+Joel Borges Kanye did well to bring this narrative out again on his track "Blood on the Leaves" on his Album YEEZUS, thats why Im here.. humanity is both wonderful and bitterly cruel.
The song was written by a Jewish man by the name of Abel Meeropol. In 1937, Meeropol saw a picture of a lynching and was so broken by it, he wrote these lyrics. Our struggles have always been intertwined, but unfortunately they don't teach these things in the black community at large any more. Hate and bigotry are easier
I applaud every single artist giving their own rendition of this masterpiece- but for me this remains the ultimate version. Miss Holiday is the only artist that really hits me in the gut with this rendition. Nobody but nobody else - not even Miss Simone takes me to that place where I completely surrender to it.
I still remember about ten years ago. My mother heard it in Touched By An Angel. She cried her eyes out when she made me translate it into Danish for her.
She would close her shows with the room dark, except for 1 light on her. Waiters and waitresses couldn't move either. Total stillness in the room. Powerful. Salute!
The lyrics are haunting. I think nobody has brought out the pain and despair in them better than Billie Holiday in this version. Her expressions, her intonation, her raspiness at all the right places - it's a truly legendary performance. I always, ALWAYS cry whenever I listen to it.
Billie first ran afoul of powerful forces for singing “Strange Fruit,” the anti-lynching anthem. Her performances generated threats, even riots. Josh White also sang the song and was questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy period. He bowed to their demands that he stop. Billie defiantly refused and continued singing “Strange Fruit.” Many believe that her resistance led law enforcement to hound and arrest her in 1947 for drug possession. She served almost a year in prison, and her conviction disrupted her career for the rest of her life.
@@JasonX2 - So that makes it okay for police to shoot small boys for playing in parks? For police to beat or shoot unarmed, cooperating, black men? For them to shoot black men who are 'non-compliant' (in other words, not submissive and unquestioning)? Stop pretending to be literal-minded. You know damn well what's going on, and you don't care about anybody who isn't of your complexion and social class. By the time you realize you should have cared, it will be too late: you'll be just as nervous and scared at traffic stops as any African-American because the police will have permission to beat the shit out of all of us.
hi Doey my mom and I collected Billy also known as Lady Day, she wore a white orchard in her hair. She it herd instruments playing as a young child. The reason it is believed that there's never been anyon like her is her notes all emulate instruments. ..so when u take another listen, close your eyes u will here the tones.love and Steph
My father's most favorite singer of all...she put everything into her songs and sadly died the way she lived. RIP great lady. AND I love all she did as well!
her delivery of the song is so compelling...it jus pulls u in....& the lyrics are so well written u can imagine them...this is an essential song of our culture and representation of a struggle...we cant even fathom today
No comparisons here. I only love her version. Not just te voice and the pauses she takes, but mostly her facial expressions and body movements. Spectacular!
This is the most moving performance I have ever seen in my whole life! When Billie sang she sang from the soul, from the depths of her heart. And I find it a damn shame that we don't have more artist like her around these days. Rest in Peace Billie we miss you so much:)
This breaks me every time I can't even see when listening to this everything becomes a consistent blur!!! It's the only way I can describe it! IS THERE NO JUSTICE!?!?!?!?!?
This is the most important song of our time! A compelling poem, set to horrific imagery and deep profound vocals by the brilliant Billie Holiday. When i've heard the recording, i could feel the desperation and depression in her voice. but to see her performance is far more gripping and inspirational. thanks for posting
We studied this song for Academic Decathlon back in 2013 for music theory (as well as history), and I have never been able to hear this song the same. So haunting, and Billie Holiday's voice gives it a haunting touch that truly captures how truly disruptive this time period was.
