An 86 year old friend and retired scientist and Jazz musician and I had a discussion of the song "Strange Fruit" the other day. There is NOTHING this guy doesn't know about Jazz and is one of the few people I've ever run into that knows it was written by a white Jewish school teacher and communist sympathizer named Abel Meeropol in the 30's. Billie Holiday made it famous and unless you've heard her sing it you haven't yet heard it.
 I was telling him how it makes me cry when Billie sings it, that it such a powerful song and it is the same with him. So a few days go I stopped in to work on my Mercury (he owns the garage I keep it in) and visited with him for a while. As I was getting ready to leave he stopped me and ran off and when he returned he gave me a copy of a book entitled Strange Fruit The Biography of a song by David Margolick printed in 2001. I can't wait to start it.

Here it is put to music,aval. on iTunes by Sarah Jarosz on her "Follow Me Down alb.

Hi everybody that's not here.

I love Edger Allen Poe. Growing up in Philly I was able to visit the flat where he lived for a while and where his wife died (or so I was told). He wrote a poem I've always loved. It's a bit dark like everything else associated with Poe but I love it anyway. It was put to music that was beautyfully haunting. I'll see if I can find it on my iPod and get back to you.

FOR THE LOVE OF ANNABEL LEE

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love -
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me
Yes! that was the reason
(as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In the sepulcher there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Author: Edgar Allan Poe