An Analysis Of Billie Holiday's Song 'Strange Fruit'

Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” The song “Strange Fruit” has something about it that you can never fully walk away from and forget. It could be the text itself so visualizing and dramatic, or the music that adds an even more haunting effect. The performer of course is the one who gets the social message across by the way they perform and the emotions they put into the song. Billie Holiday’s version makes this song stand out even more; a person can get the chills just listening to her sing it. Any way you look at it, it’s the combined effort of all these effects to make this song as amazing as it is. To start with the text one has to go through each line and understand what the writer was trying to portray. The song was originally written
by a white Jewish-American by the name of Abel Meeropol, who went by the pen name Lewis Allen (California Newsreel, 2002). In this newsreel it talks about how Meeropol’s writing for the song was so disgusting yet beautiful. The lyrics can give anyone the chills when read aloud with the visualizing details, about lynching in the south. The first line starts with “Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root” (Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit”). The lyrics get straight to the point about how this racism will never stop the blood of this lynched person is not only on the leaves but it’s on the roots to grow again. The song goes on to talk about the body swaying in the breeze, and how the sweet smell of magnolias is soon overpowered by burning flesh. Meeropol compares these nice sweet images that people are familiar with, against horrid images that people would rather look away from. But that is how lynching was looked at, it was something everyone knew was wrong but people would just turn their heads to the familiar and safe like nothing happened. The last line stands out saying “here is a strange and bitter crop” (Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit”). That line stays with a person, how strange and bitter it was that no one wanted to stop this horrid event. Meeropol gets his anti-lynching purpose across in his beautiful and haunting text. The second part of this song would be the music added to it to add an even more dramatic effect. In Billie Holiday’s version they started out with a long introduction of soft and melancholy jazz. This really sets the mood for the rest of the song, one gets drawn in to each note waiting and wanting for more. Once the intro is done soft piano comes in with the rich voice of Holiday ushering it on. The piano plays a song that is a mixture of sad, hurt, confused, and aching melody. This all comes from just the melody itself but when the text is added to it the full range of emotions comes out. In the newsreel Pete Seeger, a musician, says that “a mark of a great song is its ability to be sung in different ways by different people”. With this it shows that the lyrics provided many artists to add their own tune or twist to the song to make it their own. So with Strange Fruit there is always the same lyrics but the melody can change to have different daunting effects on other people. But the melody Billie Holiday put with it is what made the song what it is today. The soft jazz that helps one feel the emotions and the true meaning of the lyrics. The music to a song can completely change the meaning and the feeling; no melody is right or wrong. Billie Holiday just helps with the band members playing the introduction and the rest of the melody to produce the haunting effect that it has. The popularity of this song came from the performer herself.
Billie Holiday is the reason that this song really took off and made people really notice it and its message. Holiday was a very popular jazz singer and song writer at the time. Her popularity with the public made this song come out of the shadows. Her first encounter with the song was at Café Society, one of the first interracial clubs in New York, this song was kind of a merger of the two groups coming together (California Newsreel, 2002). She made the song come alive to whites and blacks and from then on she knew that she wanted to record the song. Columbia Records did not like the idea of recording this controversial song so Billie went to Commodore recordings in 1939 and made the beautiful recording that is well known today. If Holiday did not persist on recording this song who knows if it would have ever made it in to the public eye the way she did. This song became a song of protest; it became a song that led other songs of protests to be made as well. Holiday’s famous jazz inspired voice brought the emotions out and had everyone else in the room feeling the haunting effect. In the newsreel it points out that Billie Holiday did not write the song but she was a great communicator of the message. Holiday did feel the effect of singing this song with the strings of racism that came with it. She could not stay in the same hotels as white performers, and had to go through the back doors of the establishments to get away from other peoples anger from her daring to sing this song. Holiday stayed strong through wanting to get her message across and kept performing Strange Fruit. If it wasn’t for Billie Holiday finding this song and having the need to have it performed and recorded it might not have as much popularity and a spot in
history. At the time when this song was brought to the spot light there were still lynching of black men and women going on in the south. Lynching at the time was a way of policing the black communities and showing them that white men still had the power. This was public knowledge and it was tried several times to put anti-lynching into the constitution but every time was stopped by southern senators. It’s amazing how uncivilized this act was for the 1930’s and how people in the South thought that this was ok. Strange Fruit sang by a black woman outraged many, even though the message was just bringing out the truth. The songs underlying social message was that of racism and being treated differently in general. Lynching was just one of the more horrid expressions of racism. The song pointed out to everyone that it may not be “Black

bodies swingin ' in the Southern breeze” (Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit”). But it could be anyway of pointing one person out just because of their race, gender, and sexuality and make them a criminal. The way this discrimination makes others feel like they are being strung on a tree, being burned alive and pretty much having all dignity taken away. The social message of this song has such a deeper meaning then just the written words. It may have a different meaning to every person that listens to it. During the time when it became famous people were outraged because their darker self was out for everyone to see and they were ashamed and embarrassed. Holiday brought the protest social message out to help others in that time period to really stand up for themselves. With the text, music, performer, and social message being added together one is left with haunting, effective and enduring work. Billie Holiday really brought to light the issues with the world and something needed to be done to stop it. She inspired others to do the same, just with one simple short song. The components of the visualizing, dramatic text. And the haunting, almost disturbing music brings every ear to listen to what it has to say. Holiday’s smooth jazz voice brings more emotion as you watch and listen to the song out loud. Billie does not need a 4 minute song to get her point across; this small 12 line song has more emotions and feelings then longer ones do. Each individual component has some emotions that it evokes but with all the components put together you get an emotional masterpiece that leaves one feeling; sad, angry, remorseful and sympathetic. In the newsreel they say that, “it is very easy to empathize with people who are oppressed”. And that is how most people can connect with this and really feel its meaning. Holiday’s version of strange fruit really inspired people for freedom, for their rights, and the right to fight for these things. Taken apart each component has a different meaning, all very strongly felt, but it wouldn’t have the same effect if they were not all put together. Billie
Holiday brought this song out of the dark and gave it that element that the song was missing. She was the last component that really made the idea click that racism just was not alright and something needed to be done to stop it. The song Strange Fruit with all its components of haunting text, amazing music, great social message, and unforgettable performer together bring artwork greater than the sum of the individual components.

Bibliography
Billie Holiday. “Strange Fruit.” Commodore, 1939.
Katz, Joel, dir. Strange Fruit. 2002. Web. 6 Mar 2013.