One of the first political songs ever written. It's been called a declaration of war. The beginning of the Civil Rights movement. One of the ten songs that changed the world.
Love Billie Holiday and no one sings like she did with such raw emotion and pain and longing. She cut her life short by what Robin Williams calls weapons of self destruction, but what a talent!
This song is hard to hear and even harder to listen to when she performs it.
You're doing really well with Black History Month! I'm looking forward to the rest of it. :-)
Thanks Joy! Billie Holiday is one of my all-time favorite singers, and this song gets me every time.
There is a great book called, "Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry For Civil Rights" by David Margolick. It tells the story of the song intself, about the man that wrote, and the woman who became so identified with it.
Love Billie Holiday and no one sings like she did with such raw emotion and pain and longing. She cut her life short by what Robin Williams calls weapons of self destruction, but what a talent!
ReplyDeleteThis song is hard to hear and even harder to listen to when she performs it.
You're doing really well with Black History Month! I'm looking forward to the rest of it. :-)
Thanks Joy!
ReplyDeleteBillie Holiday is one of my all-time favorite singers, and this song gets me every time.
There is a great book called, "Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry For Civil Rights" by David Margolick. It tells the story of the song intself, about the man that wrote, and the woman who became so identified with it.
Thanks! I'll check into that. It sounds like a book I'd want to read.
ReplyDeleteI always get the chills when I hear her sing this.
ReplyDelete