Strange Fruit: the Biography of a Song Free

FREE STRANGE FRUIT: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A SONG PDF

Per her request, the waiters stopped serving and the room went completely black, save for a spotlight on her face. When Holiday finished, the spotlight turned off. When the lights came back on, the stage was empty. She was gone. And per her request, there was no encore. This was how Holiday performed "Strange Fruit," which she would determinedly sing for the next 20 years until her untimely death at the age of Holiday may have popularized "Strange Fruit" and turned it into a work of art, but it was a Jewish communist teacher and civil rights activist from the Bronx, Abel Meeropol, Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song wrote it, first as a poem, then later as a song. His inspiration? Meeropol came across a photo that captured the lynching of two Black men in Indiana. The visceral image haunted him for days and prompted him to put pen to paper. After he published "Strange Fruit" in a teachers union publication, Meeropol composed it into a song and passed it onto a nightclub owner, who then introduced it to Holiday. When Holiday heard the lyrics, she was deeply moved by them — not only because she was a Black American but also because the song reminded her of her father, who Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song at Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song from a fatal lung disorder, after being turned away from a hospital because he was a Black man. Because of the painful memories it conjured, Holiday didn't enjoy performing "Strange Fruit," but knew she had to. While civil rights activists and Black America embraced "Strange Fruit," the nightclub scene, which was primarily composed of white patrons, had mixed reactions. At witnessing Holiday's performance, audience members would applaud until their hands hurt, while Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song less sympathetic would bitterly walk out the door. A known racist, Anslinger believed that drugs caused Black people to overstep their boundaries in American society and that Black jazz singers Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song who smoked marijuana — created the devil's music. When Anslinger forbid Holiday to perform "Strange Fruit," she refused, causing him to devise a plan to destroy her. Knowing that Holiday was a drug user, he had some of his men frame her by selling her heroin. When she was caught using the drug, she was thrown into prison for the next year and a half. Her nightclub days, which she loved so much, were over. Still determined to soldier on, she performed to sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, but still, the demons of her difficult childhood, which involved working at a brothel alongside her prostitute mother, haunted her and she began using heroin again. InHoliday checked herself into a New York City hospital. Suffering from heart and lung problems and cirrhosis of the liver due to decades Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song drug and alcohol abuse, the singer was an emaciated version of herself. Her once heartfelt voice now withered and raspy. Still bent on ruining the singer, Anslinger had his men go to the hospital and handcuff her to her bed. Although Holiday had been showing gradual signs of recovery, Anslinger's men forbid doctors to offer her further treatment. She died within days. Despite her tragic demise, Holiday has a lasting legacy in the world of jazz and pop music. Among the many songs that Holiday is celebrated for, "Strange Fruit" will always be one of her defining works. It allowed her to take what was originally an expression of political protest and transform it into a work of art for millions to hear. These are the real-life mobsters and events that inspired the books and movies. The comedienne used the gesture as a way to silently communicate with her beloved grandmother. Learn about the real inspiration behind the movie about the Pentagon Papers. Kennedy in May marked one final hurrah before her life came to a sudden end less than three months later. They were some of the most talented musicians and performers of their generation, and in their short lives, each made a lasting impact. They're tough, talented and have made headlines on and off the court. Here's a look back at some of the famous names who died this year. The song reminded Holiday of her father When Holiday heard the lyrics, she was deeply moved by them — not only because she was a Black American but also because the song reminded her of her father, who died at 39 from a fatal lung disorder, after being turned away from a hospital because he was a Black man. In Time designated "Strange Fruit" the "song of the century. By Eudie Pak. By Sara Kettler. By Tim Ott. By Rachel Chang. strange fruit, a song that changed the world

It protests the lynching of Black Americanswith lyrics Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late s, including Madison Square Garden. Diana Ross recorded the song for her debut film, the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, and it Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song included on the chart topping soundtrack album. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in First performed by Meeropol's wife and their friends in social contexts, [10] his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. The lyrics are under copyright but have been republished in full in an academic journal, with permission. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the Southas well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in and one in The song was highly regarded; the recording eventually sold a million copies, [7] in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording. In her autobiography, Lady Sings the BluesHoliday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Songwriting that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty —claimed, "I ain't never read that book. Billie Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable". Hardy [27]. Nina Simone recorded the song in[28] a recording described by journalist David Margolick in the New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirected from Bitter Fruit poem. For other uses, see Strange Fruit disambiguation. Archived from the original on May 28, Retrieved April 20, Retrieved June 16, Philadelphia: Running Press. The Guardian. Retrieved September 23, Morning Edition. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song. International Journal of Epidemiology. Retrieved January 6, August 6, Retrieved August 15, April 17, Rhetoric Society Quarterly. Retrieved February 23, Retrieved May 13, Archived from the original on July 11, Retrieved June 15, June Retrieved September 10, Walt Street Journal. Retrieved May 20, Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved January 29, New Statesman. Retrieved March 25, December 12, Deep South Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song. Billie Holiday. Discography Awards and nominations. Book Category. Lynching in the United States. List of lynching victims in the United States. Theodore G. Vardaman Thomas E. Shipp Vendetta film Wilmington insurrection of Hidden categories: CS1 errors: empty unknown parameters Use mdy dates from June Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Articles with hAudio microformats Pages using infobox song with unknown parameters MusicBrainz work same as Wikidata Articles with MusicBrainz work links. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. April 20, [1]. Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song - David Margolick - Google книги

On 20 Aprilthe jazz singer Billie Holiday born Eleanora Fagan in stepped into a studio with an eight-piece band to record Strange Fruit. Originally a poem called Bitter Fruit, it was Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song by the Jewish school teacher Abel Meeropol under the pseudonym Lewis Allen in response to lynching in US southern states. Soon after publication, Meeropol set the song to music. It was performed at union meetings and even at Madison Square Garden by the jazz singer Laura Duncan. To ensure that it was indeed savoured, Holiday and Josephson created specific conditions for the performances. Then a lone person began to clap nervously. As the song became a feature of her sets, Holiday witnessed a range of reactions, from tears to walkouts and racist hecklers. When she toured the song, some proprietors tried discouraging her from singing it for fear of alienating or angering their patrons. Holiday combined rage and sadness in her rendition of the song Credit: Alamy. What is so remarkable about Strange Fruit is how indelible a mark it Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song on American society so soon after its release. Even now, as I think of it, the short hair on the back of my neck tightens and I want to hit somebody. And I think I know who. Strange Fruit was not the first popular song to deal with race. But Strange Fruit stands out among protest songs for its graphic content and subsequent commercial success. This bold confrontation helped galvanise a movement that would eventually alter the course of US history. Anti-lynching campaigners sent Strange Fruit to congressmen to encourage them to propose a viable anti-lynching bill. Strange Fruit also brought its creators unwanted attention. In Meeropol, a socialist, was called to testify before a committee investigating communism and asked whether the US Communist Party had paid him to write Strange Fruit. Despite the fact that Holiday Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song witnessed a lynching contrary to what the Diana Ross film Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song Sings the Blues showsStrange Fruit still evoked the racial injustice that she felt killed her father, Clarence, who was refused medical treatment at a Texas hospital. But its influence has spanned decades. Nina Simone sang a version of the song in Credit: Alamy. InStrange Fruit was added to the National Registry of the Library of Congressimmortalising it as a song of great significance to the musical heritage of the US. Holiday died in and Meeropol in — but their collaboration has endured, its capacity to shock never waning. It has inspired musicians since to sing about injustice with candour and the awareness that a song can be a timeless impetus for social change. The impulses that [Meeropol] was talking about are still very much with us. Strange Fruit: The most shocking song of all time? Share using Email. Bookmark this article. By Aida Amoako 17th April Billie Holiday recorded her iconic version of Strange Fruit on 20 April Eighty years on — in the first of our Songs that Made History series — Aida Amoako explores how a poem about lynching became a timeless call to action. It was such an in-your-face type of protest song… it did really leave both the singer and the audience no place to hide — Tad Hershorn. Around the BBC.