Favorite Billie Holiday song?

[Fucker29]

Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

What a spine chilling performance! WOW! Although this is an anti-racism song it can't help but remind of the GLBT struggle on a social and political level. Amazing song, astonishing vocalist, intense and introspective performance!


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs[/ame]


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.

 

[knobby]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Diana Ross does a great version of this --

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

I think this one is going to go over many heads, people act like shit like this wasn't happening 30 years ago.

Anywho, it's one of my favorite readings from her. Plus she looks totally fuckable in that long dress.

I think this was one of her last live performances before she died...I read she died just a few months after this performance.


Oh and agree...many people seem to think these things happened such a LONG time ago when it was just 30 years ago.

 

[falconfan]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

It's an absolutely amazing song

I don't however see it as comparable to the LGTB community considering that it is clearly about lynching and while homosexuals have been persecuted to a large degree it's no where NEAR the level of abuse the African American community had to face. It's just not comparable to being told you are an object and being treated as someones who life, or more accurately gruesome death, meant nothing to society which is essential what the song is about.

 

[rowjimmy21]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

when I discovered her catalog I thanked God a million times. She's simply breathtaking and her life was very.....fascinating. :

Agreed marley, Billie Holiday is one of the best singers of all time. She is truly amazing.

 

[falconfan]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

I tried making that same point last night and you'd think I set off a grenade. Any discrimination sucks, but there aren't many parallels between gay rights and black rights. When blacks first came here they weren't allowed to read. You could kill one in front of everybody, get away with it, and have their brother arrested for trying to stop you. Things for us aren't great, but they're certainly not that bad. It just amuses me that one minute we hate the black community for passing Prop 8, the next minute demand their support, the next minute we defend our personal preference that just so happen to not include black guys, then we chastise them for being unsupportive to gay rights.

Well I mean I don't want to play the who has it worse game because that's a stupid game. Their are certain innate parallels that will arise with any groups who've been discriminated against. But the very nature of it makes it incredibly difficult to compare. There's a certainly a huge emotional trauma to a perpetual fear of becoming outcast and looked down upon by your friends, family, and society which is what homosexuals have had to deal with. By the nature of the trait not being apparent at birth and on sight it greatly complicates things. Black people know they're black from birth as does everyone else. And their family is black and their parents obviously won't hate them for being black and there's a support system which is lacking with homosexuals. The whole dynamic is just different. And homosexuals have never dealt with anything even resembling the level of political and legal discrimination against African Americans. That's not even questionable. If someone tries to argue that they're just ignorant.

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

It's an absolutely amazing song

I don't however see it as comparable to the LGTB community considering that it is clearly about lynching and while homosexuals have been persecuted to a large degree it's no where NEAR the level of abuse the African American community had to face. It's just not comparable to being told you are an object and being treated as someones who life, or more accurately gruesome death, meant nothing to society which is essential what the song is about.

I'm not comparing the LEVEL of abuse, obviously the African American community had it WAY worse...don't be so literal. Several of the things the African American community endured the LGTB community also endured...and still endure...just not on the same scale. Gays, etc, also were murdered and lynched just for being who and what they were...laws were also being made against the LGBT community. Keep in mind that homossexuality is punishable by DEATH still in some countries. In the last 20 years, nearly 3000 gays were murdered in Brazil just because of that...for just being gay.

My comparison is not about the scale or level of abuse...but rather the basic processes that lead to such hatred and ignorance. It all comes down to what's different not being accepted, to what's outside of the so-called "norm" not being accepted...people fear what they don't understand and that fear leads to violence. This is, IMO, the basis of discrimination...regardless of weither it's gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, race, skin color. The simple fact that people discriminate based on such superficial things is where I'm establishing a "comparison".

And the title of the song really hit home as well...we're also seen as a "strange fruit". We're, in society's eyes, a "strange and bitter crop".

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

A lot of people say her voice wore out towards the end of her career and that's clearly true, but I actually like the worn-out sound, it gave her a vulnerability, genuity, and humanity that's missing in most vocalists. Her heartbreak sounded very sincere.

I agree...it made her sound more raw and emotional.