Ariel692769 I was born in 94 and grew up watching tales from the hood. That movie scared me senseless but as I grew older I was able to realize the significance in each story. I just watched the 2nd on netflix and although the same meaning was there, the movie just lacked actually being a good movie. The new one seemed too purposely cheesy for my liking. It still struck my ✊🏾 cords though. ( Sorry for my poor grammer)
I watched an episode of Touched by an Angel "God saved the Child" last night. Its the first time I ever heard this song and the legend of Billie Holiday. I found it haunting and gruesome. Telling a very awful truth in American History. Felt deep sadness for what had been.
Never get enough of "The Lady sing" most important she didn't sing the song"The Lady live the song of life"...Awake in a Black Woman, and sing again. ..Horace
This is a very important song. It is really deep. We must never forget the evil that was done during slavery and which continued through racism. As a white man, I can only ask black people to forgive what my ancestors did. Wish there was something I could do to make things right, but there is nothing more than words.
These lynchings happened decades after the civil war ended. Racism was prevalent throughout the early 20th century. For example, the beating and maming of Emmett Till happened in the 1950s!
Shut up as a white person i treat blck people as equals bur i dont look into the past because people like you who look to the past for forgiveness drag us down
Sublime chanson, d'une puissance émotionnelle incomparable. Et quand on pense à l'époque où elle la chantait... Ceux qui ne l'ont pas encore fait, écoutez bien les paroles pour comprendre la métaphore de l'"étrange fruit".
We can build heaven or we can build this horrific scenery... I know it wont reach the author, but, thank you for such a lovely made reminder of what our brutallity can reach.
One of the most brutally harrowing and powerful songs I’ve ever heard, and you can really see the pain Miss Holiday feels in her expressions while she’s singing.
On May 16, 1947, she was arrested for possessing narcotics in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," she recalled.
I think he or she is saying it wasn’t some rare case where the whole country is put up against her in court and it’s presented that title is every case.
Salute, truth was told a long time ago...Lady put it in a song and saw the bodies, I'm so sorry that the road was too hard for her to bare, however I hope she is resting in The Arms of The Most High Yahua....SALUTE, Ms. Billie Holiday...
Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies 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 magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh Here is fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop
The only surviving filmed version of Holiday performing the song is from the British cabaret television show, “Chelsea At Nine,” recorded February 25, 1959 and released in March of the same year, just a few months before she died. Her voice is strong and impressive; the raw emotion simply devastating. It is such an honor to put this version of Strange Fruit on a playlist of over 300 songs by female vocalists I recently made for all the fury and frustration we are having right now: : th-cam.com/play/PLtTpAIqD_OG8n9Tl5ufEMsxC-w1hBKAho.html sometimes the more things change....
The Depth and Soul you feel when You listen to this is Amazing. It really makes me visualize the african americans hanging from a tree. And for Billie to never have seen something like that, must have been disturbing and frightening all in one. Beautiful all in all. This song also scares me a touch because of how much feeling and emotion that this song is soaked in. It sometimes makes me cry to think that people could to that kind of thing to another human being. :|
Watching on June 3rd, 2020 as the understandable anger swells. God give us strength to fight to power of evil and to work to bring equality to the system once and for all.
This song bring so much of black history in america, and the picture that the lyrics bring to mind is unbelievable sad and disturbing.
Ya...
+Joel Borges Kanye did well to bring this narrative out again on his track "Blood on the Leaves" on his Album YEEZUS, thats why Im here.. humanity is both wonderful and bitterly cruel.
OhNo Joel! Such a sad song
The song was written by a Jewish man by the name of Abel Meeropol.
In 1937, Meeropol saw a picture of a lynching and was so broken by it, he wrote these lyrics.
Our struggles have always been intertwined, but unfortunately they don't teach these things in the black community at large any more. Hate and bigotry are easier
@@user-ih4fd9sf8x Drop dead Esau
the most powerful song of all time.
giacomo purpura agree and change is gonna come
Yeah, but there's also Jimmy Hendrix at Woodstuck. Go check it.
