Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz?: Yip Harburg Lyricist

About this book

". . . required reading for anyone interested in the great American songs."-New York Times Book Review Many of us can sing along with Dorothy when she imagines a place "Over the Rainbow." And we all remember the Depression-era classic "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" But very few can name the man who put the words to these celebrated hallmarks of American music- Yip Harburg. Five hundred songs spanning a fifty-year career bear witness to the brilliance of this until-now obscure figure. Plunge into this scrupulously documented volume and discover how Harburg once a poet of light verse played a major role in the transformation of the Broadway revue into the sophisticated musical of the 1940s and 1950s. With extensive and exclusive interviews and lyrical analysis the authors capture Harburgs wit distinctive voice and creative and collaborative methods. Inquiry into Harburgs Jewish New York City roots apprenticeship in his craft and involvement in the radical politics of the 1930s- he was blacklisted in the 1950s- puts into context the seemingly irreconcilable skepticism and optimism that contoured this lyrical geniuss life and work. Harold Meyerson is Executive Editor and chief political columnist L.A. Weekly and is on the editorial board of Dissent. Ernie Harburg is a social psychologist and epidemiologist at the University of Michigan coauthor (with Bernard Rosenberg) of The Broadway Musical: Collaboration in Commerce and Art and Yip Harburgs son.