Summer Music: Song 10

Song 10: Strange Fruit

Written:
1939

Subject Matter:
This song is about the racial prejudice that was rampant in the US during the first half of the 1900s and even beyond. More specifically, the song is a window through with the listener beholds the aftermath of the lynching of a black person.

Storytelling: The body of the lynched man hangs from a poplar tree, a traditional symbol for death. It is referred to as a "strange fruit", a gross understatement that I can only identify as a sort of sarcasm. (As if to say is that the only thing you see?) Holiday says this scene takes place in the "gallant south". Again, she calls the South "gallant" to highlight how it is not. Holiday feels very involved in this song. It's apparent in her voice; her sarcasm is positively dripping.

My Thoughts: I don't think I've heard but one other song in which I can hear the singer's emotion so well. (The other, by the way, is one of my favorites, because it's easy to tell that the singer is smiling, rather than feeling horrible indignation after witnessing a horrible event.) Of course, let's not compare Joshua Radin to Billie Holiday, he's surely not worthy, but still. There's emotion in both songs.

What can we learn?: Terrifying oppression existed against black people in the early 1900s, and like the man in this song, many were needlessly killed out of hate. However, there were also influential people, like Billie Holiday, were brave enough to call attention to the atrocities.