"Then a lone person began to clap nervously. I finished," she later wrote in her autobiography. "There wasn't even a patter of applause when
But Holiday was to recall that even there, she was afraid to sing this new song,Ī song that tackled racial hatred head-on at a time when protest music was all but unknown, and regretted it-at least momentarily-when she first did. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.įor the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,ĪS BILLIE HOLIDAY later told the story, a single gesture by a patron at a New York nightclub called Café Society changed the history of American music that night in early 1939, the night that she first sang "Strange Fruit."Ĭafé Society was New York's only truly integrated nightclub, a place catering to progressive types with open minds. Billie Holiday, Café Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rightsīlood on the leaves and blood at the root,īlack body swinging in the Southern breeze,
0 kommentar(er)