 

[falconfan]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

I'm not comparing the LEVEL of abuse, obviously the African American community had it WAY worse...don't be so literal. Several of the things the African American community endured the LGTB community also endured...and still endure...just not on the same scale. Gays, etc, also were murdered and lynched just for being who and what they were...laws were also being made against the LGBT community. Keep in mind that homossexuality is punishable by DEATH still in some countries. In the last 20 years, nearly 3000 gays were murdered in Brazil just because of that...for just being gay.

My comparison is not about the scale or level of abuse...but rather the basic processes that lead to such hatred and ignorance. It all comes down to what's different not being accepted, to what's outside of the so-called "norm" not being accepted...people fear what they don't understand and that fear leads to violence. This is, IMO, the basis of discrimination...regardless of weither it's gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, race, skin color. The simple fact that people discriminate based on such superficial things is where I'm establishing a "comparison".

And the title of the song really hit home as well...we're also seen as a "strange fruit". We're, in society's eyes, a "strange and bitter crop".

But I feel such simplifications overlook the heart of the song. The source of it's emotion and power. Take for instance the Matthew Sheppard case... the fact you know who that is almost proof enough because you COULDN'T tell me the names of African Americans who've been abused and linked. There are too many and they were stripped of their very identities. Lynching were so frequently that they became part of the landscape, and intregal part of the southern tradition and attitude.

That's what the song is about at it's core. The AUDACITY of the extent of the hate. It's about the fact that for decades there was five or six (if not far more) Matthew Sheppards everyday and their gruesome murders didn't cause outrage, didn't even cause people to bat an eye. It's about the fact that every day could be a persons last and the disgusting nature of a system in which a person could be treated so for so much as looking at someone the longway. It's about the chilling and repulsive nature of a society that has stopped looking at people as people and began to see them as just as natural to the land as it's trees or soil

So the very depth of the song comes from the EXTENT of the abuse to African Americans so I can't overlook it and I can't see how it's comprable to the troubles of the LGBT community.

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

^I personally wish somebody would chronicle the gay experience in song. All the gay artists I know about are too busy singing about being attention whores or dancing at the club or that hot guy who keeps staring at them, or they're being disingenuous and singing about all the "girls they love."

Our almost-nonexistent musical landscape is superficial and completely without substance. I would love to hear the gay version of a masterpiece such as Strange Fruit. My only real grievance is that no one is being bold enough to put our situation out there in such a way, too busy dancing around to God-awful house music.

Indeed. It's something I have trouble understand...people judge us based on superficial traits, yet we mostly base "our" music in superficiality.

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

But I feel such simplifications overlook the heart of the song. The source of it's emotion and power. Take for instance the Matthew Sheppard case... the fact you know who that is almost proof enough because you COULDN'T tell me the names of African Americans who've been abused and linked. There are too many and they were stripped of their very identities. Lynching were so frequently that they became part of the landscape, and intregal part of the southern tradition and attitude.

That's what the song is about at it's core. The AUDACITY of the extent of the hate. It's about the fact that for decades there was five or six (if not far more) Matthew Sheppards everyday and their gruesome murders didn't cause outrage, didn't even cause people to bat an eye. It's about the fact that every day could be a persons last and the disgusting nature of a system in which a person could be treated so for so much as looking at someone the longway. It's about the chilling and repulsive nature of a society that has stopped looking at people as people and began to see them as just as natural to the land as it's trees or soil

So the very depth of the song comes from the EXTENT of the abuse to African Americans so I can't overlook it and I can't see how it's comprable to the troubles of the LGBT community.

I understand what you're saying...I'm not trying to diminish the song. For me, personally, it resonated ALSO with the GLBT struggle. That's just how the song made me feel.

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

I'm just waiting patiently for more brazen gay artists to come out with their balls hanging out, none of this halfway, implied bullshit.

In the 60s you had records like Aretha's "Respect" or James Brown's "Say It Loud." That sort of energy and assertiveness is missing in the gay music scene. We're a bunch of pansies!

