It’s impossible to deny to intrinsic power of “Strange Fruit” as a ‘popular’ song. 

By any definition and any perspective, the lyrics were intense and uncomfortable, and it came at a time when ‘swing was the thing’, which made it even more difficult, even absurd, to absorb the lyrics of the song. 

In the years before WWII, racism was so rampant that ignorance was, at best, a plausible excuse and in a very large percentage of the United States, blatant hatred was the norm. But to say that it was solely ‘racism’ would be a gross understatement, because physical violence in America was so rampant that it became, by most any standard, an acceptable means of expression regarding skin color. As a country, we really screwed up, and we’re still suffering the circumstances of narrow-mindedness. “Strange Fruit” can (and, I suppose, should) make for an uncomfortable listen. 

Today, listening to “Strange Fruit” is discomfiting, and awkward, because we don’t want to be identified with something so cruel, or, to a lesser extent, something so “old-fashioned”, but you can still hear it as a history lesson for a problem that has diminished, but not completely.  A rich number of other excellent tracks surround the ‘title song’, and they provide significant relief.

Featured tracks:

What Shall I Say?

More Than You Know

Under a Blue Jungle Moon

Why Did I Always Depend on You?

Long Gone Blues

Strange Fruit

Yesterdays

Fine and Meloow

I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues

Some Other Spring

Them There Eyes

The Man I Love