by Karen Canali

Created on: December 03, 2009   Last Updated: December 04, 2009

The Power of a Song

Billie Holiday first sang "Strange Fruit" at a famous New York nightclub in 1939! Strange Fruit makes a lasting impression because of these musical elements:

Simple, memorable melody and arrangement

Stark lyrics that are both poetic and shocking

Timeless topic that remains relevant 70 years later

In 1936 Abel Meerapol, an English teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, New York, saw a

disturbing photo that showed two young black men, Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, hanging from the branch of a poplar tree - the victims of a Southern lynch mob. A skilled poet, Meeropol immediately wrote a set of verses that described in vivid detail the stark contrast between the gentle country landscape and the brutality of this double murder (Pastoral Scene of the Gallant South)/ The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth"). The poem, "Bitter Fruit", was published in a teacher's magazine a short time later.

The Craft

Meeropol didn't stop there. In 1937 he approached several colleagues with the idea of setting his words to music. When they objected, Meeropol, himself an able composer, decided to do the job on his own, using the pen name "Lewis Allan". With a restrained melody that never rises to a passionate peak, the resulting song allows the emphasis to be on the shocking lyrics, which are in turn voiced by a cool observer to chilling effect. Over the next two years, Meeropol's song - re-titled "Strange Fruit" - would find a receptive audience when performed at political gatherings around the New York region.

Barney Josephson, owner of the popular nightclub Cafe Society, immediately recognized the importance of "Strange Fruit". In late 1938he approached jazz vocalist Billie Holiday with the idea of adding the song to her repertoire. Mixing politics and popular music was almost unheard of in the late '30s, aside from pianist Fats Waller's comical "Black and Blue", very few songs dealt directly with the taboo subject of racial injustice. For Holiday, a black artist that often toured the South, performing a song like " Strange Fruit" was not only daring but dangerous. But as one of the most influential entertainers of her time, Holiday understood the enormous significance of making the song her own. When her mother asked " Why are you sticking your neck out like that?" Holiday simply replied " Because it might make things better."

The Reaction

When Holiday performed "Strange Fruit" for the first time in early 1939, listeners were stunned. Holiday herself

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