Hate needs to be exposed and talked about. Ignoring hate will only make it grow. Billie Holiday was incredibly brave to speak and sing to racism and hate. Thank you Daniel for reacting to this very important song in music history.
Yes, and at this time the country was still reeling from all the KKK activity all across the country. She was very brave. "On August 7, 1930, a mob of ten to fifteen thousand whites abducted three young black men from the jail in Marion, Indiana, lynching Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Sixteen-year-old James Cameron narrowly survived after being beaten by the mob."
This was a very dangerous song to perform at that time. She, the band, the producers, etc - they knew they were taking mortal risks being involved with this. This was a powerful song for its and can still impact us today.
Thank you for doing this, Daniel. This is an important number about a terrible phenomenon. Lynching was designed not only to inflict suffering and death on its victims--it was designed to intimidate the rest of the black population of an area. Billie Holiday's number was indeed a heroic one. And that voice! Amazing.
As a white American, I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of this song until maybe 10 years ago - if that long. I cried when I first heard it and I still cried today. I grew up during the 60's, and the Civil Rights Movement made a huge positive impact on me. It has never made sense to me to treat someone differently because of the color of their skin - or any other thing for that matter. I am a religious person also, and have always felt that since we are all equal children in His sight- that's all more the reason for me to treat everyone the same with love and respect. I guess I was extremely naive when I was young, however. I felt that since I realized how idiotic racial discrimination was, that my entire generation would also grow up and eventually catch onto that also. I sincerely felt that by the time I was in my later years of life like I am now, that racial discrimination would be nothing but history - as we would have evolved as a nation to obliterate it. Man, was I wrong. I never realized that racism is a learned horror and we as a society just keep on teaching it to our children - rather it be at home or with built-in societal oppression. My husband and I have two grown children. Our youngest, our son, is a bi-racial adopted child. When I first heard this song, I remember I asked him to come listen to it with me. He listened, as he had never heard it before either. But his response just stopped my heart when he said, "Try living with stuff like that every day". That started on-going discussions about the daily racism he experiences as a young black man today. And with all of the cases in the news practically every day of another black person being gunned down by our police - you better bet my prayers for his safety start every time he walks out the door. Sorry - didn't mean to type so much, but this song evokes strong emotions. Great reaction, Daniel. Thank you!
Thank you, Rita Thomas, for expressing some of my own feelings about this monumental and painful song, and Daniel for playing it and immediately getting its meaning. I first heard it in my late twenties (more than 30 years ago), and each time it's like reopening a wound. It is devastating in its artistic brilliance and takes us right to the edge of the soulless abyss that is racism. Sometimes I just can't, but Ms. Holiday and so many others have had the courage to stand up, so I continue to do the same. We simply must overcome this, or it will continue to suck every drop of humanity from the human race. Love is the only force more powerful than hate. It is our secret weapon. Use it daily, especially when it's easier to scorn and revile, and peace will surely follow. There is no 'other'. Just us humans.
My big sister was biracial-she passed in 2017. It was true in the 30s, true in the 60s, true in the 90s, and true now. Ahmad Aubrey is just the most recent trial. Billie was pursued by the government, which as an institution hated this song. Daniel, watch a Billie Holiday biopic (not the Diana Ross one-good, but not madly brave)-and see how her refusal to stop performing Strange Fruit affected her life.
@@sarahjane8146 The United States of America vs Billie Holiday. Really illuminated how she was treated most of her life up until even her deathbed. Heroin planted on her when she was clean so they could arrest her. Handcuffed to her deathbed just because she had the guts to speak the unspeakable. A lot of people believe this song was the dawn of the civil rights era and I firmly believe that. She was a brave soul for sure.
Rita Thomas, no need for you to be embarrassed! But I get it. This is a national embarrassment. Today there is a National Museum devoted to the lynching era located in Montgomery Alabama. During the height of the lynching era, many photographs were taken of those horrors and then passes around like post cards because the perpetuators were very proud of their handiwork. This is why we have so much documentation of this form of terrorism.
Yeah…..we see people wanting to ban books that might make students “uncomfortable”. Can you imagine if they played this in high-schools? She caught holy hell for this song.
We think alike - my train of thought went there too, to the way lots of people today don’t want to face the fact that America had a slough of awful things in it’s past, and want to sugarcoat it instead.
Hello Daniel. As a black man, I have to at least give you credit for being courageous enough to react to this particular song. Although not from poplar trees, modern day lynchings are still occurring. Today marks only the 2nd anniversary for the death of Ahmaud Arbery who was chased, and shot down like a wild animal while jogging near Brunswick GA. Thank God justice prevailed in this case, but it's pretty sad the meaning of this song is still "strangely" haunting with relevance in 2022.
If any of us had even the courage Ms. Holiday had in her little finger, we would be absolutely heroic. Singing this song cost her dearly, but she understood its importance...she did it anyway.
This song is part of our national patrimony. It must be passed down to the younger generations. We must not lose our history to blurred memory. Thank you, Daniel, for taking on this difficult song and the subject matter it contains.
Check out the movie United States vs. Billy Holiday. I believe it's on Hulu. It's about this song and the effort the U.S. made to censor this song and Billy Holiday.
Everyone should listen to this song. Not just hear it but LISTEN. Miss Billie struggled with addiction but she was a gift. She risked her life to perform this song and that was pure bravery. She understood its importance and so should we all.
Did you know most lynchings and slavery occurred in countries other than America in other continents across history?And that hangings were primarily done to Italian Americans because of a couple historical oppressive times that involved many hangings simultaneously, history classes don’t seem to care about it though. I’m Native American and Jewish “odd combo” but looking at history across time and the current state of many countries now.. I wouldn’t feel right holding it against anyone. I’d feel like a self righteous idiot. Even in Africa. European Christians were bought and sold by Muslims. I think our schools and media use emotional trauma to manipulate the masses. It’s not that I don’t care. I just see a bigger picture. If every tragedy across history made me miserable I’d be long dead because I wouldn’t be able to handle this sick,shallow and evil world.
