Hope and laughter. Amy goodman today, we pay tribute to yip harburg. The man who put the rainbow in the wizard of oz democracy now special. All that and more coming up. Now me to democracy i am amy goodman. Today, we pay tribute to yip harburg. His name may not be familiar to many, but his songs are sung by millions around the world, like jazz singer Abbey Lincoln and bing crosby sang it. Railroad, made a race against time. I built a railroad, now it is done amy goodman and tom waits. Judy collins, and dr. John from new orleans, peter yarrow,. They called meow al amy goodman thats al jolson, and our beloved odetta. Dime . An you spare a dime . Spare a amy goodman brother, can you spare a dime . May well be a new anthem for many americans. The lyrics to that classic american song were written by yip harburg. He was blacklisted during the mccarthy era. During his career as a lyricist, yip harburg used his wor to express antiracist, proworker messages. Hes best known for writing the lyrics to the wizard of oz, but he also had two hits on broadway bloomer girls, about the womens suffrage movement, and Finians Rainbow, a kind of immigrants anthem about race and class and so much else. Today, in this democracy now special, we pay tribute to yip harburgs life. Ernie harburg is yips son and biographer. He cowrote the book who put the rainbow in the wizard of oz . yip harburg, lyricist. I met up with Ernie Harburg at the New York Public Library for performing arts at Lincoln Center years ago when they are exhibiting yip harburgs work. Ernie harburg took me on a tour. Ernie harburg the first place is business about words, and one of them is that the songs, when they were written back in those days, anyhow, always had a lyricist and a composer, and neither one of them wrote the song. They both wrote the song. However, in the english language, you know, you have this is gershwins song, or this is they usually say the composers song. Ive rarely ever heard somebody say, this is yip harburgs song or Ira Gershwins song. Both of them would be wrong. The fact is, two people write a song. So im going to talk about yips lyrics and then lyrics in the song. Now the first thing were looking at here isn expression really of yips philosophy and background, which he brings to writing lyrics for the songs. And what it says here is that songs have always been mans anodyne against tyranny and terror. The artist is on the side of humanity from the time that he was born a hundred years ago in the dire depths of poverty that only the Lower East Side in manhattan could have when the russian jews, about two million of them, got up out of the russians shadows and ghettos, and the courageous ones came over here and settled in that area of what we now know as the east village. And yip knew poverty deeply, and he quoted bernard shaw as saying that the chill of poverty never leaves your bones. And it was the basis of yips understanding of life as struggle. Amy goodman lets go back to how yip got his start. Ernie harburg yip was, at a very early age, interested in poetry, and he used to go to the Tompkins Square library to read, and the librarians just fed him these things. And he got hooked on every one of the english poets, and especially o. Henry, the ending. He always has a little gat ending on the end of each of his songs. And he got hooked on w. S. Gilbert, the bab ballads. And then, when he went to townsend high school, they had them sitting in the seats by alphabetical order, so yip was h and gershwin was g, so ira sat next to yip. One day, yip walked in with the bab ballads, and ira, who was very shy and hardly spoke with anybody, just suddenly lit up and said, do you like those . And they got into a conversation, and ira then said, do you know theres music to that . And yip said, no. He said, well, come on home. So they went to iras home, which was on 2nd avenue and 5th street which is sort of upper from yips poverty at 11th and c. And they had a victrola, which is like having, you know, huge instruments today, and played him h. M. S. Pinafore. Well, yip was just absolutely flabbergasted, knocked out. And that did it. I mean, for the both of them, because ira was intensely interested that thing, too. What, never . No, never what, never . Ernie that began their lifelong friendship. Then ira went on to be one of the pioneers, with 25 other guys, jewish russian immigrants, who developed the american musical theater. And it was only after in 1924, i think, that iras first show with george gershwin, his brother, that they started writing together. Amy goodman the gershwins porgy and bess in 1940. Baby hush, little dont you cry Ernie Harburg yips career took a kind of detour, because when the war, world war i, came and yip was a socialist and did not believe in the war, he took a boat down to uruguay for three years. I mean, he refused to fight in the thing. Thats shades of 1968 and the vietnam war, right . Amy goodman and why didnt he believe in world war i . Ernie harburg because he was a full, deepdyed socialist who did not believe that capitalism was the answer to the Human Community and that indeed it was the destruction of the human spirit. And he would not fight its wars. And at that time, the socialists and the lefties, as they were called, bolsheviks and everything else, were against the war. And so, when he came back, he got married, he had two kids, and he went into the Electrical Appliance business, and all the time hanging out with ira and george and howard dietz and buddy de sylva and writing light verse for the f. P. A conning tower. And the newspapers used to carry light verse, every newspaper. There were about twentyfive of them at that time, not two or three now owned by two people in the world, you know. And they actually carried light verse. Well, yip and ira and dorothy parker, the whole crowd, had light verse in there, and, you know, they loved it. So, when the crash came and yips business went under, and he was about anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 in debt, his partner went bankrupt. He didnt. He repaid the loans for the next 20 or 15 years, at least. Ira and he agreed that he should start writing