Strange Fruit

One night while watching a jazz special on PBS with my husband, my perception of music lyrics as a poetic form changed. I heard Billie Holiday sing “Strange Fruit.” When I first heard the song, I did not comprehend the lyrics because sometimes when jazz singers sing we don’t understand the words completely. The song is haunting and beautiful on its own, but when the lyrics are understood, it is disturbing.




Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
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
The scent of magnolia 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. (Bluesforpeace.com)

I cried as I heard the commentators reveal the background for the song with the upsetting images of men hanging lynched from trees portrayed in the background. It was powerful, something I will never forget. Billie Holiday first sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939, decades before the Civil Rights Movement (Clarke 163). Regarding her performances, Barney Josephson remembers, “Every time she sang that song it was unforgettable…The room was completely black, service stopped…everything was dark except for a little pin spot on her face. That was it. When she sang ‘Strange Fruit,’ she never moved. Her hands were down. She didn’t even touch her mike. With the little light on her face. The tears never interfered with her voice, but the tears would come and just knock everybody in that house out” (Clarke 164-165). The song had great impact and was awarded Time Magazine’s Best Song of the Century in 1999.

Understanding the historical context brought more significance. I remembered what a literature teacher had taught me about different criticisms and how they change or bring deeper meaning to a piece of literature. This happened to me after hearing “Strange Fruit” and then learning its historical context.

Work Cited
"Billie Holiday Strange Fruit London 1959." Youtube. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.

Clarke, Donald. The Life and Times of Billie Holiday. New York City: Penguin, 1994.

Meeropol, Abel. “Strange Fruit.” Bluesforpeace.com. 2008. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"The Best of the Century." Time. 31 Dec. 1999. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.

Lesson Plan:
"Strange Fruit." PBS. 28 Mar. 2003. Web. 6 Mar. 2011.