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  • Gilbert Klein
    Gilbert Klein

    The Music In Me: The Song of the Century

    Editor's Note: I've written and re-written several introductions to this article over the past 30 minutes, but none of them do this article justice. An introduction isn't necessary, but I believe it's important, to get the point across that this article contains difficult subject matter and how those in the artistic community dealt with a terrible part of our history in the US. If this article doesn't make you feel for the people involved, doesn't make you want to listen to the "song of the century," doesn't make you want to listen to more of the great music of the time, then I can't relate to you. I thank Gilbert for writing about this song, the surrounding circumstances, and including insightful information. If you're familiar with song and the situation, this remains an interesting read and should spark you to do some listening this evening. - CC

     

     

    In 1999, as the Twentieth Century was winding down, Time magazine sent its editors and correspondents out on an epic assignment: define, analyze and curate the Twentieth Century. It was to be the story of the century (no pun intended). Time wanted to present whatever had happened, what preceded it, what succeeded it, and what it meant. All categories were to be considered and evaluated, and as this column is about music, we’ll look at how they rated the music of that volatile, passing century.

     

    They considered beauty and impact, and out of every piece of music written and recorded in the past hundred years, their selection as the most significant song of the century was “Strange Fruit,” by Billie Holiday. While I know there are excellent reasons for their selection, I asked several friends what they knew about the song, and that’s why I feel that not enough people know it. And, as you would surmise, the song has quite a story behind it. So it is both historic and it has a history. Let’s look and listen:

     

    While everyone who knows the song knows it’s by Billie Holiday, not many know who wrote it. She once said she did, but she said a lot of things about this song, and only one of them is that she wrote it. Abel Meeropol wrote it. Who? As iconic as this song has become, it did not come from the conventional center of American song-writing, Tin Pan Alley; Meeropol was a public school teacher at Dewitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, from which he’d graduated and then came back to teach English.

     

    In the late 1930s, a biographer noted, Meeropol "was very disturbed at the continuation of racism in America, and seeing a photograph of a lynching (warning: graphic image) sort of put him over the edge." Saying the photograph "haunted him for days," he wrote a poem about it titled, “Bitter Fruit,” which he had printed in a Teacher’s Union publication (image). An amateur composer, Meeropol also set his words to music, then performed the song with his wife and another vocalist at a protest rally at Madison Square Garden in 1937. Afterwards, he played it for a New York nightclub owner, who gave it to Billie Holiday.

     

    Ms. Holiday once said she co-wrote it. Later, she said she wrote it; Ms. Holiday had other issues to deal with and this is quibbling in front of a Picasso: why waste your time wondering? This is art, and there need be no discourse: you listen. What you’re listening to—and what has the critics so enamored—is what it makes you think; or more, what it makes you feel.

     

    And what are the “strange fruit”? American negroes hanging in trees. They were called something less kind by the men who put them there. I could have said that other thing, but that’s what they were- not people, not neighbors, not men with families who loved and depended on them, not members of the community. No, just some negroes, hanging from trees in the thin morning light.

     

    Listen for the sadness, listen for the accusation, listen for the pain. The song was first performed in Madison Square Garden in 1937 by Meeropol with his wife and a black vocalist, and recorded in 1939 by Ms. Holiday, at a time when Hitler was throwing Europe into chaos and race relations here deteriorated even further. Because I wasn’t there, I can’t tell you how it struck the nation when they heard it or how they reacted. Today, of course, it would be viral, but back then black recording artists had limited outlets. Few radio stations played black artists, so there were few places they could be heard, and where they could be heard were places most white people wouldn’t go until later years when Ms. Holiday’s fame had reached into white culture. Two young men were taken from their friends, their families and their lives and hanged for no other reason than the color of their skin, and although their names may be forgotten, a song about their fate became the song of the century, so let us never forget the power of music, of a song.

     

    Because of the power of the song, Barney Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

     

    Listen to it. Feel it. Hear the most significant piece of music of the late, great, Twentieth Century.

