Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit | Controversial Tunes 😈🎶

On the 4th edition of Controversial Tunes, we explore the controversy behind the song, “Strange Fruit,” notably performed by Billie Holiday.

Bring on the controversy, won’t you? Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows and totally stirred the pot.  The records that grace Controversial Tunes are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  On the 4^th edition of Controversial Tunes, we explore the controversy behind the song, 🎵 “Strange Fruit,” most famously performed by 🎙 Billie Holiday.

“Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.”

That ‘strange fruit’ referenced in “Strange Fruit” were blacks who’d been lynched, with their bodies hanging, lifeless, reeking…

“Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree.”

Honestly, one verse of this 🎼✍ Abel Meeropol penned standard is sufficient to express the controversy.  This is an instance where everyone should have (and certainly should now) have denounced what was happening. In other words, it shouldn’t have been the song that was controversial but rather the real-life happenings.

Historically, slavery was long over for blacks, but the south was still an incredibly dangerous, segregated, and unjust place for them. Yes, blacks were free, but truthfully, they weren’t truly free.  Lynching, of course, was an infamous, incredibly unfortunate occurrence that took lives that shouldn’t have been taken.  Billie Holiday, perhaps the most famous performer of this song, took gargantuan risks performing it because the ballad makes such a powerful statement about what was legitimately happening to African Americans.  This three-verse song caused ample issues for Holiday, including imprisonment and ultimately, becoming victim to an unabashedly racist and corrupt system.  It was a song, historically, that needed to be performed and heard, but the brave, black soul who did so was set up for danger.  Holiday, with her fair share of issues already, was an easy target.

As “Strange Fruit” progresses, the lyrics continue to describe the horrendous scene seen in the trees.  “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth…” is incredibly grim, morbid, and sickening. Later, add in the contrast between the “Scent of magnolias” and “…The sudden smell of burning flesh…” And of course, with the dead there for the taking, “Here is a fruit for crows to pluck / … Here is a strange and bitter crop.”  What’s clever about the ‘crows’ is they not only reference the birds, but the godawful, racist laws promoted in the south.

Final Thoughts 💭

Just analyzing the lyrics of this song, let alone the checkered past of the United States is triggering. Pardon my French, but surely there’s a special place in hell for people who justified this $h!t.  The controversy of note is the history, not the song itself.

🎙 Billie Holiday • 💿 Billie Holiday • 🏷 Verve • 🗓 1957 

Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”: Controversial Tunes 😈🎶 No. 4 [📷: Aidan Feddersen on Unsplash, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype, Verve]