@@oldaccount5217 And this is what the continuing refusal to look this nation's real history in the eye, acknowledge its continuing effects, and deal with it looks like: eternal deflection and what-about-ism. Lots of terrible things have happened throughout history, all over the world. That's not what we're talking about right now.
As a white man I grew up in the late 1940's and early 1950's and attitudes like this were almost everywhere. Times were changing by the mid to late 1950's and into the 1960's when I finally graduated from High School. I ended up in a heavily racially integrated school by the pure fact of the random meeting of many cultures and races in one area. This was before bussing. I then entered the Navy and served with men and women of many races and colors. When you live and work and depend on the next person for your life and you theirs race means nothing at that point. You all bleed red blood. Nice people are everywhere and every color and race.
“"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that 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.[2] The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".” Abel Meerpol was a Jewish man from the North East who, once he had observed the lynching photographs in the newspapers, was so overwhelmed that he felt the need to write the poem. And then it became the song, and then it became the movement.
Imagine how visceral it was to hear this in the 30's when lynching was still a thing. She was persecuted for singing it throughout her life. Recently there was an excellent documentary on t.v. about her.
Thank you for being brave enough to approach this song and content. If you’ve never heard this song, it will stop you in your tracks when you come to understand its premise. Meeropol and Holiday were ahead of their time in 1937 to publicize a despicable brutality perpetrated on black and brown people in the Deep South. The way you handled this subject matter, articulately and with the respect it deserves in the wake of present day issues, was not lost on your audience. The world would be a kinder place if respect was more common.
Thank you for this powerful and feeling reaction to a song that Holiday made so visceral. I would like you to know that Holiday was not completely drama and tragedy: despite her difficult life, she had a lovely sense of humor and could sing to bring a smile as well as a tear. Here she is swinging with the elegant pianist Teddy Wilson in 1935: ruclips.net/video/YB_qFu1Lbec/видео.html
Billie was introduce to me by my mother so many many years ago. Mother then sat me down and talked to me about racism, and our history in America. It was such formative moment in my life. She encouraged me to look at people for who they are, not the color of their skin. I can still feel the horror of that song the first time I understood. I am encouraged at how much progress we have made over the years. Are we where we need to be? Of course not. But let's all commit to not going backwards with the divisive politics of the day.
"You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope, someday, you'll join us And the World will live as one" Thank you for sharing your story and your hope!
Unfortunately, it took 240 years, just last year in 2020, for Congress to finally pass a federal anti lynching law. Four Southern senators voted against it..."The four representatives who opposed it were Ted Yoho (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Justin Amash (I-MI). The stated reason for opposition was government overreach and that cry has been uttered quite loudly before. Calls for “states’ rights” have often in American history been smokescreens for more nefarious intentions. "
This song was banned they did not allow her to perform it when she would be on stage but from time to time she didn’t care and she went ahead and sang this song amazing
She sang it every single night for her entire career. 20 years, with Nicholas Anslinger (spelling?) the head of National Narcotic Enforcement on her ass the entire time because jazz musicians were known pot smokers. He literally hounded her to her dieing day, having her handcuffed to her hospital bed, which she was in with liver ailments recovering from the addictions he drove her too. Saying she rarely performed it completely dispels the heroism she showed on a near nightly basis for two straight decades.
The Phil Ochs (pronounced Oaks) song, "Here's to the State of Mississippi" is a bitterly sarcastic response to the murder of civil rights workers and so many other blacks. Well worth a reaction.
Thanks for listening to this. Songs like this are difficult to hear which makes them all the more necessary to hear. She, in general, and this song specifically bring tears like few others.
Thank you so much for reacting tothis song, as many of us requested! The song was released in 1939. The story behind this song is just so dark and sad, but also so necessary. Sadly, we still have not come far enough as a society. Billie Holiday was so courageous. Thanks again, Daniel!
The government did its worst to try to stop her from singing this song. If you told her not to sing, she'd need to sing it more. Ironically, in later years, her fans would request this song almost every night, and she found it difficult to perform on demand. When my mother-in-law (Anne) was young, she'd hang out at the jazz clubs (her brother was a musician), and she got to know Billie very well. When Anne was at a shoe and someone would request Strange Fruit, Billie would look over at Anne and ask her if she should sing it and Anne would either say yes or no. Being too young to drink at the clubs, and being a two-drink minimum, Billie convinced Anne to let her drink alcoholic beverages and she would give Anne sodas in return. Anne's father was a dress maker, and made the dress that Billie is buried in. Nina Simone and Annie Lennox are among the many artists who have also covered this song.
When I travel through southern Georgia, near Valdosta, I will stop at the Mary Turner Lynching site to place some flowers. Other people often do this, and I think, perhaps, it's her grand children. She has descendants living nearby, 100 years after she, and her husband were killed. Her story, though ending in horrible death, has the thread of life still running through. I try to find some meaning in that. But when I do place flowers by the plaque that states the facts of what happened near that site, the real facts are the bullet holes pierced through the metal of the engraved plaque itself. From the nearby road, people shoot the plaque from the cars or pick up trucks. That people are so angry at an idea, so ignorant of common decency, so willing to be brutal to a memorial is beyond my comprehension. I forget that evil dwells around us, still.
The original version came out in 1939. The version you listened to is a remake - not sure what year it was from, but since it's a mono mix, it's probably pre-1958.
I first heard this from the movie "Lady Sings the Blues" with Diana Ross playing Miss Holiday. You should check out this movie. The soundtrack is awesome.
I teach in Canada. When I teach "To Kill a Mockingbird," I have to explain Jim Crow, and I have to explain lychings. I make a point of playing this song each time to give my students an emotional understanding of the enormity of these horrors. It works. Another song I use, but less often, is perhaps the saddest song in the world: "Birmingham Sunday" by Joan Baez. I recommend it to you.
