven
Happy Juneteenth
Even though today is Happy One.
Please remember that everyone didn’t get to celebrate this day.
I chose a controversial song for my post today.
An important song.
If there was ever a song that changed American music forever, it was Strange Fruit.
The first version of this song i heard was Nina Simone’s.
The vision of the verses had me in tears.
I of course, needed to do some research.
I found out that Billie Holiday had recorded an earlier version.
What makes the story even more remarkable is that it wasn’t written by Billie Holiday at all.
The story goes as follows.
In 1930, a horrifying image showing the lynchings of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana, haunted New York schoolteacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol.
Writing under the pen name Lewis Allan, Meeropol transformed his grief and outrage into a poem called “Bitter Fruit,” later changing the title to “Strange Fruit.“
The fruit hanging from the Southern trees wasn’t fruit at all.
It was a haunting metaphor for the bodies of lynching victims hanging from trees…
Black Americans, Not Slaves, murdered by racial violence.
The famous opening line:
“Southern trees bear a Strange Fruit...”
To this day, those words still send chills down my spine.
Sometimes music isn’t entertainment.
Sometimes it’s testimony.
This actually happened.
Often!
In many ways, the photograph was the seed, Abel Meeropol was the writer, and Billie Holiday became the voice that carried that pain to the world. 🖤🎙️🌳🍎
Nearly a decade later, Billie Holiday would turn those words into one of the most powerful and courageous recordings ever made.
Billie first heard the song through connections at New York’s integrated nightclub, Café Society, where she performed in 1938.
The club’s owner, Barney Josephson, wanted songs that challenged racism and social injustice.
Meeropol played the song for Billie, and she immediately understood its emotional power.
The lyrics reminded her of her father, Clarence Holiday, who died after being denied proper medical treatment because of segregation.
That personal connection convinced her to perform it.
And once Billie Holiday sang it, the song became something bigger than anyone could have imagined.
Some Audiences Walked Out 😮
Not everyone wanted to hear the truth.
White patrons occasionally left the room.
Some club owners complained that the song made customers uncomfortable.
Billie didn’t care.
According to friends and musicians who worked with her, she refused to apologize for singing it.
At the time, Billie Holiday was signed to Columbia Records.
But the company feared backlash from Southern radio stations and distributors and refused to record the song.
Thankfully, Commodore Records founder Milt Gabler stepped up and arranged for Billie to record it independently.
On April 20, 1939, she entered the studio and recorded what would become one of the most important songs in American history.
And here’s the crazy part.
The original recording is barely three minutes long.
That’s all it took.
When Billie first recorded Strange Fruit.
Segregation was legal.
Lynchings still occurred.
Black Americans were denied many civil rights.
The Civil Rights Movement had not yet begun.
Today, nearly ninety years later, the song is taught in universities, preserved by the Library of Congress, and considered one of the greatest recordings ever made.
In 2002, the recording entered the National Recording Registry.
It became one of the Songs of the Century.
The Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts ranked it among the most important songs ever recorded.
It has been covered by many artists.
Among them:
Nina Simone
Cassandra Wilson
Diana Ross
Annie Lennox
Jeff Buckley
India Arie
It Became Her Signature Song.
She performed it at the end of her nightly set.
Ironically, Holiday initially worried about being forever associated with the song.
She feared audiences would only think of her as the Strange Fruit singer.
Yet, despite recording classics like:
God Bless the Child
Lover Man
Fine and Mellow
It was Strange Fruit that became inseparable from her legacy.
djz7
TheSoundtrackOfWhoIBecame, #BillieHoliday, #StrangeFruit, #LadyDay, #JazzHistory, #BlackMusicHistory, #BlackHistory, #CivilRightsMusic, #SongsOfProtest, #MusicWithAMessage, #Juneteenth, @BillieHoliday
