Tag: Nina Simone

Strange Fruit – A Powerful And Dreadful Song

Strange Fruit, the first song to crash headlong into the horrors of racism in the USA:- Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and […]

Strange Fruit, the first song to crash headlong into the horrors of racism in the USA:-

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black body 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,

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,

And 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 a tree to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

This was a poem written by a New York Jew by the name of Abel Meeropol, who wrote it in 1937 as a reaction to seeing the photo of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

Seeing this image of those two dead men so upset him that he couldn’t sleep or function for days after seeing it, so he had no choice but to write the poem as a sort of catharsis.   He first published it in a Teacher’s Union magazine (he was a teacher), and then felt he needed to take it further, and wanted someone to set it to music, but no one was game to take on such a sensitive and potentially dangerous task, so he did it himself.

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Alone Again, Naturally – Sad, Sad Song

I found this version of the old Gilbert O’Sullivan song, Alone Again, Naturally last night as I was indulging my taste for Youtube surfing, and fell in love with it.

It is by the German jazz group called Tok Tok Tok, with their amazing singer, Tokunbo Akinro, who has a simply incredible voice.   A voice which really lends itself to this song too, I feel.

Sadly Tok Tok Tok no longer exists, as they broke up in 2013, but we have no end of recordings to remember them with, including this version of that song.  So before I go any further, I shall let you enjoy their take on this classic song.    Stand by with the paper hankies though……..

 

See what I mean?   Isn’t that simply beautiful?  I could listen to that for hours and hours, simply letting it repeat and repeat, so calm, gentle, introverted and sad.

As not all the singers I shall be playing to you next are so clearly understandable as the girl we have just listened to, here are the lyrics of the song.  Not a bad poem actually.

In a little while from now
If I’m not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top
Will throw myself off
In an effort to
Make it clear to whoever
Wants to know what it’s like When you’re shattered

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Strange Fruit – A Grim Song

Possibly one of the most poignant songs about the disgusting aberration called racism is the song made famous by Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit.

I have put a video of her singing it here, so watch and listen, and then I shall talk about it all a bit more.

This song – though to call it simply a song seems to be remarkably weak – was written by a New York Jew curiously enough, as a protest to the lynchings that were all too common in the southern states of the USA earlier in the 20th Century.

Abel Meeropol, who wrote this remarkable song as a poem in 1937, wrote it as a result of seeing the famous photo of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana in the early 30’s, and then put his poem to music at the request of a number of his friends, and his wife  gave it its first public performance in New York.

The-lynching-of-Thomas-Sh-007
The lynching that sparked this song

Continue reading “Strange Fruit – A Grim Song”