Lol no
@@JasonX2”lol” man you white ppl are sick
I applaud every single artist giving their own rendition of this masterpiece- but for me this remains the ultimate version. Miss Holiday is the only artist that really hits me in the gut with this rendition. Nobody but nobody else - not even Miss Simone takes me to that place where I completely surrender to it.
You should listen jeff buckleys version
Haunting! Wow, what a voice and what a song.
This song breaks my heart. How people can be so cruel to other human beings is beyond my comprehension.
Very haunting, what a voice. She was one of the greatest.
Billie had a unique emotion in her interpretation. So deeply and powerful.
I still remember about ten years ago. My mother heard it in Touched By An Angel.
She cried her eyes out when she made me translate it into Danish for her.
And then what happen???
Oh wow ❤ that’s awesome that you and your mother appreciate Billie Holliday.
This will never not make me cry.
She would close her shows with the room dark, except for 1 light on her. Waiters and waitresses couldn't move either. Total stillness in the room. Powerful. Salute!
I love her subtle movements at the end...
Intense deeply moves the insides ... the way she sings this song is incredible ! She׳s amazing !
The lyrics are haunting. I think nobody has brought out the pain and despair in them better than Billie Holiday in this version. Her expressions, her intonation, her raspiness at all the right places - it's a truly legendary performance. I always, ALWAYS cry whenever I listen to it.
Thank ❤you, TH-cam!
Billie first ran afoul of powerful forces for singing “Strange Fruit,” the anti-lynching anthem. Her performances generated threats, even riots. Josh White also sang the song and was questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy period. He bowed to their demands that he stop. Billie defiantly refused and continued singing “Strange Fruit.” Many believe that her resistance led law enforcement to hound and arrest her in 1947 for drug possession. She served almost a year in prison, and her conviction disrupted her career for the rest of her life.
"Law enforcement" at that time was criminal.
Who's version do you think was better? Billie holiday, or Nina Simone?
Cloud77 Hot LADY DAY!!! Nobody can duplicate Lady Day.... please 🙄
SHIT>>>>aren't we WHITE PEOPLE a wonderful race???????????
Still is.
This is so important
Pilkie101 you sound dumb it is important other wise it wouldn’t be in history.. how rude smhh🤦🏾♀️
@@JasonX2 - So that makes it okay for police to shoot small boys for playing in parks? For police to beat or shoot unarmed, cooperating, black men? For them to shoot black men who are 'non-compliant' (in other words, not submissive and unquestioning)?
Stop pretending to be literal-minded. You know damn well what's going on, and you don't care about anybody who isn't of your complexion and social class. By the time you realize you should have cared, it will be too late: you'll be just as nervous and scared at traffic stops as any African-American because the police will have permission to beat the shit out of all of us.
@@JasonX2 yes this was my ancestors truth shut up bitch.
Life With Honor your fucking pathetic🤣💀 read a book bitch🤣🤣
@@JasonX2 I can't believe you wrote that.
You fucking piece of shit.
It is a rare talent, and she is one, that can make something so dark sound so classy. it makes it more powerful to me due to such a rare combination.
It's called non-disposable, it's beautiful music, with a deep message. ♥️♥️😔
I love this song so much it's so sad and haunting but her voice so beautiful you can hear the emotions ! 😔💔
hi Doey my mom and I collected Billy also known as Lady Day, she wore a white orchard in her hair. She it herd instruments playing as a young child. The reason it is believed that there's never been anyon like her is her notes all emulate instruments. ..so when u take another listen, close your eyes u will here the tones.love and Steph
My father's most favorite singer of all...she put everything into her songs and sadly died the way she lived. RIP great lady. AND I love all she did as well!
This is a moment we should never forget.
her delivery of the song is so compelling...it jus pulls u in....& the lyrics are so well written u can imagine them...this is an essential song of our culture and representation of a struggle...we cant even fathom today
Heart rendering! Brings me to tears.......