     

    Original recording:

     

    [video=youtube_share;Web007rzSOI]

     

     

     

     

    Follow-up stuff:

     

    • Meeropol cited the photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem (warning: graphic image).

     

    • Barney Josephson, the founder of Cafe Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Holiday first performed the song at Cafe Society in 1939.

     

    • She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances.

     

    • Meeropol published his work under the pseudonym of "Lewis Allan" in memory of the names of his two stillborn children. Later, he and his wife Anne adopted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's two sons, Michael and Robert, who were orphaned after their parents' executions. Both Michael and Robert took the Meeropol surname.

     

    Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried as spies for the Soviets and despite protests, were executed amid a surge of national anti-soviet paranoia.

     

    • Meeropol wrote countless poems and songs, including the Frank Sinatra and Josh White hit "The House I Live In." He also wrote the libretto of Robert Kurka's opera The Good Soldier Schweik (1957), which was premiered in 1958 by the New York City Opera.

     

    • Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.

     

    • Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording.

     

    • In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of The New York Post said of "Strange Fruit": "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise."

     

    • According to son Robert Meeropol, royalties from the songs "Strange Fruit" and "The House I Live In," along with the Peggy Lee hit "Apples, Peaches and Cherries," provided most of the family’s income.

     

    • In her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch." When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty —claimed, "I ain't never read that book."

     

    • New York lawmakers didn't like "Strange Fruit." In 1940, Meeropol was called to testify before a committee investigating communism in public schools. They wanted to know whether the American Communist Party had paid him to write the song. They had not — but, like many New York teachers in his day, Meeropol was a member of the Communist Party. Margolick*says, "There are a million reasons to disparage communism now. But American Communism, one point it had in its favor was that it was concerned about civil rights very early."

     

    • Meeropol left his teaching job at Dewitt Clinton in 1945. He eventually quit the Communist Party.

     

    • In 1978, Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of Songs of the Century, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2002, The Library of Congress honored the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to add to the National Recording Registry.

     

    • Abel Meeropol died on October 29, 1986, at the Jewish Nursing Home in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

     

    • A partial list of artists who have recorded the song (with links to their versions):

    ,

    ,

    , Diana Ross,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    Stan Campbell,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    , Elkie Brooks,

    , Pine Valley Cosmonauts,

    ,

    ,

    , Karate, Snowman, Flowers Forever,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    ,

    uses a sample of Nina Simone's version,

    ,

    , and

    .

     

     

     

     

     

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    Gilbertdish_Sml.jpgGilbert Klein has enough degrees and not enough stories. He’s been a radio talk show host, a nightclub owner, event producer, and has written two books: FAT CHANCE about the legendary KFAT radio, and FOOTBALL 101. He threatens to write one more. He spent 25 years in New York, 25 years in San Francisco, and is now purportedly retired in Baja.

     

     

     

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    Have always been amazed by this song since I first heard it. There are also live versions of Billie singing it.

    This is one of the songs that makes you realize her genius as a vocalist, and why she remains famous today.

     

    Didn't know the backstory. Thanks Gilbert.

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    Thanks Gilbert. Your posts are must reads for me.

     

    When's the book coming out? :)

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    Thanks Gilbert. Your posts are must reads for me.

     

    When's the book coming out? :)

     

    I have two books coming out when I get to it. One will be the collection of these essays, and the other will be a series of essays about some of my adventures and experiences that I hope people will find interesting. It's going to be called "God Watches Over Drunks And Fools And I Don't Drink." I'll happily announce it when I had it together. Thanks for asking and I'm so glad you like the essays. I still don't know what to call them- Essays? Articles? Posts? As for these humble submissions, thanks also to Chris for the space.

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    Thanks, Gilbert. The list of links to a variety of interpretations is especially welcome. I figured I wouldn't really like any beside the Billie Holiday recordings, which sort of get etched in the memory. It is one of those songs that can be very difficult to take in, but I find myself listening...

