"another life swinging in the breeze,
these southern trees and the strangest fruit"
Strange Fruit was a song written by Abel Meeropol and made famous when sung by Billie Holiday for the first time in 1939. It decried the lynchings taking place in the south at the time. Below are the lyrics:
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 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 the tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Later in time, in the year 1977 Marc Huestis, a homosexual theatre and film producer created "Strange Fruit" a hybrid of a show, giving it's audience both film and poetry performed at San Francisco's Gay Community Center. The show revised the lyrics of the original song to attack the oppression of "strange fruits," which is to say nonconformists and outcasts within the homosexual community, particularly more effeminate men and drag queens.
The revision:
(Here is a fruit for the world to see
For no one to pick, running wild and free
For no one to tame, for no one to stop
Here is a strange and bitter crop)
The revision met with a mixed reaction. To some homosexual men, Billie Holiday was the hero whose pain they could identify with. That the song referred to "fruit", a slang term the homosexual community wished to reclaim from homophobes, only made it more apt.
"another life swinging in the breeze, these southern trees and the strangest fruit"
Strange Fruit was a song written by Abel Meeropol and made famous when sung by Billie Holiday for the first time in 1939. It decried the lynchings taking place in the south at the time. Below are the lyrics:
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 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 the tree to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Later in time, in the year 1977 Marc Huestis, a homosexual theatre and film producer created "Strange Fruit" a hybrid of a show, giving it's audience both film and poetry performed at San Francisco's Gay Community Center. The show revised the lyrics of the original song to attack the oppression of "strange fruits," which is to say nonconformists and outcasts within the homosexual community, particularly more effeminate men and drag queens.
The revision:
(Here is a fruit for the world to see For no one to pick, running wild and free For no one to tame, for no one to stop Here is a strange and bitter crop)
The revision met with a mixed reaction. To some homosexual men, Billie Holiday was the hero whose pain they could identify with. That the song referred to "fruit", a slang term the homosexual community wished to reclaim from homophobes, only made it more apt.