Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights

Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights
Strange Fruit Billie Holiday Cafe Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights
Author: David Margolick
Exploring the story of the memorable civil rights ballad made famous by Billie Holiday in the late 1930s. The song's powerful, evocative lyrics-written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher who, late in life, adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg-portray the lynching of a black man in the South. Holiday's performances sparked ...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780762406777
ISBN-10: 0762406771
Publication Date: 3/2000
Pages: 160
Rating:
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 2

4.5 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
Read All 1 Book Reviews of "Strange Fruit Billie Holiday Cafe Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

korri avatar reviewed Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights on + 5 more book reviews
Another edition of Margolick's book has a more brief and accurate subtitle: Biography of a Song. This concise book covers the creation, performance, reception, and myth of the song most closely associated with Lady Day. Margolick asserts that while 'Strange Fruit' has slipped through the cracks of academic study because it defies easy categorization (folk? jazz? protest song?), it has never slipped through the consciousness of those who've heard it.

Margolick contextualizes the composer, singer, song and audiences in well-researched and non-scholarly prose. Billie Holiday first sang 'Strange Fruit' in 1939, the same year that 'Gone With the Wind' thrilled audiences and Hitler marched into Poland. Contemporary reactions and responses to the song are fascinating. Everyone experienced discomfort while some disdained its 'lack of melody'. The depressing and upsetting lyrics kept it off the radio and the expensive, not widely distributed release by Commodore Records meant that large parts of the U.S. didn't hear the song. Though 'Strange Fruit' was powerfully resonant for black intelligentsia and earnestly progressive Northern whites, the black press wrote little about troubled Holiday or the song. Some black people didn't care for the song at all because it represented victimhood.

People's remembrances of hearing the song--live or recorded--were scattered throughout the text, as were other performers' thoughts and feelings about giving voice to the raw and excruciating song that Billie made her own. This is a short and fascinating read


Genres: