Strange Fruit

Strange Fruit

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

In 1999, Time magazine named "Strange Fruit" the "song of the century"

https://www.npr.org/2012/09/05/158933012/the-strange-story-of-the-man-behind-strange-fruit 

MEET LINDA RANSOM: 

See Linda April 19 at the University of St. Joseph in W. Hartford, CT with the Jen Allen / Matt Dwonszyk Ensemble. Set list includes Billy Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Richie Havens’ FREEDOM, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Goin On …

https://cooljustice.blogspot.com/2022/03/meet-linda-ransom-they-say-her-voice-is.html

The song “is going to be relevant until cops start getting convicted for murdering Black people,” Michael Meeropol, one of Abel Meeropol’s sons, told “CBS This Morning” before Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of murdering Mr. Floyd

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/arts/music/strange-fruit-united-states-v-billie-holiday.html