Beautiful voice. Wow Every time I hear Billie Holliday I think about author David Sedaris. He does a fantastic rendition of her voice on This American Life and also one or two of his Audible books. Probably on RUclips too.
Great choice Daniel. You been picking a lot of really interesting stuff I wouldn't expect you to normally do. I like this path you are on covering a bit of everything !!! This song is so powerful and sad. I havent heard it in such a long time. Keep up with this mixed bag of reactions !!! :)
Thank you for giving this deeply moving and important song the gravity it deserves. It's hard to hear it without feeling a punch in your gut. Really well done, Daniel.
Bravo for choosing to react to this song. You mentioned how she sang the lyrics. Billie's phrasing was as good as anyone's. Another one of her many classics is "God Bless The Child".
Great choice Daniel. Great choice. Billie Holiday "Lady Day" was my first exposure to jazz. I was an immediate fan. I was in my early 20s. Not so far from your age. The first song that made me set up and take listen was "Body And Soul". That would be the next song of choice to listen to for Billie imo. She was admired by millions and by her peers also. Said Frank Sinatra (imo the greatest singer of all time in popular music) : "It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American singing in the last 20 years." She didnt have the range of an Ella Fitzgerald (another artist to check out) but she brought such emotion and style. If you listen to Louis Armstrong's trumpet playing and Billie Holiday one can hear the same phrasing, vibrato and tone. Her voice was like a sad powerful trumpet set to words. Billie had a very hard life and the singing of "Strange Fruit" due to a racist with some influence and power who made life even more difficult for her didnt help. In fact, it finished her off sadly. Wont give him the glory of even repeating his vile disgusting story against this beautiful woman. Thing with Billie Holiday is she had two periods really. One when she was younger and one when she was older and that beautiful instrument was in a weakened state. While I understand most are familiar with her later period recordings and the appeal they have (greater fidelity, song styles, heartbreaking raspier vocals etc) her real prime was much earlier in the 30's and 40's material with the big band. In fact she originally recorded "Strange Fruit" in 1939. Which is Billie Holiday at her peak vocals in all its majesty. Though the fidelity may not be as good (it is very listenable) this is the Billie Holiday that originally moved audiences and dropped jaws.. m.ruclips.net/video/U-EhtNjUJAU/видео.html This is not to say later Billie isnt just as valid (in fact with song Strange Fruit the rasp tired vocal may serve the song better) but rather to say dont forget those early recordings of hers. That is the real Billie Holiday vocals that are legendary. 30's and 40's. Here is a live performance of Billie singing "Strange Fruits" in 1959. Weakened and vulnerable one can see the pain in her eyes as she sings this song most likely thinking upon her father who died due to racism also. Seeing her in this video I think adds to the weight of the song. Especially knowing now what she went through.. m.ruclips.net/video/-DGY9HvChXk/видео.html Try "Body And Soul" next perhaps. I think you would like it just as well. Lady Day is a deep deep well.
Thank you for this. Besides being a pioneer in anti racist advocacy through this recording, BH was also a jazz vocalist icon. A very nice video, showcasing some of the musicians she regularly played with (not least Lester Young) is here: ruclips.net/video/YKqxG09wlIA/видео.html A few years later and her voice is slightly more rugged, but lots of soul, timing and musicality.
OOH! I'm so glad you have made it here! This one might be a good song to share with your Dad, get his take on it. I hope you will also watch "Lady Sings the Blues" which is Billie Holiday's story. Played by Diana Ross, who was just amazing. Are you aware of the furor over Critical Racism being taught in public schools? Actually, this is a graduate law school course, not a public school course at all, but parents are up in arms, fearing that their children are being taught to hate themselves for being white. "To Kill a Mocking Bird" is no longer being taught in school, because it contains racist names for black people that were in common use in the south during the time period that the book is about. "Maus" a book written by the son of Holocaust survivors about his parent's experience in the German work/prison death camps, has been removed from school libraries. This kind of racism refuses to die out.
I watched this video right on the heels of your reaction to "I'm Eighteen." So it was especially poignant to see the metaphorical "lines form your face" as you listened to it for the first time - there went a bit of your childhood innocence, right there on the video. But everyone needs to hear this one. Sad to say, the same hatred is still very real today.
I find it strange that this song is less known in the U.S.A than Europe. Obviously it's an old track but I remember hearing it and though I'm not young (48) it was still before my time and obviously no internet I'd always assumed it would be a huge anthem(?) For want of better word.
Oh, Lordie! Daniel, you had me in a puddle on the floor, just from watching you react. I had to take a break and get up and make a cup of tea, before I could respond. Yes, you can certainly learn from this song that truth-tellers are always hated and attacked by the mainstream of the time.
wow INDEED!....big fan of Ms Holiday but I had not heard this one....thanks mate...if you want to see a phenomenal movie about her check out "The Lady Sings the Blues"....Diana Ross plays Billie in one of the most powerful film performances by an actress I have ever seen....she also sings all of the songs and sounds very much like Billie....highly recommend it.....peace
She had something to say, and she didn’t pull any punches. It’s graphic and to the point. She used her platform to bring a reality to the forefront! It’s hard to listen to, but it was necessary!
The fact of the matter is that many white people hate hearing about how terribly our country treated it's minorities. Like the Indigenous peoples,Slaves in the pre-Civil War Era, Japanese- Americans in WWII, the LBGT Community today. To deal with your history by ignoring it is not to deal with it at all.
I highly recommend a movie from 1988 Mississippi Burning. It covers the murders In the early 1960’s of three young college students who were trying to help register black voters in Mississippi. I also recommend In The Heat Of The Night.. filmed in 1967. It shows the racism that still to this day exists in the south.
Great reaction! Be sure to check out Nina Simone's rendition of the song. Then listen to her song "Mississippi Goddam." There are some great live versions of it on RUclips.
The track you played is not the 1939 version. It's from her 1956 album, Lady Sings The Blues, in which she re-recorded some of her best-known songs. Definitely check out her 1939 version. It's chilling.
I sent a link to Daniel to the1939 version early in the month via Twitter. I'm just glad he gave any version a listen. But I do hope he goes back and listens to the original recording on his own time.
Thank you .... The song and it's story, and it's message are incredibly important to American history. There is a movement in your country to gloss over the dark side of the American story... It is up to the young of your country to fight this fight, as the "old boys' network" is working very hard to "whitewash" history. I suppose the other story, that of native Americans, is best shown by an English singer you might have heard of... Elton John's song Bernie Taupin's lyrics) Indian Sunset. Moving....
A song about the hate this nation was built on and still exists till this very day..much respect to you young sir for reacting to a song containing a subject such as this..
Thank you for your bravery and candor and in depth reaction to this song. Very timely in this present era of those who want to ban "critical race theory" and particular books in schools. The line: "for the crows to pluck" refers to the habit of crows to feed off of dead human bodies (not just the eyes) Crows are omnivorous and the first to scavenge off of carrion
There is still a lot of this hate around, and it really hasn't even slowed down that much. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and a seemingly endless list of others, racially motivated murder seems like it will never go away. I wish this song was merely a reminder of a past that we had risen above, but we really, really haven't.
I love Billie Holiday’s music and loved your reaction to this classic song of hers. I am going to next locate your reaction to her rendition of “Gloomy Sunday,” a song which I never heard of before. Ironically, in lieu of the current tensions surrounding the Israeli-Hamas Conflict, lest we forget, the song “Strange Fruit” was written by a progressive Jewish American schoolteacher and Holiday introduced it at New York’s elite Jewish owned progressive nightclub, Cafe Society. Billie Holiday was one of Americas most successful Blues and Pop singers of her era, when she dared to record this song, but her career was never the same afterwards as it was banned from most radio stations and the FBI and DEA would haunt her until the day she died, 20 years later in 1959. Yet her live televised performance of this song a few months before her drug addicted death in 59, still haunts us to this day.
Protest songs were big in the 1960's , tackling many subjects , but this is viewed by many as the first protest song . Also powerful is Nina Simone's MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN .
She was persecuted for singing this. The powerful destroyed her career and her for refusing to shelf the truth. I’d be wary of anyone who doesn’t break when hearing this.
The genre of the protest song regarding the Black experience is vast and deep...given your affinity for Billie, it may be worth checking out "Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone (and if you're feeling more adventurous, "Pirate Jenny").
Hmm, dont listen to the crappy media. Critical race theory teaches that white people should feel guilty for the past of other, completely unconnected people who happen to have the same skin colour as me and who did bad things in the past. Critical Race theory only sees skin colour and is therefore a racist philosophy. Critical Race Theory tries to divide just as we are starting to see past skin colour as a society. CRT is cancer.
Check out Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Gorecki. A symphony based on poems about the Holocaust, as well as the composer's own recollections of being a child living 27 miles away from Auschwitz. He has some horrific stories he remembered as a child. As well as Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children) by Gustav Mahler. All of these works of art will bring you to your knees.
Hate needs to be exposed and talked about. Ignoring hate will only make it grow. Billie Holiday was incredibly brave to speak and sing to racism and hate. Thank you Daniel for reacting to this very important song in music history.
Yes, and at this time the country was still reeling from all the KKK activity all across the country. She was very brave.
"On August 7, 1930, a mob of ten to fifteen thousand whites abducted three young black men from the jail in Marion, Indiana, lynching Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Sixteen-year-old James Cameron narrowly survived after being beaten by the mob."
"If I'm gonna sing like someone else, then I'm not gonna sing at all"
- Billie Holiday
This was a very dangerous song to perform at that time. She, the band, the producers, etc - they knew they were taking mortal risks being involved with this. This was a powerful song for its and can still impact us today.
Thank you for doing this, Daniel. This is an important number about a terrible phenomenon. Lynching was designed not only to inflict suffering and death on its victims--it was designed to intimidate the rest of the black population of an area. Billie Holiday's number was indeed a heroic one. And that voice! Amazing.
As a white American, I am embarrassed to say I had never heard of this song until maybe 10 years ago - if that long. I cried when I first heard it and I still cried today. I grew up during the 60's, and the Civil Rights Movement made a huge positive impact on me. It has never made sense to me to treat someone differently because of the color of their skin - or any other thing for that matter. I am a religious person also, and have always felt that since we are all equal children in His sight- that's all more the reason for me to treat everyone the same with love and respect. I guess I was extremely naive when I was young, however. I felt that since I realized how idiotic racial discrimination was, that my entire generation would also grow up and eventually catch onto that also. I sincerely felt that by the time I was in my later years of life like I am now, that racial discrimination would be nothing but history - as we would have evolved as a nation to obliterate it. Man, was I wrong. I never realized that racism is a learned horror and we as a society just keep on teaching it to our children - rather it be at home or with built-in societal oppression. My husband and I have two grown children. Our youngest, our son, is a bi-racial adopted child. When I first heard this song, I remember I asked him to come listen to it with me. He listened, as he had never heard it before either. But his response just stopped my heart when he said, "Try living with stuff like that every day". That started on-going discussions about the daily racism he experiences as a young black man today. And with all of the cases in the news practically every day of another black person being gunned down by our police - you better bet my prayers for his safety start every time he walks out the door. Sorry - didn't mean to type so much, but this song evokes strong emotions. Great reaction, Daniel. Thank you!