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    Great article/essay, great song. Thanks Gilbert for shedding some light on the origins of the song and especially on the composer. It seems to me this was a good man with high moral standards, a man who valued life.

     

    You definitely changed the way I will listen to this song from now on.

     

    Thanks again Gilbert.

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    I have two versions of Strange Fruit in my library, by Cassandra Wilson and Annie Lennox, and I have heard the original. After what is the definitive version by Billie Holiday it is interesting to see the different flavors of remakes. I will have to check out more versions.

     

    Makes you realize what power a song and performance can have and what a vacuous era we seem to live in now.

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    I have two versions of Strange Fruit in my library, by Cassandra Wilson and Annie Lennox, and I have heard the original. After what is the definitive version by Billie Holiday it is interesting to see the different flavors of remakes. I will have to check out more versions.

     

    Makes you realize what power a song and performance can have and what a vacuous era we seem to live in now.

    There is also a potent and reverent cover version of the song by Siousxie & the Banshees from their great covers album "Through the Looking Glass". This was my introduction to the song as I was too young to fully appreciate Billie until I got older. Thanks for the great article.

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    Thank very much for this story, Gilbert. It's much appreciated.

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    I send these out to some of my friends, and one wrote back:

    Reel back to Summer of 1965.

    Stole off with a girlfriend to go to the Troubadour in LAto see Josh White. I was very well acquainted with his music (for a whitegirl from the Valley!! I would secretly listen to KPFA (LA) on my transistorradio while learning my Catholic catechism!!)

    After playing for awhile. He asked for requests. I asked himto play Strange Fruit.

    I'll never forget the look on his face. Mindyou, the audience was predominantly white, beatnik, commie types sprinkled withwanna-be hippies like me.

    Eyes narrowed they were as his old, angry eyes fixed me in acold stare.

    He must have seen the terror snaking up my spine because hesoftened. And said.

    I don't do that one here.

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    Great essay.

     

    Holiday's version of this song is definitive, of course, but I have to say I love the René Marie version. Pairing it with "Dixie" is genius.

     

    —David

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    A spectacular story in the New Yorker about the same era and what one man and his organization are doing to make sure people remember. Building a huge monument/museum about lynching. Points out that the same states where the death penalty is most entrenched are the states with the highest numbers of lynchings. Hard to imagine that the murders were often announced in the newspaper, took place in the town square with dozens if not hundreds of cheering observers. As powerful as the song is, still, it's nowhere near the horrors that brought it to life. Worth a read, fleshes out the history and why that song still needs to be sung today.

     

    The Legacy of Lynching, on Death Row - The New Yorker

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    I am not a fan of art-in-the-service-of-politics and Strange Fruit is about as political as it can be. Not that this song is the only example of this phenomenon. It's not. When I read this article, I immediately thought of Picasso's "Guernica" painting. It has been hailed as the greatest painting of the 20th Century! Why? well, it can't be it's artistic merit, because it's not the kind of work that most people would want hanging over their fireplace because it's depressing. I'm not fond of post impressionism in the visual arts, anyway, and I must say that when it comes to the so-called "modernist" movements in painting, My interest starts with Turner, and pretty much ends with Van Gough, Matisse, and Monet, but that's taste. With Strange Fruit we are dealing with the problems of race that used to exist in this country - mainly lynching, and this is what the song is about. This appeals to left-wing, so-called "progressive" elements of the political spectrum, as does Guernica, because of its anti-Nazi/Fascist message. The message in both cases is fine, and perhaps the message needs to be said, lest we forget. On the other hand, using political/and social messages as criteria for measuring the worth and importance of art is a slippery slope. If Strange Fruit were a love song instead of a song about race and lynching of blacks would it still make the cut? Of course not. When I think about what was the greatest song of the century, I think about lyrics, melody, and impact. Here, the lyrics are heavy handed the melody almost non existent and the impact is of a really depressing nature! Best lyrics go to something like Rogers and Hart's I'll Take Manhattan and melody, to me, would be something like Kurt Wiell's Speak Low. For story telling, I'd go with something like Edit'f Piaf's Mon Capitan or perhaps, on a happier note, Carlos Antonio Jobim's always haunting Girl from Ipanema (these are just examples, and not necessarily my picks for anything). In other words, for my money, while Strange Fruit is certainly an important social statement for it's time, that time is past, and I hear little entertainment value in the song and certainly it wouldn't make any "best" lists in my opinion. Now Billie Holliday was a great artists and I love to hear her sing the torch songs that she did so well, but for me, when I ripped the album with Strange Fruit on it, I skipped that cut altogether. I don't need to be hit over the head to understand the importance of equal treatment under the law and due process for all peoples, everywhere.

