Let’s look at the lyrics first:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin’ eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin’ 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 tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

This is a song about black people being lynched! Beautiful? It’s a deep and powerful song about racisim and inequality at its worse.

There are many words to discribe this song and the story it tells, but I’m not sure “beautiful” is one of them.

Sad, haunting, thoughtful, melodic, political, powerful. I’m sure, others will add their thoughts as well, but for me is a song that I wish had never had needed to be written or sung and sould remind us that we are all people we are all equal and hope one day we will move beyond such small minded hate and horror.