Strange Fruit
July 25, 2017 9:53 PM Subscribe
New cover of Strange Fruit
"It’s a small and safe thing, using music as a political statement, but at a time when we feel utterly powerless to fix what is so clearly broken with our country, any action at all feels like progress."
From Cover Me
Previously
Previously
Good cover, thank you.
In the same vexed spirit of the times and with a mention of strange fruit...JC Brooks Band, "Anywhere But America."
"Oooh that tree of liberty is gonna burn
'Cause you try to hide that strange, strange fruit
You got the nerve to question my fidelity
Scared them crows are comin' home to roost.
And you can't be rid of me
And be the you you say you see
(O say can you see?)
My suffering 'tis of thee, yeah
So when you finally kill me
Tell my friends to bury me
Anywhere but America"
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:40 AM on July 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
In the same vexed spirit of the times and with a mention of strange fruit...JC Brooks Band, "Anywhere But America."
"Oooh that tree of liberty is gonna burn
'Cause you try to hide that strange, strange fruit
You got the nerve to question my fidelity
Scared them crows are comin' home to roost.
And you can't be rid of me
And be the you you say you see
(O say can you see?)
My suffering 'tis of thee, yeah
So when you finally kill me
Tell my friends to bury me
Anywhere but America"
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:40 AM on July 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Huh, it's an odd version, I'm not sure the regular simple beat really works well.
Part of what's so nice about the Billie Holiday original is the musical arrangement. Evocative but spare, it makes the song really personal and painful. The piano leading and then underlining Holiday's lines, the wailing angry trumpet, no instrument able to really track Holiday's note bending. (See also a film of Holiday singing, where the piano IMHO distracts from the song.)
So it's strange to me to hear this glossy repetitive electronic stuff. It's still spare but that beat really intrudes. The uptempo rendition really robs the second stanza of its bitter irony.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
I like his voice. And the building rage works well. Maybe that's the important interpretation here, a version for the age of Black Lives Matter.
posted by Nelson at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Part of what's so nice about the Billie Holiday original is the musical arrangement. Evocative but spare, it makes the song really personal and painful. The piano leading and then underlining Holiday's lines, the wailing angry trumpet, no instrument able to really track Holiday's note bending. (See also a film of Holiday singing, where the piano IMHO distracts from the song.)
So it's strange to me to hear this glossy repetitive electronic stuff. It's still spare but that beat really intrudes. The uptempo rendition really robs the second stanza of its bitter irony.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
I like his voice. And the building rage works well. Maybe that's the important interpretation here, a version for the age of Black Lives Matter.
posted by Nelson at 9:54 AM on July 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
(My apologies; Strange Fruit is not original to Billie Holiday. It was written and originally performed by Abel Meeropol and Laura Duncan.)
posted by Nelson at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by Shepherd at 7:40 AM on July 26, 2017 [1 favorite]