Popular Song is a genre that requires immense discipline. The music must be accessible to all, the form must be simple and repetitive... in service to the text.
The story is the point of the song- not the mechanics of music making. And the strictness of the musical format demands economy of words, coupled with a poet's penchant for imagery. The best songs are tightly-written stories, and the best stories paint a picture in the listener's mind.
"Strange Fruit"
text and composition: Abel Meeropol
(best performance: Billie Holliday)
"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."
| 