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    @gmgraves - Hi George - Very interesting point of view and thanks for sharing. I don't agree, but that's what makes this stuff fun. One point I don't understand is when you said, "This appeals to left-wing, so-called "progressive" elements of the political spectrum." Doesn't lynching and mistreatment of people appeal to everyone, except those doing the mistreating? Not just the left.

     

    When I think of the best songs, most of them have a message that gets my brain thinking and encourages me to dive into the emotional story being told, whether it's political or not. Strange Fruit is one of those songs for me.

     

     

    P.S. Judging art is a strange thing anyway.

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    @gmgraves - Hi George - Very interesting point of view and thanks for sharing. I don't agree, but that's what makes this stuff fun. One point I don't understand is when you said, "This appeals to left-wing, so-called "progressive" elements of the political spectrum." Doesn't lynching and mistreatment of people appeal to everyone, except those doing the mistreating? Not just the left.

     

    When I think of the best songs, most of them have a message that gets my brain thinking and encourages me to dive into the emotional story being told, whether it's political or not. Strange Fruit is one of those songs for me.

     

     

    P.S. Judging art is a strange thing anyway.

     

    I think you misunderstand me. Of course lynching and the mistreatment of people should matter to everyone, but what we are discussing here is not lynching per se, but rather the criteriaby which this song was given accolade discussed in the article you cited. The best way to view my objections is to look at the analogy of the motion picture academy awards. If you want to win best picture, you don't make films about space ships, dinosaurs, or cartoon characters. You make films about either the holocaust or African-Americans. The resultant film doesen't even have to be very good, it just has to be politically correct and be On the Hollywood Progressive list of subjects, and you are in like Flynn! I say that in music, art or film, topical and popular causes like social engineering is not the way to judge art.

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    I think you misunderstand me. Of course lynching and the mistreatment of people should matter to everyone, but what we are discussing here is not lynching per se, but rather the criteriaby which this song was given accolade discussed in the article you cited. The best way to view my objections is to look at the analogy of the motion picture academy awards. If you want to win best picture, you don't make films about space ships, dinosaurs, or cartoon characters. You make films about either the holocaust or African-Americans. The resultant film doesen't even have to be very good, it just has to be politically correct and be On the Hollywood Progressive list of subjects, and you are in like Flynn! I say that in music, art or film, topical and popular causes like social engineering is not the way to judge art.

    Ah. Yes, I misunderstood you. Thanks for the follo up George.

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    I think you misunderstand me. Of course lynching and the mistreatment of people should matter to everyone, but what we are discussing here is not lynching per se, but rather the criteriaby which this song was given accolade discussed in the article you cited. The best way to view my objections is to look at the analogy of the motion picture academy awards. If you want to win best picture, you don't make films about space ships, dinosaurs, or cartoon characters. You make films about either the holocaust or African-Americans. The resultant film doesen't even have to be very good, it just has to be politically correct and be On the Hollywood Progressive list of subjects, and you are in like Flynn! I say that in music, art or film, topical and popular causes like social engineering is not the way to judge art.

     

    What an exageration of the "Hollywood Progressive" card. Since when have "films about space ships, dinosaurs" not won academy awards? They win lots. The list isn't even short.

     

    As far as your earlier point about "artistic merit": when did the determining factor in artistic merit become whether people want a picture hanging over their fireplace? Based on that criterion, the greatest paintings of the last 100 years are either of dogs playing poker, or of Elvis....

