STRANGE FRUIT

Strange Fruit is a famous sad song, written as a poem released in 1937 by Abel Meeropool (1903-1986) known as Lewis Allan. He was a jewish teacher in the Bronx (back in the 30's) and most of all he was a white defending negroes.

This song was first sung by Billie Hollyday (1915-1959, on the right) on 1939 in the "Cafe Society" (Greenwich Village, New York) and the song The song became a regular part of Holiday's live performances, mainly in the "Cotton Club", a famous jazz club in Harlem (north of Manhattan, New York).
(here is the link for unlearns who don't even know who she was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday )
A french singer, Aaron, recently covered it.

This song, Strange Fruit, is linked to a very sad story happened in the U.S.A. on August 1930, the 7th. Two black men, Thomas Shipp (18 years old) and Abram Smith (19 y.o.), were lynched and hung up to a tree in Marion, Indiana. (true photo on the left)

In fact, you must know from the early 1880's onwards, the Klu-Klux-Klan (founded in 1965) used to lynch black people and used to do what were so sadly called "necktic parties". In fact, people took the law in their own hands. To give an example, on this so sadly famous day, they decided to take those two poor black guyes out of prison and them hanged them in public...
The author, Lewis Allan, declared the photo was its inspiration for the song.

°°° Lyrics : Strange Fruit, Lewis Allan °°°

Southern trees bear a 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 a 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.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

See Ya !!!