Strange Fruit, a recommendation for the brave
This was actually just posted as the majority of a comment to a person who posted an image titled ‘Strange Fruit’. Then, it occurred to me that other people might also want to know this, if they don’t already, so, here you go.
There is a song, Strange Fruit, by Billy Holiday, however she actually spelled her name. Well, I am not sure who wrote it, but she definitely sang it.
Now, it is a very compelling, very important, worth while sort of song. So, I would never belittle it, but, all the same, I was rather afraid you had been inspired by it, and that was your way of jumping out of Vietnam or something.
It’s a powerful song, and if you ever get a chance you should listen to it. But, not at a party, not when you are already depressed, and not when you are hoping for happiness. Preferably, unless you should just never do this, brace yourself with a few stiff drinks first. It’s that sort of song.
It’s also the sort of song, wherein people will tell you that it makes everyone who really listens to it cry. The tendency of persons told this is disbelieve such statements, as people are always exaggerating. Well, believe the statements, as it is true. Even people who the song is rather more against than for, people who caused these sorts of problems, have been known to cry over the song. Some of them changed their way of life, after hearing it.
AnitaInverarity
Its a powerful song and you just gave it a powerful recomendation- I hope people listen to it, if they are not familiar x
Arletta replied
Aye, and aye, and aye.. though I haven’t made it past the open line or two, in a long time. Probably I should, soon.
eon .
“THERE YA GO – ))
Arletta replied
There I go… what?
Mark Ramstead
Read the comments below the song, good lord the ignorance…
Arletta replied
I didn’t see any comments below the video, if you mean the one of Renee Marie, posted below. Maybe someone removed them by now.
AnitaInverarity
Jeez- I just read those comments under the video, cannot believe “people” (loose term) like that exist- man thats scary x
Arletta replied
I can, and that’s without seeing the comments. I went to look, only to see what comments you guys were talking about, and there were none, at all. But, I can imagine the nasty sort that would be put.
This means, I also listened to just a little bit of the song. Well, hmm .. no, the way Billie Holiday (sp?) sang it was much more painful to the nerve endings, I must say; but, the other lady has a nice voice.
izzybeth
Renee Marie Dixie/strangefruit.
Arletta and all, thank you for identifying this. Even though Billie is the Queen of Jazz, Renee Marie is a contemporary artist whose version of SF is powerful… Take a listen to the above link. I heard it one night on my way home from work, and I could not get out of my car until it was over.
I heard that Billie Holiday wrote the song after an experience she had in the deep south while on tour. She was suffering from a bladder infection and so needed to “pee” often. And when you have a urinary infection, and you have to go, YOU HAVE TO GO. So Miss. Billie got off the bus and went back to the woods for privacy and to her horror she spotted a dead black man hanging from a tree. This Strange fruit story is so powerful.
Renee Marie introduces the SF song with “Dixie” and it is haunting.
As I said, here I sat in my car in rual East Tennessee moved by Marie’s version of the song. I hope you are moved by her version of the song too.
Bless you
Arletta replied
Yeah, no .. I’m not going to be moved by her version of the song. Not anytime soon.
Don’t take that the wrong way. I have nothing against her, and nothing against you.
Just, that song is too much for me and my poor shattered nerves. I tried to listen to it a few times, last year, and it just .. I just couldn’t do it. It is haunting,... I don’t want to be haunted right now. It’s arresting, but, I don’t want to be arrested, either. lol
I read something about it originally being a poem, and she (Billie) decided to put it to music. I can’t remember who said it, though, or much of the story. I know that they tried to stop her from singing it, her friends, because they thought it would ruin her career and she was too young to know what she was getting herself into.
I read her book, Lady Sings The Blues, which is so much better than the movie. It was very interesting, and she was very open about her life.
eon .
Click the SMILE TO SEE THIS
Arletta replied
I listened a little bit, and read a little of the comments, too. Geez that one person is an ignorant piece of work. Hitler made Germany peaceful! They only hung criminals in the South!
I know for a fact, that in the town of Garrison, Texas the white Baptists hung a black Baptist for daring to try to enter the church building. It was in the newspaper back then, and it was not put in there as them having committed a murder, hate crime, or etc. Nor was the black man accused of being a thief. He was accused of being a black man.
So, so much for Christian brotherhood in some towns.
Now, since I know this for a fact, what can I extrapolate from the “truths” of a man about how the Jews cause all the trouble, when that same man is telling me that whites never did that to blacks just because of the color of their skin?
Right! He’s wrong, on both accounts, and either brainwashed or lying, but, probably, both.
izzybeth
Hi again,
I just wanted to say I was wrong. My husband says it was a whole family on that tree. I guess I need to do my research before I start!!!
On a different Note, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Arletta replied
Oh my goodness! Well, either way, it would have been a bad thing to have happen, or to see, or to do. Just disgusting… but, thank you for the information, and your husband too.
Hope you have a lovely day, as well.
amarica
I listened to both Billie Holiday and Renee Marie. They are both powerfully sung and tell a story of such a sad history…which is a shame and a blight on any land where such things are done. .........
Arletta replied
I prefer Billie Holiday’s version; which, I do not generally prefer her, in most things. I think it has a quality to it that sort of tears into the soul, something in her voice. It sounds like the pain of a woman who was right there, and saw it for herself. But, I’m not saying the other woman isn’t good, or that there has to be a choice. They are both good, definitely. And, I fully agree, the story is sad and it is a story that should never have to be told.
amarica
I agree with you about Billie…You can see the pain in her face when she sings it…tells it all….
Arletta replied
mmm hmm .. that’s why I can only take listening to it, every so often .. even if you can’t see her face, it’s all in the sound .. and that, I have learned, is a great deal of why people fell in love with her performances.
If you haven’t read her book, you might like to. She’s .. truthful but kind, mostly.