[lbo-talk] RE: Sad Songs Say So Much

[paul childs]

>On 06/24/05 14:10, joanna wrote:
> > If memory serves, the guy who collaborated on "Strange Fruit" was a commie
> > who wound up adopting the Rosenberg children.
> >
> yes a dude named abel meeropol. AFAIK he was the sole author.
>
>In 1937 Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from New York, saw a
>photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. Meeropol
>later recalled how the photograph "haunted me for days" and inspired
>the writing of the poem, Strange Fruit.

PBS or someone did an excellent doc on 'Strange Fruit' a couple of years ago, did a good job of tracing the history of the song, its politics, the impact it had on Meeropol, Holiday and race relations. Worth catching.

On a related note, I defy anyone to get through Lou Reed's album 'Berlin' without the urge to 'swallow a grenade'. It's the story of a relationship imploding violently. The background sounds on at least one track include children screaming. 

PC

N P Childs

'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt,
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.

-Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon