{"id":19913,"date":"2020-02-19T12:20:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T20:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=19913"},"modified":"2023-09-19T15:47:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T22:47:39","slug":"billie-holidays-searing-strange-fruit-still-has-the-power-to-startle","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/billie-holidays-searing-strange-fruit-still-has-the-power-to-startle\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Holiday\u2019s Searing \u201cStrange Fruit\u201d Still Has the Power to Startle"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nick Dedina<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

There are often false narratives we tell ourselves so that we can simplify, and beautify, the past and erase aspects of the present that we are uncomfortable with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take the view that the olden times glowed with a rosy hue, and that people were more innocent way back when. When filmmakers and TV showrunners want to describe the first half of the 20<\/span>th<\/span> Century they go straight to goofy old hits like \u201cHow Much Was That Doggie in the Window,\u201d and \u201cRockin\u2019 Robin\u201d or put a sexy Hollywood sheen on bad behavior with classics such as \u201cJail House Rock.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But dig a little deeper into the Classic American Songbook and you can quickly discover the hardest, toughest ills of society being brought out into the light, dissected, and questioned in ways that are still all too relevant today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Often, with classic songs, the transgressions described are not immediately obvious to modern listeners, because the artistry involved \u2013 skirting around censorship – didn\u2019t always make things explicit. When Frank Sinatra sings \u201cStreet of Dreams\u201d it isn\u2019t openly apparent the lyrics are about a junkie\u2019s delusions of a better world found when high, or that Peggy Lee\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Smoke in Bed\u201d is the parting advice of a wife leaving an alcoholic partner who can\u2019t beat the demon drink.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But, sometimes, with the Great American Songbook, everything is all right there \u2013\u00a0 out in plain sight for all to see. Listen to the still-blistering \u201cBrother, Can You Spare a Dime\u201d in which a street beggar with his hand out is revealed to be a World War I combat veteran with the poetic lines, \u201cHalf a million boots went sloggin\u2019 through hell\/And, I was the kid with the drum.\u201d Bob Dylan won a Nobel Prize for Literature for his collective lyrics. How about a retroactive Nobel for E.Y. Harburg for writing those lyrics as well as other masterworks such as \u201cOver the Rainbow?\u201d I don\u2019t think Dylan would disagree.<\/span><\/p>\n