It's been a few years and this is still one of the most haunting songs I have ever heard
No comparisons here. I only love her version. Not just te voice and the pauses she takes, but mostly her facial expressions and body movements. Spectacular!
one of the greatest songs ever written and a unmatched performance ,no one sings it better ,you can see the pain in her face
Gosh, that song and that woman yet, obviously the message (all three combined) is just so MOVING & POWERFUL!
Amazing talent, amazing voice, lyrics that every American should listen to
This is the most moving performance I have ever seen in my whole life! When Billie sang she sang from the soul, from the depths of her heart. And I find it a damn shame that we don't have more artist like her around these days. Rest in Peace Billie we miss you so much:)
this song is going to make me cry
one of the very few songs that make me really emotional, so powerful
Nothing but chills. Abel Meeropol's poetry paired with Billie Holiday's haunting performance.
Now this is music! Such a good song with beautiful words painting a horrific scene, that's incredible.
This breaks me every time I can't even see when listening to this everything becomes a consistent blur!!! It's the only way I can describe it! IS THERE NO JUSTICE!?!?!?!?!?
If you don’t cry during this performance, you don’t have a heart. periot. 🖤😪
What a life she lived...and thank-you for this beautiful song...
Tears, just, tears...
This is the most important song of our time! A compelling poem, set to horrific imagery and deep profound vocals by the brilliant Billie Holiday. When i've heard the recording, i could feel the desperation and depression in her voice. but to see her performance is far more gripping and inspirational. thanks for posting
thank you for this post, i love it when people understand.
Haunting lyrics.
the goddess of jazz!
We studied this song for Academic Decathlon back in 2013 for music theory (as well as history), and I have never been able to hear this song the same. So haunting, and Billie Holiday's voice gives it a haunting touch that truly captures how truly disruptive this time period was.
I remember hearing this song as a kid back in "95", when I first saw Tales From The Hood at the movies.
Ariel692769 same
Same! Black bodies swinging!🤣😂
Ariel692769 I was born in 94 and grew up watching tales from the hood. That movie scared me senseless but as I grew older I was able to realize the significance in each story. I just watched the 2nd on netflix and although the same meaning was there, the movie just lacked actually being a good movie. The new one seemed too purposely cheesy for my liking. It still struck my ✊🏾 cords though. ( Sorry for my poor grammer)
I watched an episode of Touched by an Angel "God saved the Child" last night. Its the first time I ever heard this song and the legend of Billie Holiday. I found it haunting and gruesome. Telling a very awful truth in American History. Felt deep sadness for what had been.
at work.... at my desk, listening to this....... in tears.
This song has a touchy feeling ❤I love it
Wow. Speechless. 😥
So much pain her voice she embodies the blues and jazz
very powerful stuff
Never get enough of "The Lady sing" most important she didn't sing the song"The Lady live the song of life"...Awake in a Black Woman, and sing again. ..Horace
the beauty of of the poetry contrasts with the crudeness of what's being told
I can't hear the song without crying 😢😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I love the shade in her look as she delivered the line "the 'galant' south" 😒 hmph
MUCH RESPECT!!!!! AN INNOCENT BROTHA LYNCHED IN MODERN TIMES.....
This song does something inside of me.
This is a very important song. It is really deep.
We must never forget the evil that was done during slavery and which continued through racism. As a white man, I can only ask black people to forgive what my ancestors did. Wish there was something I could do to make things right, but there is nothing more than words.
We are the children of israel!
These lynchings happened decades after the civil war ended. Racism was prevalent throughout the early 20th century. For example, the beating and maming of Emmett Till happened in the 1950s!
I be killing these beats damn I got an m16 on my body I told that lil nigga to freeze 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Shut up as a white person i treat blck people as equals bur i dont look into the past because people like you who look to the past for forgiveness drag us down
the fact you acknowledge that speaks volumes 99% of people say we should shut up Nd.thankful that we were brought here .
Sublime chanson, d'une puissance émotionnelle incomparable. Et quand on pense à l'époque où elle la chantait... Ceux qui ne l'ont pas encore fait, écoutez bien les paroles pour comprendre la métaphore de l'"étrange fruit".
