Even decades later, the lyrics of "Strange Fruit" are sadly topical
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It took a remarkable amount of courage for Billie Holiday to record and perform �Strange Fruit� as early as 1939.
�Strange Fruit� was a poem by Abel Meeropol about a lynching and, when Lady Day debuted it at Caf� Society, it immediately silenced audiences.
It became Holiday�s closing song because nothing could follow it.
This version, from late in Billie Holiday�s life, has her accompanied by pianist Mal Waldron and putting plenty of quiet emotion into the still-shocking words.
- Scott Yanow
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