E. Y. Harburg
“My songs, like "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" caused a great deal of furor during a period in Hollywood when a fellow by the name of Joe McCarthy was reigning supreme. And so, they got something up for people to take care of us, like me, called the blacklist. And I landed on the enemy list.” These words came from the famous Yip Harburg, who was a songwriter and lyricist in the early 1900’s. Songs have always been man’s way against tyranny and terror, and for Yip, this was his way of songwriting. Harburg was born a hundred years ago in the depths of poverty in Lower East Side, Manhattan. This was the basis of Yip’s understanding of life as struggle. At an early age, he became interested in poetry, and he used to go to the Tompkins Square Library to read. He soon grew up a full diehard 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. Harburg went into the business world, but when his business went in debt from the Depression, his childhood friend Ira and he agreed that he should start writing lyrics.
Yip Harburg came out with the song “Brother, Can you spare a dime?”, which was a political review from Americana.. In the times before the song, almost all songs were censored and they wanted them to be about love and escape. Then Yip created this song as a satiric comedy that addressed the Depression that everyone was living in. the democratic party wanted to keep this song off the radio because they thought it would create havoc by singing about the Depression, but this is how Yip Harburg portrayed his music. Soon enough, Harburg was asked to write the score to the Wizard of Oz. Yip also wrote all the dialogue in that time and the setup to the songs, and he was the final script editor. In creating his most favorite song, “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, Yip gave a title: "I Want to Get on the Other Side of the Rainbow." Yip tried to get the perfect rhythm and lyrics to fit the song. when he came across a good pop rhythm, he had to fit the rainbow part perfectly. Yip explained “I began trying to fit it: "On the other side of the rainbow." When he had a front