lyrics. Amy goodman lets talk about what yip is most known for Finians Rainbow, the wizard of oz. Right here, what do we have in front of us . Ernie harburg we have a lead sheet. We are in the gallery of the Lincoln Center for the performing arts, and theres an exhibition called the necessity of rainbows, which is the work of yip harburg. And we are looking at the lead sheet of brother, can you spare a dime . Which came from a review called americana, which it was the first review, which was had a political theme to it at that time, the notion of the forgotten man. You have to remember what the Great Depression was all about. Its hard to imagine that now. But when roosevelt said, onethird of the nation are illclothed, illhoused and illfed, thats exactly what it was. There was at least 30 percent unemployment at those times. And among blacks and minorities, it was 50, 60 percent. And there were breadlines and now, the rich, you know, kept living their lifestyle, but broadway was reduced to about 12 musicals a year from prior, in the 20s, about 50 a year, ok . So it became harder. But the Great Depression was deep down a fact of life in everybodys mind. And all the songs were censored i use that loosely by the music publishers. They only wanted love songs or escape songs, so that in 1929 you had happy days are here again, and you had all of these kinds of songs. There wasnt one song that addressed the depression, in which we were all living. And this show, the americana show, yip was asked to write a song or get the lyrics up for a song which addressed itself to the breadlines, ok . And so, he, at that time, was working very closely with jay gorney. Jay had a tune, which he had brought over with him when he was eight years old from russia, and it was in a minor key, which is a whole different key. Most popular songs are in major. And it was a russian lullaby, and it was da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And jay had somebody else had lyrics for it once i knew a big blonde, and she had big blue eyes. She was big blue like that. And it was a torch song, of which we talked about. And yip said, well, could we throw the words out, and ill take the tune . Alright. And if you look at yips notes, which are in the book that i mentioned, youll see he started out writing a very satiric comedic song. At that time, rockefeller, the ancient one, was going around giving out dimes to people, and he had a yip had a satiric thing about can i share my dime with you . You know . But then, right in the middle, other images started coming out in his writings, and you had a man in a mill, and the whole thing turned into the song that we know it now, which is here and which i can read to you. And if you do this song, you have to do the verse, because thats where a lot of the action is. Amy goodman can you sing it to me . Ernie harburg alright, ill try. It wont be as good as bing crosby or tom waits. [singing] they used to tell me i was building a dream, and so i followed the mob, when there was earth to plow or guns to bear, i was always there right on the job. They used to tell me i was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, why should i be standing in why should i be standing in line, just waiting for bread . Yip harburg [singing] once i built a railroad i made it run, made it race against time. Once i built a railroad; now its done. Buddy, can you spare a dime . Amy goodman yip harburg singing in 1975. Yip harburg [singing] once i built a tower to the sun, brick and rivet and lime; once i built that tower; now its done. Brother, can you spare a dime . Amy goodman when was this song first played . Ernie harburg in 1932. And in the americana review, every critic, everybody took it up, and it swept the nation. In fact, paradoxically, i think roosevelt and the Democratic Party really wanted to tone it down and keep it off the radio, because playing havoc with trying to not talk about the depression, which everybody did. You remember the hoover thing, not only happy days are here again, but two chickens in every pot, and so forth. Nobody wanted to sing about the depression either, you know. Amy goodman yet, yip harburg was a supporter of fdr. Ernie harburg yes. But politics are politics, you know, and the thing was that, in fact, historically, this was, i would say, the only song that addressed itself seriously to the Great Depression, the condition of our lives, which nobody wanted to talk about and nobody wanted to sing about. Amy goodman Ernie Harburg, son of yip harburg. When we come back from our break, well talk about the wizard of oz, Finians Rainbow and other shows. Times of confusion like these, when all the world is a hopeless jumble and the raindrops tumble all around heaven opens darken up theouds sky way, there is a lovely highway to be found leading from your window pane to a spot behind the sun just a step the on the rain somewhere over the rainbow [applause] way up high ofres a land that i heard in a lullaby somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue and the trains that you dare to james really do come true someday, ill wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me where trouble melts like lemon drops high above the chimney tops thats where youll find me somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly fly over that rainbow why then, oh why cant i . If any little bird can fly why,d the rainbow, why, oh cant i . [applause] amy goodman this is democracy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Ernie talks about how you part Berg Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics to the wizard of oz. Ernie harburg actually, yip did more than the lyrics. When they were when yip and harold arlen were called in to do the score of the wizard of oz, it was yip who had this executive experience in his Electrical Appliance business and also had become a show doctor, so he was that is, when a show wasnt working, you would call somebody and try to fix it up. He had an overview of shows and he had an executive talent. And so, he was always what they called a muscle man in a show, alright . And hed already worked with bert lahr in a great song, the woodchoppers