billie holiday – nina simone ~ strange fruit
laura nelson
Over 4,500 men women and children were lynched in America between the years 1888 and 1980 – most in the southern states, and about the same time the colonisers in Australia were killing aborigines.
The Bathurst Massacre – 1824
The Convincing Ground Massacre
The Battle of Pinjarra
Waterloo Creek Massacre
The Faithfull Massacre
The Myall Creek Massacre
The Gwydir River Extirpation
The Campaspe Plains massacre
The Wiradjuri Wars
The Warrigal Creek Massacre
The Butchers Tree Massacre
The Hospital Creek Massacre
The Massacre at Yeeman
The Medway Ranges Massacre
The Flying Foam Massacre
The Barrow Creek Massacre
The Goulbolba Hill Massacre
The Battle Mountain Massacre
The Speewah Massacre
The Killing Times – Kimberley region
The Canning Stock Route Killings
Mistake Creek Massacre
The Bedford Downs Massacre
The Forest River Massacre
The Coniston Massacre – 1928
The song ‘ Strange fruit ‘ was written by a Jewish teacher from the Bronx, he also wrote the music that accompanied the song.
- Southern trees bear strange fruit,
- Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
- Black body 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 magnolia 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 tree to drop,
- Here is a strange and bitter crop
- When Holiday performed the song in her nightclub acts she always closed with it, the waiters stopped serving and all the lights were turned off bar the one pin spotlight onto her face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Lq_yasEgo
petebowes.com 
Haunting song! Nina Simone also did a brilliant version of it.
Last night… dinner with some friends. This song comes up in conversation, someone says they saw Nina Simone sing it live in London in the 70’s, then my wife proceeds to sing a verse off the top off her head.
I was impressed.