Thank you, Rita Thomas, for expressing some of my own feelings about this monumental and painful song, and Daniel for playing it and immediately getting its meaning. I first heard it in my late twenties (more than 30 years ago), and each time it's like reopening a wound. It is devastating in its artistic brilliance and takes us right to the edge of the soulless abyss that is racism. Sometimes I just can't, but Ms. Holiday and so many others have had the courage to stand up, so I continue to do the same. We simply must overcome this, or it will continue to suck every drop of humanity from the human race. Love is the only force more powerful than hate. It is our secret weapon. Use it daily, especially when it's easier to scorn and revile, and peace will surely follow. There is no 'other'. Just us humans.
My big sister was biracial-she passed in 2017. It was true in the 30s, true in the 60s, true in the 90s, and true now. Ahmad Aubrey is just the most recent trial.
Billie was pursued by the government, which as an institution hated this song.
Daniel, watch a Billie Holiday biopic (not the Diana Ross one-good, but not madly brave)-and see how her refusal to stop performing Strange Fruit affected her life.
@@sarahjane8146 The United States of America vs Billie Holiday.
Really illuminated how she was treated most of her life up until even her deathbed. Heroin planted on her when she was clean so they could arrest her. Handcuffed to her deathbed just because she had the guts to speak the unspeakable. A lot of people believe this song was the dawn of the civil rights era and I firmly believe that. She was a brave soul for sure.
Rita Thomas, no need for you to be embarrassed! But I get it. This is a national embarrassment. Today there is a National Museum devoted to the lynching era located in Montgomery Alabama. During the height of the lynching era, many photographs were taken of those horrors and then passes around like post cards because the perpetuators were very proud of their handiwork. This is why we have so much documentation of this form of terrorism.
May God Bless you and Your Family, Thank You For Sharing That. 🙏
Yeah…..we see people wanting to ban books that might make students “uncomfortable”. Can you imagine if they played this in high-schools? She caught holy hell for this song.
Yep,agree! We can't have truth-telling going on in our schools, right?
We think alike - my train of thought went there too, to the way lots of people today don’t want to face the fact that America had a slough of awful things in it’s past, and want to sugarcoat it instead.
It should and needs to be played across the country in every high school.
@@tcanfield Not Only Sugar Coat It, But They want to Top it with Colorful SPRINKLES too. Just Saying.
We actually did talk about this in my high school history class two years ago- although we listened to Nina Simone’s version, not this one.
Hello Daniel. As a black man, I have to at least give you credit for being courageous enough to react to this particular song. Although not from poplar trees, modern day lynchings are still occurring. Today marks only the 2nd anniversary for the death of Ahmaud Arbery who was chased, and shot down like a wild animal while jogging near Brunswick GA. Thank God justice prevailed in this case, but it's pretty sad the meaning of this song is still "strangely" haunting with relevance in 2022.
Plus all the "sanctioned" "justified" police lynchings against POC.
If any of us had even the courage Ms. Holiday had in her little finger, we would be absolutely heroic. Singing this song cost her dearly, but she understood its importance...she did it anyway.
Right On !!!
Amen!!!
No matter what race of who you are THIS SONG IS MEANT for you too hear!It shows exactly whom you are king to have courage to play this!!
This song is part of our national patrimony. It must be passed down to the younger generations. We must not lose our history to blurred memory. Thank you, Daniel, for taking on this difficult song and the subject matter it contains.
Check out the movie United States vs. Billy Holiday. I believe it's on Hulu. It's about this song and the effort the U.S. made to censor this song and Billy Holiday.
I watched it. She was so brave and defiant. She endured such horrible treatment. Even as she lay dying from pneumonia she was handcuffed to her bed.
Diana Ross also performed this song in the 1972 film “Lady Sings The Blues”.
Everyone should listen to this song. Not just hear it but LISTEN. Miss Billie struggled with addiction but she was a gift. She risked her life to perform this song and that was pure bravery. She understood its importance and so should we all.
I think the line about black bodies swinging in the breeze really gets to me. Lynching. Very intense sad subject. It's mournful.
I remember hearing the lyrics to that song in the movie “Lady Sings The Blues” and it was quite a jolt to hear that.
Did you know most lynchings and slavery occurred in countries other than America in other continents across history?And that hangings were primarily done to Italian Americans because of a couple historical oppressive times that involved many hangings simultaneously, history classes don’t seem to care about it though. I’m Native American and Jewish “odd combo” but looking at history across time and the current state of many countries now.. I wouldn’t feel right holding it against anyone. I’d feel like a self righteous idiot. Even in Africa. European Christians were bought and sold by Muslims. I think our schools and media use emotional trauma to manipulate the masses. It’s not that I don’t care. I just see a bigger picture. If every tragedy across history made me miserable I’d be long dead because I wouldn’t be able to handle this sick,shallow and evil world.
@@oldaccount5217 And this is what the continuing refusal to look this nation's real history in the eye, acknowledge its continuing effects, and deal with it looks like: eternal deflection and what-about-ism. Lots of terrible things have happened throughout history, all over the world. That's not what we're talking about right now.
@@oldaccount5217 how does your knee feel about it?
Each reveal in the lyrics always land, like a direct blow to the solar plexus!
As a white man I grew up in the late 1940's and early 1950's and attitudes like this were almost everywhere. Times were changing by the mid to late 1950's and into the 1960's when I finally graduated from High School. I ended up in a heavily racially integrated school by the pure fact of the random meeting of many cultures and races in one area. This was before bussing. I then entered the Navy and served with men and women of many races and colors. When you live and work and depend on the next person for your life and you theirs race means nothing at that point. You all bleed red blood. Nice people are everywhere and every color and race.
“"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that 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.[2] The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".”
Abel Meerpol was a Jewish man from the North East who, once he had observed the lynching photographs in the newspapers, was so overwhelmed that he felt the need to write the poem. And then it became the song, and then it became the movement.
I cried the entire time I first heard this song. I still do every time I hear it. Haunting.
Thank you for choosing to do this haunting song. Your intelligent commentary is always much appreciated!
