I m an avid jazz fan strange for my age group but i love it.This is the lyrics of a song sung by Billie Holiday'
If you think the words are haunting you should hear it when she sings it.
"Southern trees bear a strange fruit/Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/Black body 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 magnolia, sweet and fresh/And the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck/For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck/For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop/Here is a strange and bitter crop."
it's about the lynching that took place in the southern parts of the USA. the strange friut refers to the bodies of the blacks and other minorities that were hung from the trees.Some of the men were beaten and castreted, hence the blood.I did understand the words until I did some reading about her music , it was wrtten by a white jewish guy.
Yes, ive heard that song-i learned a lot about it. Its actuly a funeral procession song. and all the rest is true. It was very controversial..(sp) because most of billy holidays dans were white people. When she came out with this song, it talked about how blacks were being discrimiated against and showing the horrors of the life of blacks.....it is truely a beautiful song underneath the morbid gothic images