I know! We need more assertive artists out there. God I was just watching LaBelle clips from the mid 70's...those bitches were badass! The first female group to be so political and social in their music...and considering they're black, they had BALLS!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6pB5MGe2xw&feature=related[/ame]

People want true things
Or nothing at all
People want sincerity
And nothing more
People need happiness as land needs rain
We need rain we need light we need love
Yes you'll find it so hard
To live without love love love
Love love love
Love love love
Whoa just say yeah (oh yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

People want to live (uh huh)
Not merely exist
People want to enjoy
Not suffer and fear no no no
People need understanding
Not tensions or confusion no no
Oh I wonder should the people who present us this solution talk about love love love

Love love love
Love love love
Oh yeah
Just say yeah (oh yeah)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah
Ooh yeah

We need power
We need power
We need peace
Peace
Peace
Peace

I think we'll all agree
I think we'll all agree
That's not fighting (fighting)
That's not fighting
Because this ain't war
This ain't war
This ain't war
This ain't war
I know it's not too late to love love love
Love love love
Love love love
Love love love
Love love love

What can I do for you
What can you do for me



We songs like this and the ones you mentioned.

 

[Fucker29]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUBr8yn_dXY&feature=related[/ame]

 

[falconfan]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

^I personally wish somebody would chronicle the gay experience in song. All the gay artists I know about are too busy singing about being attention whores or dancing at the club or that hot guy who keeps staring at them, or they're being disingenuous and singing about all the "girls they love."

Our almost-nonexistent musical landscape is superficial and completely without substance. I would love to hear the gay version of a masterpiece such as Strange Fruit. My only real grievance is that no one is being bold enough to put our situation out there in such a way, too busy dancing around to God-awful house music.

Someone already did... they just did it by accident. Thank you Disney

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnXTH88AHqM[/ame]

"Every day, is as if I play apart
Now I see
If I wear a mask
I can fool the world
But I can not fool
My heart ....

I am now
In a world where I have to
Hide my heart
And what I believe in
But somehow
I will show the world
What's inside my heart
And be loved for who I am....

Why must we all conceal
What we think
How we feel
Must there be a secret me
I'm forced to hide?
I won't pretend that I'm
Someone else
For all time"

Moral of the story... Mulan was totally a lesbian.

 

[G-Lexington]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

This is the gay "Strange Fruit". No, the two aren't strictly comparible - Tom Robinson's no Billie Holiday - but it's an amazingly powerful song even 30 years after it debuted.



The British Police are the best in the world
I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
About them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they're kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don't believe that sort of thing happens here

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There's no nudes in Gay News, our one magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
The News of The World and the Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It's there in the paper, it must be the truth

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

Don't try to kid us, but if you're discreet,
You're perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don't have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
Got lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend's at least 21
So only your friends and your brothers get done
Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter
'The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?'

Sing if you're glad to be gay
Sing if you're happy that way

 

[G-Lexington]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Weird fact - Tom Robinson is now happily married. To a woman. Who knew.

Lex

 

[G-Lexington]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

He says he was positive he was gay for many years. Then he met his (later) wife, and realized he was bisexual. He said he fought it for some time, not only because he was positive he WAS gay, but because he knew what it might look like for the guy who spoke out for gay rights for so long to suddenly hook up with a woman. But he finally decided "the heart wants what the heart wants".

Lex

 

[G-Lexington]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Yeah. But after going on British TV singing "Glad to Be Gay"...in 1978!...I'm sure he was a bit used to some criticism.

By the way, you might notice that the lyrics in the video don't quite match the lyrics I printed. Tom always futzed with the lyrics live, changing the names of the papers if they recently posted something anti-gay, things like that.

On the video above, he dedicates the song to the Manchester Police Department - presumably they'd raided a gay pub recently. On the CD I own, he opens the song by saying, "This song is dedicated to the World Health Organization. It's a medical song, and it concerns a disease whose classification, according to the International Classification of Diseases, is 302.0."

Lex

 

[Ekim23]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Billie's one of my fav artists of all time ...

she's just an artist period.

The work she accomplished during her career is just wonderful...

this song is awesome but not my fav ...

anyway... It'sbreathtakin

 

[HouseOfLove]

Re: Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

Has anyone here heard of a canadian band called The Hidden Cameras? They have a song called Missisauga Goddam, which is supposed to be inspired by Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam (a song against racial segregation).
I read somewhere that the songwriter thought the battle for gay rights has to happen in the suburbs or something like that. I tried to find a video of it but I couldn´t. It's a good catchy song.