by Billie Holiday
Southern trees bear 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 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.
9 comments:
Keep them sad songs coming...
Does this song relate to something that happened to you? Seems so according to the label you've used?
No, it doesn't and that I am glad for. Dead black people hanging in trees I can be without... I was inspired when watching "Skeleton Key" where a black couple is hanged and burned. The label is the title of the song.
Ok, really nasty stuff...hanged and burned.
BTW, I learned a swedish word today, "hejsansvejsan". I understand it's more like a greeting and not very formal.
The southern history is a dark age. Haha...no, I wouldn't say that it is formal at all :-) Howdydowdy...
So "hejsansvejsan" is the only word you learned? No bad words? ;-)
I rely upon you to teach me some of those bad words ;-)
Is "hejsamsvejsan" a word you may use all over Sweden or is it a regional expression? Just so I don't make a fool of myself if going to Stockholm and I'd say the word there? Guess I have to learn how to pronounce it too ;-)
So, do teach me some bad words in Swedish...hehe
"This song is one of the best protestsongs in the world. In my point of view the very best. However I don´t understand protestsongs in many other languages than Swedish and English.
Not everybody understand Strange fruit either. In a concert once a man in the public asked Billie to sing "that sexy song about fruit hanging in trees...!"
God idea to write down the text in your blog. I have done it myself long time ago.
Billie is one of my favourites."
Still waiting for the "bad words", hehe
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