Gloomy Sunday IS silly/depressing, but it's also a beautiful song.
>Billie also has the actually great very depressing,
>still-horrifying anti-lynching song she coauthored,
>Strange Fruit.
>
>
If memory serves, the guy who collaborated on "Strange Fruit" was a commie
who wound up adopting the Rosenberg children.
I used to teach "Strange Fruit" in English Comp...back in my days as an English Prof....as a perfect example of a Renaissance conceit (extended metaphor), translated to modern times.
joanna --------------- Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
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.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.