CULT OF LYNCHING !
I can't recollect exactly when i first heard the famous Billie Holiday version of the song 'Strange Fruit' .This song with powerful message was written as poem by Abel Meeropol in 1937 .It protested American racism ,particularly the lynching of African Americans by white Americans. Jewish white and member of the Communist party Abel Meeropol wrote it as a protest poem. The song was highly regarded and the 1939 record sold a million copies. in year 1999,Time magazine called it the song of the century .Quite logically the first stanza of the song tells us ,for there to be 'blood on the leaves',there also has to be 'blood on the root'.
STRANGE FRUIT LYRICS !
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 the 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.
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 the 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.
