A Jewish communist by the name of Abel Meeropol was stirred to write the song when he saw a photograph of a lynching that . Speculation has begun in Eastern Kentucky about a potentially large reserve of oil and natural gas trapped about two miles underground. Lewis Allen), but ever since Billie Holiday sang the three brief stanzas to music in 1937, she's owned it. Why Rebecca Ferguson's Response to Donald Trump's ... - Global Citizen The song hauntingly compares Black bodies to fruit hanging from trees. But the singer's bold stance against FBN . Though "Strange Fruit" was unofficially banned from radio, and the label to which Holiday was then under contract refused to let her record it for them (she wound up recording it for Commodore, an . Olivia Newton-John. 10 Surprising Things Once Banned From TV Broadcast Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Biography of a Song Paperback ... Mississippi Goddam - Wikipedia The poem describes the lynching of black slaves, which was generally presented to an audience of whites. 4 Billie Holiday - "Strange Fruit". A Black History Month Playlist: 10 Influential Songs | BestColleges 5 on the charts in 1931. The government attempted to silence Holiday and the Black protest anthem that is "Strange Fruit." The lyrics describe a lynching in brutal and vivid detail: "Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze, strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees." "Zombie" - Fela Kuti Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit': Why it's so controversial, cathartic If you allow me to sing "strange fruit" a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial. As a marriage of art, poetry, outrage and haunting beauty, a song doesn't come any closer to perfection. For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop. How 'Strange Fruit' Killed Billie Holiday - Progressive.org Not only was jazz music itself an analogy to the ideals of the civil rights movement, but jazz musicians took up the . THIS Is Why Nuclear Bombs Should be Banned - The APMA Podcast - Episode ... Reelin' In The Years Productions has available for licensing over 20,000 hours of music footage spanning 90 years. Billie Holiday died in 1959 at only 44. Many people know that the man who wrote the song was inspired by a photograph of . 11 Classic Songs That Were Banned - Mental Floss The ketchup chip has quite a complicated history. 100% (2 ratings) The song Strange fruit hit the roots of American Racism. The irony! It's easy to see why Billie Holiday was so famous. In March 1939, a then-23-year-old Billie Holiday closed out her set at New York's Cafe Society with a song she hadn't performed before: "Strange Fruit." Written by Jewish .