Words

Next, Back.

Strange Fruit, Abel Meeropol aka Lewis Allan, sung by sweet Lady Day, Billie Holiday, first and others later:

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.

Words, Neil Young

Someone and someone were down by the pond
Looking for something to plant in the lawn.
Out in the fields they were turning the soil
I'm sitting here hoping this water will boil
When I look through the windows and out on the road
They're bringing me presents and saying hello.

Singing words, words between the lines of age.
Words, words between the lines of H.
If I was a junkman selling you cars,
Washing your windows and shining your stars,
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
What would you wonder and how would it seem?
Living in castles a bit at a time
The King started laughing and talking in rhyme.

Singing words, words between the lines of H.
Words, words between the lines of H.

I always thought it was 'between the lines of H.'; this being a druggy sort of song; the whole album for that matter. The website said 'between the lines of age.' I have used my remembering of it.

A few words that caught my attention today in the Globe:

Basiji: troops of children (says Paul William Roberts of the Globe) sent to clear mine-fields by walking into them. As usual with the Globe they keep this kind of thing under lock-and-key; here is an exerpt: "In an attempt to compensate, the Ayatollah decided to send Iranian children, some as young as 12, to the front lines. There they marched in formation toward the enemy, clearing a path through the intervening minefields with their bodies. Before every heroic mission, one of the Taiwanese keys was hung around each child's neck -- to open the gates of paradise for them."

Kamikaze: Associated with a historical notion of 'divine wind' according to book reviewer Robert Pape. I have given up on the Globe website and actually go out and buy hard-copy - and I cannot find a link to this review, sorry.

Nuclear energy in Brazil: This one not from the Globe; an article that I stumbled on yesterday which upset me: Seattle PI - Brazil quietly pursues own nuclear path. I was aware of the Brazilian nuclear thing, driving back and forth from Rio to Angra dos Reis you can hardly miss it. While I was there a controversy arose over completing the second plant and I thought it had been given up on since there was considerable protest at the time - but I guess not. This is where Lula's lack of education shows it's ugly head. He thought that the tsunami two years ago in Indonesia had something to do with environmental atrocities - maybe a Freudian analysis of this would turn up guilt or something, over the exploitation of the Amazon or the like, who knows, he's probably not that complicated.

Why should this upset me? Can't really say in a few words - I love the place is all.

Tags: Strange Fruit, Billie Holiday, Neil Young, Basiji, Brasil, Lula, Nuclear Energy.