Imagine how visceral it was to hear this in the 30's when lynching was still a thing. She was persecuted for singing it throughout her life. Recently there was an excellent documentary on t.v. about her.
It's not legal, but happens today. Look it up.
Thank you for being brave enough to approach this song and content. If you’ve never heard this song, it will stop you in your tracks when you come to understand its premise. Meeropol and Holiday were ahead of their time in 1937 to publicize a despicable brutality perpetrated on black and brown people in the Deep South. The way you handled this subject matter, articulately and with the respect it deserves in the wake of present day issues, was not lost on your audience. The world would be a kinder place if respect was more common.
Thank you for centering and naming matters like courage and what I see as grit to put this song out into the universe.
Thankyou for the History lesson!It bears repeating until healing of the entire world occurs!I appreciate You!!💕💞💕💞💕
Probably the most moving song that I ever heard, by a very brave and talented singer Billie Holiday..
Thank you for this powerful and feeling reaction to a song that Holiday made so visceral.
I would like you to know that Holiday was not completely drama and tragedy: despite her difficult life, she had a lovely sense of humor and could sing to bring a smile as well as a tear. Here she is swinging with the elegant pianist Teddy Wilson in 1935: ruclips.net/video/YB_qFu1Lbec/видео.html
This too! ruclips.net/video/D0xAyj74Zcc/видео.html
@@jeffcowdrey1578 Absolutely - I love the Teddy Wilson recordings!
Thank you for doing this, Daniel.
Billie was introduce to me by my mother so many many years ago. Mother then sat me down and talked to me about racism, and our history in America. It was such formative moment in my life. She encouraged me to look at people for who they are, not the color of their skin. I can still feel the horror of that song the first time I understood. I am encouraged at how much progress we have made over the years. Are we where we need to be? Of course not. But let's all commit to not going backwards with the divisive politics of the day.
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope, someday, you'll join us
And the World will live as one"
Thank you for sharing your story and your hope!
Very powerful song. Nothing else needs to be said, Daniel. Thank you for doing this. Peace.
I read in a biography of Holiday that she insisted on silence when she'd sing this; kitchen service stopped etc. I love her so much.
Unfortunately, it took 240 years, just last year in 2020, for Congress to finally pass a federal anti lynching law. Four Southern senators voted against it..."The four representatives who opposed it were Ted Yoho (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Justin Amash (I-MI). The stated reason for opposition was government overreach and that cry has been uttered quite loudly before. Calls for “states’ rights” have often in American history been smokescreens for more nefarious intentions. "
I just love her so much I love this song just heard it yesterday
What a heavy metaphor....."blood on the leaves, blood at the root". Strange crop indeed.
One of the most thought provoking and powerful songs ever. The saxophone plays like a funeral song so perfectly.
This song was banned they did not allow her to perform it when she would be on stage but from time to time she didn’t care and she went ahead and sang this song amazing
She sang it every single night for her entire career. 20 years, with Nicholas Anslinger (spelling?) the head of National Narcotic Enforcement on her ass the entire time because jazz musicians were known pot smokers. He literally hounded her to her dieing day, having her handcuffed to her hospital bed, which she was in with liver ailments recovering from the addictions he drove her too.
Saying she rarely performed it completely dispels the heroism she showed on a near nightly basis for two straight decades.
The Phil Ochs (pronounced Oaks) song, "Here's to the State of Mississippi" is a bitterly sarcastic response to the murder of civil rights workers and so many other blacks. Well worth a reaction.
As is Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam"
thank you for this reaction. we need to know all of our history. the good and the bad so we dont repeat the mistakes. bless you smiles and love to you
Thanks for listening to this. Songs like this are difficult to hear which makes them all the more necessary to hear. She, in general, and this song specifically bring tears like few others.
I knew this song well since I was a young , but I was surprised when I learned as an adult what a strange fruit it was.
Thank you so much for reacting tothis song, as many of us requested! The song was released in 1939. The story behind this song is just so dark and sad, but also so necessary. Sadly, we still have not come far enough as a society. Billie Holiday was so courageous. Thanks again, Daniel!
Hey Daniel, if you haven't seen the movie "Mississippi burning", I recommend it.
Great reaction as always ❤
I’m glad to see you know what this song means and it’s meaning today.
Powerful song and great interpretation. I'm glad you got to know it.
The government did its worst to try to stop her from singing this song. If you told her not to sing, she'd need to sing it more. Ironically, in later years, her fans would request this song almost every night, and she found it difficult to perform on demand.
When my mother-in-law (Anne) was young, she'd hang out at the jazz clubs (her brother was a musician), and she got to know Billie very well. When Anne was at a shoe and someone would request Strange Fruit, Billie would look over at Anne and ask her if she should sing it and Anne would either say yes or no.
Being too young to drink at the clubs, and being a two-drink minimum, Billie convinced Anne to let her drink alcoholic beverages and she would give Anne sodas in return. Anne's father was a dress maker, and made the dress that Billie is buried in.
Nina Simone and Annie Lennox are among the many artists who have also covered this song.
This is Billie's masterpiece.
When I travel through southern Georgia, near Valdosta, I will stop at the Mary Turner Lynching site to place some flowers. Other people often do this, and I think, perhaps, it's her grand children. She has descendants living nearby, 100 years after she, and her husband were killed. Her story, though ending in horrible death, has the thread of life still running through. I try to find some meaning in that. But when I do place flowers by the plaque that states the facts of what happened near that site, the real facts are the bullet holes pierced through the metal of the engraved plaque itself. From the nearby road, people shoot the plaque from the cars or pick up trucks. That people are so angry at an idea, so ignorant of common decency, so willing to be brutal to a memorial is beyond my comprehension. I forget that evil dwells around us, still.
Thank you for your kindness & remembrance.
The original version came out in 1939. The version you listened to is a remake - not sure what year it was from, but since it's a mono mix, it's probably pre-1958.
