MetaFilter posts tagged with billieholiday

The Day Lady Died

pleasebekind — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 09:50:32 -0800

July 17th 1959: "Billie Holiday died in a New York City hospital from cirrhosis of the liver after years of alcohol abuse, aged 43 (while under arrest for heroin possession, with police officers stationed at the door to her room). In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank." Still, the world remembers her for her music, her voice that changed lives. Some of her best: Nice Work If You Can Get It, Fine and Mellow, Strange Fruit, I'll Be Seeing You, Good Morning Heartache, Summertime, I'm A Fool to Want You, As Time Goes By, Solitude, Come Rain or Come Shine and The Man I Love. Here's a poem by Frank O'Hara remembering the day she died. Previously: versions of Gloomy Sunday, Strange Fruit documentary and a 1972 biopic.

Sunday's Gloomy

empath — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:52:56 -0800

Hungary may be the gloomiest country on earth. Believed by its people to be suffering from a centuries long curse, it's most famous modern musical export is probably the "Hungarian Suicide Song" - Gloomy Sunday. Originally popularized by Billie Holiday in the US (with an upbeat ending tacked onto the original lyrics), it's been covered dozens of times since then. Links to a few of my favorites inside: Heather Nova Sarah McLaughlin Bjork Sarah Brightman Venetian Snares Ray Charles Elvis Costello Genesis (not the famous one) Kronos Quartet Angela Poka (in Hungarian) Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Friends of Lady Day

salishsea — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:03:09 -0800

In 1972 Lady Sings the Blues was released. Ostensibly a biopic about the life of Billie Holiday, it was a travesty of made up history and glaring ommissions. In response to that release a symposium was held on Lady Day's life and work which included storytelling from Artie Shaw (about hiring her in 1938) and Carmen McRae (about her drug life). The CBC recently put together an excellent podcast with these stories and some interview tape from Billie Holiday herself.

"Window in the Sky", a U2 montage of 137 video clips

stbalbach — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:20:28 -0800

"Window in the Sky" is a YouTube style video synch mash-up done on a professional budget with the magic of copyright clearances. "It's a triumph of postmodern reconstruction" says the Washington Post.

'Strange Fruit' Documentary

LinusMines — Tue, 08 Apr 2003 10:35:27 -0800

The Roots of a Haunting Song "Billie Holiday's brilliant interpretation of 'Strange Fruit' made the haunting song about Southern lynchings her own. It also helped make the composer, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx, nearly anonymous. But Abel Meeropol (link contains image of lynching) gets his due in a documentary...airing [8 April] as part of PBS' 'Independent Lens' series..." (CNN)