     

    When "Strange Fruit" was written and became popular, it wasn't in Hollywood or by Hollywood types. It became popular because it's extremely powerful and appealed to people of all types, or at least all the types that were disturbed by lynchings. The impact on listeners was big and emotional, and not because of "political correctness"; but because of the power of the ART and the moral statement of the message.

     

    Do you think just any song about the subject of lynchings would have made such an impact?

     

    Clearly not, as the message (especially in a song) is off putting and uncomfortable. So songs (especially back then) weren't written about such taboo topics. Do you know of any other similar popular song from that era that has had such an enduring musical and topical impact?

     

    The fact that "Strange Fruit" became so popular and has stayed well known and loved actually disproves your point. It became popular because of it's artistic value (and Billie Holiday's singing) and in spite of it's political message. Just because a piece of art has a MORAL message - not a political one, as you've tried to pigeonhole it - it's value as art is in no way lessened. Were it not for it's artistic value, it would be only a forgotten musical footnote, and note a song that still speaks to people today.

     

    You're guilty of transposing present day political blinders and stereotypes from the present broken political discourse back to the 30's and 40's. They don't apply. You want to evaluate art? Then you should take of your "politically tinged" glasses before you look or listen and evaluate.

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    I think you misunderstand me. Of course lynching and the mistreatment of people should matter to everyone, but what we are discussing here is not lynching per se, but rather the criteriaby which this song was given accolade discussed in the article you cited. The best way to view my objections is to look at the analogy of the motion picture academy awards. If you want to win best picture, you don't make films about space ships, dinosaurs, or cartoon characters. You make films about either the holocaust or African-Americans. The resultant film doesen't even have to be very good, it just has to be politically correct and be On the Hollywood Progressive list of subjects, and you are in like Flynn! I say that in music, art or film, topical and popular causes like social engineering is not the way to judge art.

    Telling the Truth isn't a 'cause' or social engineering. Art should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

     

    Anyone who hasn't felt the electric moment a crowd turned murderous hasn't got a CLUE what this is about.

     

    Maybe it was better for some when Danny Kaye was the arbiter of American taste, but not for the victims of genocide, here or abroad.

     

    Great art gives memory to the forgotten.

     

    Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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    Telling the Truth isn't a 'cause' or social engineering. Art should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

     

    Thank you H.L. Menken (or more to the point, E.K. Hornbeck). Art should not be subject to political agendas. A Beethoven symphony is not considered great art because it expresses someone's political/moral/social viewpoint. It's great art because it's great music. OTOH, Strange Fruit is not great music, not a great song, and is considered great by some because the political/moral/social viewpoint does match some people's idea of political correctness.

     

    Anyone who hasn't felt the electric moment a crowd turned murderous hasn't got a CLUE what this is about.

     

    You're right I don't have a clue. OTOH, your moral indignation at such occurrences, as correct a response as that is, has no bearing on the quality of art in my estimation.

     

    Maybe it was better for some when Danny Kaye was the arbiter of American taste, but not for the victims of genocide, here or abroad.

     

    I simply don't see what one thing has to do with another. Danny Kaye was an entertainer, Genocide has nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment.

     

    Great art gives memory to the forgotten.

     

    Perhaps, but in my estimation, Strange Fruit is neither great art nor memory to the forgotten. It is just a mediocre song that reminds us of a tragic part of American history that thankfully is behind us, and should not be remembered because it is divisive of people who should be trying hard to come together as one people.

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    What an exageration of the "Hollywood Progressive" card. Since when have "films about space ships, dinosaurs" not won academy awards? They win lots. The list isn't even short.

     

    As far as your earlier point about "artistic merit": when did the determining factor in artistic merit become whether people want a picture hanging over their fireplace? Based on that criterion, the greatest paintings of the last 100 years are either of dogs playing poker, or of Elvis....