Unfortunately lynchings are still happening right here in the U.S....still.
I first heard this from the movie "Lady Sings the Blues" with Diana Ross playing Miss Holiday. You should check out this movie. The soundtrack is awesome.
The power of music writ large, enough said
Powerful reaction. Thank you for this. Your very first words pretty much nailed it. "Jesus Christ!"
I teach in Canada. When I teach "To Kill a Mockingbird," I have to explain Jim Crow, and I have to explain lychings. I make a point of playing this song each time to give my students an emotional understanding of the enormity of these horrors. It works. Another song I use, but less often, is perhaps the saddest song in the world: "Birmingham Sunday" by Joan Baez. I recommend it to you.
Beautiful voice. Wow Every time I hear Billie Holliday I think about author David Sedaris. He does a fantastic rendition of her voice on This American Life and also one or two of his Audible books. Probably on RUclips too.
Great choice Daniel. You been picking a lot of really interesting stuff I wouldn't expect you to normally do. I like this path you are on covering a bit of everything !!! This song is so powerful and sad. I havent heard it in such a long time. Keep up with this mixed bag of reactions !!! :)
DANIEL, you need to see the 1972 Oscar winning movie about her life “Lady Sings The Blues”. It’s easily one of the best movies ever made.
Thank you for reacting to this very important Song!!!!!!!!!
Thank you kid for sharing this with your fans...it's so important. Peace and love !
Thank you for giving this deeply moving and important song the gravity it deserves. It's hard to hear it without feeling a punch in your gut. Really well done, Daniel.
Daniel....God bless you for this channel
And here's some info on the poet: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Meeropol
Thanks for the link. I was amazed to learn that he adopted the two children of the Rosenbergs !
An amazing song by an amazing artist. Reflects a sad time in our history, such courage in song for those times.
This song was banned from the radio as well as when she performed live with threats of jail. She did it anyway
Bravo for choosing to react to this song. You mentioned how she sang the lyrics. Billie's phrasing was as good as anyone's. Another one of her many classics is "God Bless The Child".
I remember when we went to see Lady Sings The Blues, but even after that we didn't know the half of it about her and her music.
Great choice Daniel. Great choice.
Billie Holiday "Lady Day" was my first exposure to jazz. I was an immediate fan. I was in my early 20s. Not so far from your age.
The first song that made me set up and take listen was "Body And Soul". That would be the next song of choice to listen to for Billie imo. She was admired by millions and by her peers also.
Said Frank Sinatra (imo the greatest singer of all time in popular music) :
"It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American singing in the last 20 years."
She didnt have the range of an Ella Fitzgerald (another artist to check out) but she brought such emotion and style.
If you listen to Louis Armstrong's trumpet playing and Billie Holiday one can hear the same phrasing, vibrato and tone. Her voice was like a sad powerful trumpet set to words.
Billie had a very hard life and the singing of "Strange Fruit" due to a racist with some influence and power who made life even more difficult for her didnt help. In fact, it finished her off sadly. Wont give him the glory of even repeating his vile disgusting story against this beautiful woman.
Thing with Billie Holiday is she had two periods really.
One when she was younger and one when she was older and that beautiful instrument was in a weakened state.
While I understand most are familiar with her later period recordings and the appeal they have (greater fidelity, song styles, heartbreaking raspier vocals etc) her real prime was much earlier in the 30's and 40's material with the big band.
In fact she originally recorded "Strange Fruit" in 1939. Which is Billie Holiday at her peak vocals in all its majesty.
Though the fidelity may not be as good (it is very listenable) this is the Billie Holiday that originally moved audiences and dropped jaws..
m.ruclips.net/video/U-EhtNjUJAU/видео.html
This is not to say later Billie isnt just as valid (in fact with song Strange Fruit the rasp tired vocal may serve the song better) but rather to say dont forget those early recordings of hers.
That is the real Billie Holiday vocals that are legendary. 30's and 40's.
Here is a live performance of Billie singing "Strange Fruits" in 1959.
Weakened and vulnerable one can see the pain in her eyes as she sings this song most likely thinking upon her father who died due to racism also. Seeing her in this video I think adds to the weight of the song. Especially knowing now what she went through..
m.ruclips.net/video/-DGY9HvChXk/видео.html
Try "Body And Soul" next perhaps. I think you would like it just as well.
Lady Day is a deep deep well.
Billie Holiday didn’t write this song but it was brave of her to sing this song and to record it.
I heard this song first time in a movie and it really moved me I'm a white Australian woman and it truly moved me .
Damn. Unfortunately this is still sadly relevant.
You want to read up on a sad story. Read up on Emmett Till.
Thank you for this. Besides being a pioneer in anti racist advocacy through this recording, BH was also a jazz vocalist icon. A very nice video, showcasing some of the musicians she regularly played with (not least Lester Young) is here: ruclips.net/video/YKqxG09wlIA/видео.html A few years later and her voice is slightly more rugged, but lots of soul, timing
and musicality.
OOH! I'm so glad you have made it here! This one might be a good song to share with your Dad, get his take on it. I hope you will also watch "Lady Sings the Blues" which is Billie Holiday's story. Played by Diana Ross, who was just amazing. Are you aware of the furor over Critical Racism being taught in public schools? Actually, this is a graduate law school course, not a public school course at all, but parents are up in arms, fearing that their children are being taught to hate themselves for being white. "To Kill a Mocking Bird" is no longer being taught in school, because it contains racist names for black people that were in common use in the south during the time period that the book is about. "Maus" a book written by the son of Holocaust survivors about his parent's experience in the German work/prison death camps, has been removed from school libraries. This kind of racism refuses to die out.
thank you for doing this - I didn't kn9w this song until now.
While you are down this rabbit hole, I would highly recommend you check out Black and Blue by Louie Armstrong. It's right in this lane.