song, and amy goodman wait a second. Bert lahr, the lion . Ernie harburg the lion. Bert lahr and most of these people were from vaudeville and burlesque. And yip knew them in the 20s, but he actually worked with bert lahr in this light walk a little faster and another review. I forget that name, but he and yip and arlen gave bert songs to sing, which allowed him to want, or a sendoff of rich, you know. And so, they had that relationship. Also, yip knew jack haley, the tin woodman. And yip also worked with Bobby Connolly as a choreographer in the early 30s on his shows, who was also the choreographer for the wizard of oz. So he had a cast here with arlen who were, you know, sort of yips men. You know what i mean . So, when yip went to arthur freed, the producer, who was too busy to work on this musical, and mervin leroy had nothing to do with it, practically, because he had never done a musical before, so it became a vacuum in which the lyricist entered, because he was all ready to do so. Yip was always an active, you know, organizer. And so, the first thing he suggested was that they integrate the music with the story, which at that time in hollywood they usually didnt do. Theyd stop the story, and youd sing a song. Theyd stop the story and sing a song. That you integrate this arthur freed accepted the idea immediately. Yip then wrote yip and harold then wrote the songs for the 45 minutes within a 110minute film. The munchkin sequence and into the emerald city and on their way to the wicked witch, when all the songs stopped, because they wouldnt let them do anymore. Ok . Youll notice then the chase begins, you see, in the movie. Amy goodman why wouldnt they let them do anymore . Ernie harburg because they didnt understand what he was doing, and they wanted a chase in there. So, anyhow, yip also wrote all the dialogue in that time and the setup to the songs, and he also wrote the part where they give out the heart, the brains and the nerve, because he was the final script editor. And there was eleven screenwriters on that. And he pulled the whole thing together, wrote his own lines and gave the thing a coherence and a unity, which made it a work of art. But he doesnt get credit for that. He gets lyrics by e. Y. Harburg, you see . But, nevertheless, he put his influence on the thing. Amy goodman who wrote the wizard of oz originally, the story . Ernie harburg yeah, frank l. Baum was an interesting kind of maverick guy, who at one point in his life was an editor of a paper in south dakota. And this was at the time of the populist revolutions or revolts, or whatever you want to call it, in the midwest, because the railroads and the eastern city banks absolutely dominated the life of the farmers, and they couldnt get away from the debts that were accumulated from these. And baum set out consciously to create an american fable so that the American Kids didnt have to read those german grimm fairy stories, where they chopped off hands and things like that. You know, he didnt like that. He wanted an american fable. But it had this underlay of political symbolism to it that the farmer the scarecrow was the farmer. He thought he was dumb, but he really wasnt; he had a brain. And the tin woodman was the result was the laborer in the factories. With one accident after another, he was totally reduced to a tin man with no heart, alright, on an assembly line. And the cowardly lion was William Jennings bryan, who kept trying was a big politician at that time, promising to make the world over with the gold standard, you know . And the wizard, who was a humbug type, was the wall street finances, and the wicked witch was probably the railroads, but im not sure. Alright . So it was a beautiful matchup here with frank baum and yip harburg, ok, because in the book, the word rainbow was never once mentioned. And you can go back and look at it. I did three times. The word rainbow is never once mentioned in the book. And the book opens up with dorothy on a blackandwhite world, that kansas had no color. Just read the first paragraph in it. So, when they got to the part where they had to get the song for the little girl, they hadnt written it yet. They had written everything else. They hadnt written the song for judy garland, who was a discovery by one of yips collaborators, burton lane. And nobody knew the wonder in her voice at that time. So they worked on this song, and at that time, ira, yip, larry hart and the others thought that the composer should create the music first. Now, they were both locked into the lyricist and the composer were locked into the storyline and the character and the plot development. So they both knew that at this point there was a little girl in trouble on the kansas city environment, alright, and that she yearned to get out of trouble, alright . So yip gave harold what they call a dummy title. Its not the final title, but its something that more or less zeroes in on what the situation is all about and what this little girl is going to take a journey, alright . So yip gave him a title i want to get on the other side of the rainbow. Yip harburg now, heres what happened, and i want you to play this symphonically ok, i said, my god, harold this is a ok, i said, my god, harold this is a 12yearold girl wanting to be somewhere over the rainbow. It isnt nelson eddy and i got frightened, and i said, i dont lets save it. Lets save it for something else. But dont lets not have it in. Well, he felt he was crestfallen, as he should be. And i said, lets try again. Well, he tried for another week, tried all kinds of things, but he kept coming back to it, as he should have. And he came back, and i was worried about it, and i called ira gershwin over, my friend. Ira said to him, he said, can you play it a little more in a pop style . And i played it, with rhythm. Ok, i said, oh, well, thats great. Thats fine. I said, now we have to get a title for it. I didnt know what the title was going to be. And when he had [sings] deedadeedadadada, [talking] i finally came to the thing, the way our logic lies in it, i want to be somewhere on the other side of the rainbow. And i began trying to fit it on the other side of the rainbow. When