Strange Fruit

"Follow the Drinking Gourd"
from the Underground Railroad
Perf. Shoregrass

Chorus: Follow the drinking gourd, Follow the drinking gourd, For the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd. When the sun comes back, and the first quail calls, Follow the drinking gourd, For the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd.

The riverbank will make a very good road, The dead trees show you the way. Left foot, peg foot traveling on, Following the drinking gourd. The river ends between two hills, Follow the drinking gourd, There's another river on the other side, Follow the drinking gourd. When the great big river meets the little river, Follow the drinking gourd. For the old man is waiting for to carry you to freedom If you follow the drinking gourd

"Strange Fruit"    Lyrics by Lewis Allen    Perf. Billie Holiday 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 twisted mouth, The scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is a 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.

Close up of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, Marion Indiana.

View this 15-minute trailer for the upcoming documentary, American Lynching:
http://www.americanlynching.com/trlBB.html

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