     

    When "Strange Fruit" was written and became popular, it wasn't in Hollywood or by Hollywood types. It became popular because it's extremely powerful and appealed to people of all types, or at least all the types that were disturbed by lynchings. The impact on listeners was big and emotional, and not because of "political correctness"; but because of the power of the ART and the moral statement of the message.

     

    Do you think just any song about the subject of lynchings would have made such an impact?

     

    Yep.

     

    Clearly not, as the message (especially in a song) is off putting and uncomfortable. So songs (especially back then) weren't written about such taboo topics.

     

    And unlike your characterization, it was never "popular " in the mainstream sense.

     

    Do you know of any other similar popular song from that era that has had such an enduring musical and topical impact?

     

    No, and I say that all of Strange Fruit's impact is topical and social, none of it is musical (to me, anyway). The reason why it's still around is that it is politically "fashionable". I say that because it is not a great, nor even a "good" song from a purely musical point of view.

     

    I didn't mean to stir up a hornet's nest from the left with my comment about the musical merit of that song (which is my only criteria for judging it). I won't respond any more as I've had my say. Those of you who like and value the song, I say enjoy it. But include me out.

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    Thank you H.L. Menken (or more to the point, E.K. Hornbeck). Art should not be subject to political agendas. A Beethoven symphony is not considered great art because it expresses someone's political/moral/social viewpoint. It's great art because it's great music. OTOH, Strange Fruit is not great music, not a great song, and is considered great by some because the political/moral/social viewpoint does match some people's idea of political correctness.

     

     

     

    You're right I don't have a clue. OTOH, your moral indignation at such occurrences, as correct a response as that is, has no bearing on the quality of art in my estimation.

     

     

     

    I simply don't see what one thing has to do with another. Danny Kaye was an entertainer, Genocide has nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment.

     

     

     

    Perhaps, but in my estimation, Strange Fruit is neither great art nor memory to the forgotten. It is just a mediocre song that reminds us of a tragic part of American history that thankfully is behind us, and should not be remembered because it is divisive of people who should be trying hard to come together as one people.

    You started this, in a public forum.

     

    Many similarly suffering with this militant form of nostalgia find challenging music distasteful.

     

    Popular song has always been vehicle for this.

    Bruce Springsteen, an American icon, had his breakthrough hit lamenting Vietnam vets that were cast aside after the shooting stopped.

     

     

    http://www.infoplease.com/entertainment/music/politics.html

     

    On a personal note, hiding behind snark is the logical equivalent of a snarling Chihuahua.

     

    FYI - George Carlin lifted from Finley Peter Dunne.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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    On a personal note, hiding behind snark is the logical equivalent of a snarling Chihuahua.

     

    Sorry, I don't understand your reference to "snark". Don't know what that is.

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    Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried as spies for the Soviets and despite protests, were executed amid a surge of national anti-soviet paranoia.

     

    While there is some evidence that Ethel Rosenberg was a simple hausfrau and had no knowledge of, nor took part in her husband's espionage activities, there is no doubt that Julius Rosenberg in cahoots with his brother-in-law David Greenglass (who worked at Los Alamos) did conspire to pass the secrets of the Atomic bomb on to the Soviet Union. Under the precepts of U.S. espionage laws, war-time espionage IS punishable by death and rightly so, IMHO. War-time loss of life as a result of espionage is just too great to let spies off with a prison sentence.

     

    Now, I'm not so naive as to think that without the spying of Greenglass, Klaus Fuchs. Harry Gold, Ted Hall, and the spy-ring leader at Los Alamos (who my personal investigation has led me to believe was Physicist Phillip Morrison who has never been officially recognized as such), Rosenberg, and his contact Walter Able, that the Soviets would never have developed the A-Bomb. After all, the uranium bomb is mechanically very simple - the problem is in separating enough U235 from naturally occurring U238 to make up a fissionable mass (because U235 makes up less than 1% of any mass of U238). And although difficult and time consuming, such a separation procedure is not beyond the scope of any decent physics lab. The Soviets would have developed the A-Bomb certainly by 1952 (instead of 1949). My research into the matter, however, suggests that had the Soviets not had a leg-up from the Manhattan Project spy-ring, that they probably would have skipped the A-bomb altogether and gone directly to the fusion or H-Bomb.

