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Billie Holiday was, in many ways, the pre-cursor to the rock star artist of the 1960s. Her self-destruction was real, but it was also cultivated as part of her image. She was pathos, the tortured artist, and it adds a poignant beauty to everything she sang. Take a listen to Bing Crosby singing "I'll Be Seeing You", it's wartime sugar-pop sap, and you know that whoever he's singing to will be coming home, Bing's just waiting it out for a while. Then listen to Holiday sing it, and it is a heart-wrenching ballad - whoever she's singing to is gone, and Billie is going to be haunted by them every moment of her life.
"Strange Fruit" is one of the bravest things an artist has ever done.
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