I watched this video right on the heels of your reaction to "I'm Eighteen." So it was especially poignant to see the metaphorical "lines form your face" as you listened to it for the first time - there went a bit of your childhood innocence, right there on the video. But everyone needs to hear this one. Sad to say, the same hatred is still very real today.
The most powerful song ever written...
I find it strange that this song is less known in the U.S.A than Europe.
Obviously it's an old track but I remember hearing it and though I'm not young (48) it was still before my time and obviously no internet
I'd always assumed it would be a huge anthem(?) For want of better word.
Not strange. The fact that this song has been as suppressed as it has been is part of the overall tragedy of US history.
Oh, Lordie! Daniel, you had me in a puddle on the floor, just from watching you react. I had to take a break and get up and make a cup of tea, before I could respond.
Yes, you can certainly learn from this song that truth-tellers are always hated and attacked by the mainstream of the time.
Such a powerful song about a horrible period in the US
This is a chilling and disturbing song. One can see the images in one's mind. It is a tearful. Image.
So important. Glad you have heard this D.
wow INDEED!....big fan of Ms Holiday but I had not heard this one....thanks mate...if you want to see a phenomenal movie about her check out "The Lady Sings the Blues"....Diana Ross plays Billie in one of the most powerful film performances by an actress I have ever seen....she also sings all of the songs and sounds very much like Billie....highly recommend it.....peace
She had something to say, and she didn’t pull any punches. It’s graphic and to the point. She used her platform to bring a reality to the forefront! It’s hard to listen to, but it was necessary!
The fact of the matter is that many white people hate hearing about how terribly our country treated it's minorities. Like the Indigenous peoples,Slaves in the pre-Civil War Era, Japanese- Americans in WWII, the LBGT Community today. To deal with your history by ignoring it is not to deal with it at all.
I highly recommend a movie from 1988 Mississippi Burning. It covers the murders In the early 1960’s of three young college students who were trying to help register black voters in Mississippi. I also recommend In The Heat Of The Night.. filmed in 1967. It shows the racism that still to this day exists in the south.
Great reaction! Be sure to check out Nina Simone's rendition of the song. Then listen to her song "Mississippi Goddam." There are some great live versions of it on RUclips.
joe bonnamassa and beth hart honor billie with a cover worth checking out
The track you played is not the 1939 version. It's from her 1956 album, Lady Sings The Blues, in which she re-recorded some of her best-known songs. Definitely check out her 1939 version. It's chilling.
I sent a link to Daniel to the1939 version early in the month via Twitter. I'm just glad he gave any version a listen. But I do hope he goes back and listens to the original recording on his own time.
Thank you .... The song and it's story, and it's message are incredibly important to American history.
There is a movement in your country to gloss over the dark side of the American story... It is up to the young of your country to fight this fight, as the "old boys' network" is working very hard to "whitewash" history.
I suppose the other story, that of native Americans, is best shown by an English singer you might have heard of... Elton John's song Bernie Taupin's lyrics) Indian Sunset.
Moving....
A song about the hate this nation was built on and still exists till this very day..much respect to you young sir for reacting to a song containing a subject such as this..
My brother, U have a beautiful way with words ✊🏽👍🏽
Thank you for your bravery and candor and in depth reaction to this song. Very timely in this present era of those who want to ban "critical race theory" and particular books in schools.
The line: "for the crows to pluck" refers to the habit of crows to feed off of dead human bodies (not just the eyes) Crows are omnivorous and the first to scavenge off of carrion
This a remark in the 1950s she first recorded in 1939.The feds started to following after she recorded this song .
There is still a lot of this hate around, and it really hasn't even slowed down that much. George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and a seemingly endless list of others, racially motivated murder seems like it will never go away. I wish this song was merely a reminder of a past that we had risen above, but we really, really haven't.
The Tulip Poplar ,is also the state tree of, Kentucky
That explains a lot
I love Billie Holiday’s music and loved your reaction to this classic song of hers. I am going to next locate your reaction to her rendition of “Gloomy Sunday,” a song which I never heard of before. Ironically, in lieu of the current tensions surrounding the Israeli-Hamas Conflict, lest we forget, the song “Strange Fruit” was written by a progressive Jewish American schoolteacher and Holiday introduced it at New York’s elite Jewish owned progressive nightclub, Cafe Society. Billie Holiday was one of Americas most successful Blues and Pop singers of her era, when she dared to record this song, but her career was never the same afterwards as it was banned from most radio stations and the FBI and DEA would haunt her until the day she died, 20 years later in 1959. Yet her live televised performance of this song a few months before her drug addicted death in 59, still haunts us to this day.
Protest songs were big in the 1960's , tackling many subjects , but this is viewed by many as the first protest song . Also powerful is Nina Simone's MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN .
She was persecuted for singing this. The powerful destroyed her career and her for refusing to shelf the truth. I’d be wary of anyone who doesn’t break when hearing this.
The genre of the protest song regarding the Black experience is vast and deep...given your affinity for Billie, it may be worth checking out "Mississippi Goddam" by Nina Simone (and if you're feeling more adventurous, "Pirate Jenny").
The right wing of this country would have this song banned.
They would label it Critical Race Theory.
Hmm, dont listen to the crappy media. Critical race theory teaches that white people should feel guilty for the past of other, completely unconnected people who happen to have the same skin colour as me and who did bad things in the past. Critical Race theory only sees skin colour and is therefore a racist philosophy. Critical Race Theory tries to divide just as we are starting to see past skin colour as a society. CRT is cancer.
Probably the saddest song ever written.
Check out Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by Henryk Gorecki. A symphony based on poems about the Holocaust, as well as the composer's own recollections of being a child living 27 miles away from Auschwitz. He has some horrific stories he remembered as a child.
As well as Kindertotenlieder (songs on the death of children) by Gustav Mahler.
All of these works of art will bring you to your knees.
This is our history.
Wow! Wow. 😢