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    Thank you H.L. Menken (or more to the point, E.K. Hornbeck). Art should not be subject to political agendas. A Beethoven symphony is not considered great art because it expresses someone's political/moral/social viewpoint. It's great art because it's great music. OTOH, Strange Fruit is not great music, not a great song, and is considered great by some because the political/moral/social viewpoint does match some people's idea of political correctness.

     

     

     

    You're right I don't have a clue. OTOH, your moral indignation at such occurrences, as correct a response as that is, has no bearing on the quality of art in my estimation.

     

     

     

    I simply don't see what one thing has to do with another. Danny Kaye was an entertainer, Genocide has nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment.

     

     

     

    Perhaps, but in my estimation, Strange Fruit is neither great art nor memory to the forgotten. It is just a mediocre song that reminds us of a tragic part of American history that thankfully is behind us, and should not be remembered because it is divisive of people who should be trying hard to come together as one people.

     

    I'm not sure why memorializing people being hanged from trees is divisive - it happened. The division was caused by those who engaged in such barbaric practices and not by those who protested it in song and through other forms of activism.

     

    The fact that many people draw a straight timeline line from enslavement of humans to lynching and to modern day racial profiling, jailing and execution of members of some groups only makes the song more powerful.

     

    Some young people who I know who hear Strange Fruit for the first time are immediately struck by the longevity of discrimination - that historical view can only be helpful in raising consciousness and in being a catalyst to changing behaviours.

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    I'm not sure why memorializing people being hanged from trees is divisive - it happened. The division was caused by those who engaged in such barbaric practices and not by those who protested it in song and through other forms of activism.

     

    It's quite simple. It reminds people of the divided nature of race relations in this country. We should be striving to put all the hate behind us, and pull together as one people to solve the very real problems that face our society today. As an example, if political correctness forces people to not display the Confederate battle flag, and has several states having to redesign their state flags to remove the Confederate motif from it, then a song reminding people of the heinous practice of lynching should be likewise frowned upon. Remember, from the South's perspective, the War Between the States was fought for the concept of State's Rights, not slavery. That's what the Confederate battle flag means to them - not a reminder of Jim Crow.

     

    The fact that many people draw a straight timeline line from enslavement of humans to lynching and to modern day racial profiling, jailing and execution of members of some groups only makes the song more powerful.

     

    But it doesn't make it great (or even particularly good) music, and that's my my only objection to the song being hailed has great art (which is what this thread is about). As a political/social/moral message, to me it's neither here nor there. I think dragging-up old hates is somebody's political agenda, and in this case I'd let sleeping dogs lie. IOW, I'm critiquing the song, not it's moral message or it's use as a political tool for change. By the same token, I consider myself a loyal American, yet I hate our National Anthem. To me it's embarrassingly bad music with clumsy lyrics which are difficult to sing. This especially annoys me when I think of all the much better pieces of music that were considered and rejected: Columbia, Gem of the Ocean, America the Beautiful, Stars and Stripes Forever, and several more...

     

    Some young people who I know who hear Strange Fruit for the first time are immediately struck by the longevity of discrimination - that historical view can only be helpful in raising consciousness and in being a catalyst to changing behaviours.

     

    Well, that's another discussion, and I'll not get into it, here, but at the risk of mixing my metaphors, That can of worms is a two edged sword. :)

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    If the Confederate Union flag or any of its offspring may be a trigger for racist or regionalist or xenophobic behaviour then you should remove it.

     

    Just like you should remove the guns...

     

    You can't expect every man or woman to behave himself.

    That's what laws and rules of social conduct are for.

    Before that you had the wild west.

     

    I don't know much about US history but even from my European perspective I understand the importance of symbols.

    But events took place that led you to a union and the symbols should reflect this, not the past or some idyllic future that never was...

     

    R

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