Strange Fruit

Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, two victims accused of killing a white man and raping his girlfriend in Marion, Indiana. There was no evidence of rape, and the woman herself said she wasn't raped. According to James Cameron, the only survivor of this lynching, and who would later found America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, the two men were robbing a white man but Cameron himself fled the scene before he died during the struggle. While Shipp and Smith were forced outside of the jailhouse and lynched, someone miraculously saved Cameron's life by announcing he had nothing to do with the crime. 

This powerful photograph likely influenced the writer of "Strange Fruit," a Jewish Communist. It also shows how lynchings were not a strictly southern phenomenon. It's also important to remember that his lynching occurred in 1930, only 81 years ago. 

"Strange Fruit" remains one of the most poetic anti-lynching/protest songs in American history. Though associated with Billie Holiday, the song's composer was a Jewish radical who penned it during the 1930s. Abel Meeropel would later set it to music under the name Lewis Allen and perform in New York City with is wife. Holiday only sang it for the first time at the Cafe Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village some years later. Then she recorded the song in 1939 for Commodore, a label company that was known for supporting alternative jazz.

The interesting thing about Holiday's recording is the lack of jazz or blues influences. Furthermore, many at the time only believed the record sold well because Holiday's amazing blues, "Fine and Mellow," was increasing sales. Needless to say, her record sold well and the song has forever been equated with Billie Holiday's powerful vocals (she recorded this song again for Verve and performed it live). I suppose the best way to describe her 1939 recording would be something akin to folk and hymns.

Josh White, a folk musician who had worked with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and other early folk revivalists, would also record the song, accompanying himself on guitar. As one would expect, as a folk and blues musician, White's recording has more in common with those traditions than Holiday's version.

http://grooveshark.com/s/Strange+Fruit/3VC6TZ?src=5

Nina Simone also performed "Strange Fruit" with a very sparse arrangement (rather similar to her take on Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair).

Here is Billie Holiday's 1939 studio recording of "Fine and Mellow." This is probably her best blues.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/frut-f08.shtml A good article on the history of the "Strange Fruit"