Billie Holiday With One of Her Most Powerful and Emotional Performances Ever Captured on Film
“Strange Fruit”
Sung by Billie Holiday
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breezeStrange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouthScent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluckFor 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
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