strange fruit - the first great protest song

[johncorrigan]

I should probably have put this in with the jazzers... but I'm shy.....this piece about Abel Meeropol who wrote Strange Fruit, and of course Billie Holiday, appeared in the Grauny today and I thought it was mighty interesting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/16/protest-songs-billie-holiday-strange-fruit

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

oh you are such a tease! do come over to our yard .... we are not averse to a little crossover fun, fusion even ...... well some of us anyway

[Lateralthinking1]

Extraordinary and sad.

It is a great song. Has always been my favourite of Billie Holiday's - both the song and the performance - but I had no idea that it had such a significant role in her repertoire. I think I assumed that it wasn't a hit, perhaps something she sang just a few times.

Also didn't recognise its place in the history of protest songs although that should have been more obvious. Although there were almost certainly huge numbers of such songs before it, I'd be hard pressed to name many of them.

Something about Billie Holiday for the sixties generation - she is timeless, as in outside or beyond time. It is almost difficult to think of being a concert goer doing all the usual concert going things and doing them at a Billie Holiday concert. She seems more ethereal somehow - at least to me.

One further point if I may - I believe that there are some singers who to appreciate fully you have to be at a certain age. I didn't really take to Bob Dylan or Van Morrison in my teens and then suddenly in my mid-twenties I was blown away by them and had to buy everything by them I could afford. The same was true of Nina Simone and without question of Billie Holiday. Of all the artists I hold in the highest esteem today the vast majority emerged at that age of discovery rather than earlier times.

[johncorrigan]

oh you are such a tease! do come over to our yard .... we are not averse to a little crossover fun, fusion even ...... well some of us anyway

Thanks Calum - next time I've got something jazzy to say I'll make sure I cross over to your bit of the neighbourhood.

[Globaltruth]

Protest song of the day?

'"That old familiar tree,/Whose glory and renown/Are spread o'er land and sea/And wouldst thou hack it down?/Woodman, forbear thy stroke!/Cut not its earth, bound ties;/Oh! spare that ag-ed oak/Now towering to the skies!"

Woodman, Spare that tree, George Pope Morris 1837

[johncorrigan]

Protest song of the day?

'"That old familiar tree,/Whose glory and renown/Are spread o'er land and sea/And wouldst thou hack it down?/Woodman, forbear thy stroke!/Cut not its earth, bound ties;/Oh! spare that ag-ed oak/Now towering to the skies!"

Woodman, Spare that tree, George Pope Morris 1837

They were doing 'the long view' on R4 this week on Tuesday morning about woodlands - a bit of John Clare poetry 'Enclosure', Global.

In relation to Strange Fruit I think the argument being made is that it was a protest song which was not used as a rallying cry but was aimed at people to whom the song might not apply and crossed divides in that respect.

[Globaltruth]

They were doing 'the long view' on R4 this week on Tuesday morning about woodlands - a bit of John Clare poetry 'Enclosure', Global.

Which programme was it? Always keen to hear a bit of Mad John.

In relation to Strange Fruit I think the argument being made is that it was a protest song which was not used as a rallying cry but was aimed at people to whom the song might not apply and crossed divides in that respect.

Absolutely - the very first time I heard Strange Fruit it was sung by Josh White on a sampler LP - can't remember the name, but I was v.young and it really had a huge impact on me in exactly the way you mention. A most unusual choice for a 60's sampler LP of modern rock music..

Josh White was a contemporary of Billie Holiday it appears.
Thanks to Spotty, here is the song:
Strange Fruit - Josh White
Compare it to this later version by BH, live in 1959
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

It was an excellent article, and I'm keen to read the book that it's from.

[johncorrigan]

Which programme was it? Always keen to hear a bit of Mad John.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yj5vb

Had John Redwood in it, who says he likes to hug trees - 'gag alert'!

[Globaltruth]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yj5vb

Had John Redwood in it, who says he likes to hug trees - 'gag alert'!

Hmm - gave it a listen
* Southern biased - what a surprise from Aunty
* Clare's extract was tokenism..a BBC researcher trying to put a historical context without any history or context
* Surface skimming stuff

Mind you,I have spent the afternoon stacking logs so may be a bit jaded on the subject of woods...thanks anyway

Anyway, as we are well off topic , Hugh Lupton is in our neck of the woods (ahem) in March - in a very low-key venue. I shall be going....and will report back.