Love it ! Love, love...
this song is deeply painful, you can hear it in her voice. this will haunt me for days.
very heavy.... excellent post- thank you. Billie near the very end of her life and at her most soulful. excellent post! thanks again
One of the saddest and most hauntingly beautiful song to ever exist.
I just read about her history and downfall in the book "TRAINWRECK". So much pain.
Gets me everytime, just too much!
Brings tears to your eyes.
perfection
This song is so powerful and so sad at the same time, this song is so important in black history.
I'm in tears. I felt that.
So beautiful. I never saw her sing on film, other than in "New Orleans"
true artist right there
Amazing
Amazing : ) the best ! I love love her .
God ! makes me sad .
In my country (Iraq) now hanging on light poles, strange lamps.
Im sorry dude, i hope its better
..I love this woman..
We can build heaven or we can build this horrific scenery... I know it wont reach the author, but, thank you for such a lovely made reminder of what our brutallity can reach.
This song is deep
One of the most brutally harrowing and powerful songs I’ve ever heard, and you can really see the pain Miss Holiday feels in her expressions while she’s singing.
Beautiful
Shivers over my body...
On May 16, 1947, she was arrested for possessing narcotics in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," she recalled.
blahblah all federal cases are titled The United States of America vs. X
Arthur Morgan and what of it?
I think he or she is saying it wasn’t some rare case where the whole country is put up against her in court and it’s presented that title is every case.
Although seemingly and unfairly the whole court most likely was.
How she died was even worse? Racism again? 🙏🙏🏽🙏🏿
An absolute brilliant way to describe a man hanging from a tree
Music in pure perfection.
A masterpiece 👏🏾❤️
One of my favorite movies 'Tales from the hood ' -Spike Lee- bought me here. This is a very deep and meaningful song.
What a meaningful song.Billie Holiday wonderful woman.
Salute, truth was told a long time ago...Lady put it in a song and saw the bodies, I'm so sorry that the road was too hard for her to bare, however I hope she is resting in The Arms of The Most High Yahua....SALUTE, Ms. Billie Holiday...
Forever unequalled.
Do u know ur history,, don't let ur kids go without knowing
She has a beautiful voice :)
Wonderful
Oh my God o_o I got chills and the urge to cry. This song is just so creepy and sad, while at the same time so beautiful.
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies 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 magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
The only surviving filmed version of Holiday performing the song is from the British cabaret television show, “Chelsea At Nine,” recorded February 25, 1959 and released in March of the same year, just a few months before she died. Her voice is strong and impressive; the raw emotion simply devastating.
It is such an honor to put this version of Strange Fruit on a playlist of over 300 songs by female vocalists I recently made for all the fury and frustration we are having right now: : th-cam.com/play/PLtTpAIqD_OG8n9Tl5ufEMsxC-w1hBKAho.html sometimes the more things change....
I love her voice.
A Very meaning full n Strong song.. It breaks my heart....it reminds me of watching the movie Mississippi Burning...So painful n sad song..
Jesus. This is powerful, to say the least.
😢 gut wrenching 💔
It's coming close to happening again with what's going on in the southern states. One of the most profound, sad and chill giving songs in history.
Touched by an Angel did an episode around this song. It was mighty powerful.
The Depth and Soul you feel when You listen to this is Amazing. It really makes me visualize the african americans hanging from a tree. And for Billie to never have seen something like that, must have been disturbing and frightening all in one. Beautiful all in all. This song also scares me a touch because of how much feeling and emotion that this song is soaked in. It sometimes makes me cry to think that people could to that kind of thing to another human being. :|
She couldn't unsee it.
Watching on June 3rd, 2020 as the understandable anger swells. God give us strength to fight to power of evil and to work to bring equality to the system once and for all.
I first heard lady day in 1957,the best vocal stylists ever,but for pure quality give me Sarah Vaughn.