Lindsay Beardall (u0336298)

MUSC 1236-090

Writing Project #1

The dark and simple melody and stark words of Abel Meeropol’s song, “Strange Fruit”,

have carried it through decades of social protest and civil rights movements – and with good

reason. One only has to read or hear the song one time, and its dark imagery becomes something

we cannot forget.

Meeropol paints an effective picture with his macabre word choices, such as, “blood”,

“bulging”, “twisted”, “burning flesh”, “pluck”, “rot”, and “bitter”, and then interlacing those

words with lighter words, such as “fruit”, “breeze”, “pastoral”, “gallant”, and “magnolia sweet

and fresh”, that serve to emphasize a dark humor. The music embraces this same feeling, with its

easy, somber tone and a melody that stays with you, cementing the lyrics and meaning in your

mind. The diction starts light with a little touch of dark (“blood”), conflicts in the middle, going

back and forth, and ends with only dark. One can, through the imagery provided, easily see the

photograph that inspired Meeropol, why it affected him so much, and why it affects and applys

to the world at large. Bodies swinging in the breeze, on poplar trees; what a perfect, emotive way

of presenting the horrifying scene that inspired this poem. In the last stanza, it seems that all the

elements and nature are seizing their opportunities or taking their course without sympathy and

without mercy. Another striking image provided by the text is that of the “gallant south” and a

“pastoral scene”, which shows the false pride and reputation the south implies for itself, but

those phrases provide a stark contrast here, since those engendering that attitude are the ones

committing and condoning murder of fellow human beings. In regard to the use of the words
“fruit” and “crop”, the texts seems to imply that blacks were view as a product, not a person; a

commonplace thing taken for granted, abused, and discarded.

After Meeropol had written the poem and it had received attention, the Tin Pan Alley

movement inspired him to put the text to music, and he produced a song that initially his wife

sang at a school function…and it sprang from there up to Billie Holiday’s ears and subsequently

the ears of Café Society, then onto the world. Billie Holiday has been cited as saying the song

was written specifically for her to sing, which is evidentially not true, and honestly makes it less

effective, at least to me personally. At the end of the video “Strange Fruit”, the recording of

Billie Holiday actually begins with her stating

Performer – Billie Holiday, first recorded in 1939, was basically banned on radios, said that song

had been written specifically for her, even later in life, like before her performance at the end of

the film, even though it was actually inspired by a picture of a lynching.

“Strange Fruit” basically became a (if not the) Civil Rights anthem, and seems to come

out of the woodwork every couple of decades or so. Thanks to Billie Holiday’s dramatic

performance of it in 1939 at Café Society, it skyrocketed into popularity as people recognized

and connected with the message. It was basically banned from the radio, which as we know only

made it more popular. It kept growing in popularity, and still shows up as a protest song. It’s

been covered by so many different people, of all races, creeds, and music genres, and this has to

be because of its vivid and biting words, along with an unforgettable melody.
 People are surprised when someone not of a certain race or class or gender can write

something that is so poignant to those it is about, but they shouldn’t be. What else is empathy but

that? Song writers and poets are typically the ones that take the time to feel on a deep enough

level to understand something even without experiencing it. It’s part of why they write. The fact

that Meeropol was Jewish only adds to his contribution. The amount of anti-semitism around that

same time period was massive; maybe not as prevalent in America as Europe, but then again we

had our hands full degrading and abasing blacks, but eventually got to Jews, women, Hispanics,

Muslims, Japanese, homosexuals; so on and so forth – the list goes on a very long way.

Meeropol’s authorship only adds to the universality of the message.

The social message of Strange Fruit, as it stands today, is more subtle and more universal,

but is absolutely still there. It is a song that seems to come out of the woodwork and back into

the limelight every few decades or so, for various reasons. But mostly, Meeropol’s song is a, if

not the, civil rights anthem, thanks to its vivid and biting words, Holiday’s performance bringing

attention to a matter that needed to be addressed and not ignored, and because it discusses the

destruction human nature can bring to the world.