Yip Harburg
Edgar Yipsel Harburg (8 April 1896 – 4 March 1981), born Isidore Hochberg and known primarily as E. Y. Harburg or Yip Harburg, was an American lyricist who worked with many well-known composers. He is most famous for his lyrics for The Wizard of Oz (1939), including those of "Over the Rainbow".
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Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Quotes
editSailing over a cardboard sea...
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then, oh why can't I?
Follow it over the hill and stream
Look, look, look to the rainbow
Follow the fellow who follows a dream.
I love the girl I'm near.
Are lost in space.
THERE and THEN
Do not embrace.
So before we disappear
Come sweet NOW and kiss the HERE.
- Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?- "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (1931), performed as part of the play New Americana (1932) - Charlie Palloy version - Bing Crosby version - Tom Waits version
- I never knew the charm of spring
Never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
Never missed a warm embrace
'Til April in Paris.
Whom can I run to
What have you done to
My heart...
- Say, its only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.- "It's Only a Paper Moon" (1933) (co-written with Billy Rose) - Nat King Cole version
Without your love
It's a honky-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me.- "It's Only a Paper Moon" (1933) (co-written with Billy Rose).
- Somewhere over the rainbow,
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.- "Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz (1939) - Judy Garland version
- Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops,
That's where you'll find me.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow,
Why then, oh why can't I?- '"Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- Follow the yellow brick road.
- "We're Off to See the Wizard" in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- We're off to see the Wizard, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
You'll find he is a whiz of a Wiz! If ever a Wiz! there was.- "We're Off to See the Wizard" in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
You’re out of the woods
You’re out of the dark
You’re out of the night
Step into the sun, step into the light,
Keep straight ahead
For the most glorious place
On the Face of the Earth
Or the sky.Hold onto your breath
Hold onto your heart
Hold onto your hope,
March up to the gate
And bid it open.- "Optimistic Voices".
- To let a fool kiss you is stupid,
To let a kiss fool you is worse.- "Inscription On A Lipstick" in The Garment Worker Vol. 41 (1941), p. 10.
- Life is short, short, brother!
Ain't it the truth?
And there is no other
Ain't it the truth?
You gotta rock that rainbow while you still got your youth!
Oh! Ain't it the solid truth?- "Ain't It the Truth" originally written for Cabin in the Sky (1943), but pulled from the show, and later included in Jamaica (1957) - Lena Horne version
On the day I was born,
Said my father, said he
I've an elegant legacy waiting for ye.
Tis a rhyme for your lips
And a song for your heart
To sing it whenever the world falls apart.Look, look, look to the rainbow
Follow it over the hill and stream
Look, look, look to the rainbow
Follow the fellow who follows a dream.- "Look to the Rainbow", in Finian's Rainbow (1946) - Petula Clark version
- How are things in Glocca Morra?
Is that little brook still leaping there?
Does it still run down to Donny cove?
Through Killybegs, Kilkerry and Kildare?
- So I ask each weepin' willow
And each brook along the way,
And each lad that comes a-whistlin' Tooralay
How are things in Glocca Morra
This fine day?- "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?"
- The Lord made Adam, the Lord made Eve, he made ‘em both a little bit naive.
- “The Begat” in Finian’s Rainbow (1946).
- When I'm not near the girl I love,
I love the girl I'm near.- "When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love" in Finian's Rainbow (1946) - Tommy Steele version
- When the idle poor
Become the idle rich
You'll never know
just who is who
or who is which.- "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" in Finian's Rainbow (1946) - Fred Astaire version
- As the writer of the lyric of the song ‘God’s Country’, I am outraged by the suggestion that somehow I am connected with, believe in, or am sympathetic with Communist or totalitarian philosophy.
- Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee (1950), as quoted in "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", by Scott Jacobs, in The Week Behind (23 September 2009)
- No matter how high or great the throne,
What sits on it is the same as your own.- As quoted in The Americans (1970) by David Frost, p. 181.
- WHERE and WHEN
Are lost in space.
THERE and THEN
Do not embrace.
So before we disappear
Come sweet NOW and kiss the HERE.- "Adverbs" in Laughing Space : Funny Science Fiction (1982) edited by Isaac Asimov & J. O. Jeppson , p. 503.
- Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way.
All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.
Socrates and Galileo, John Brown, Thoreau, Christ, and Debs
Heard the night cry down with traitors, and the dawn shout "Up the reds!"
- I am a rebel by birth. … I contest anything that is unjust, that causes suffering in humanity. My feelings about that are so strong, I don't think I could live with myself if I weren't honest.
- I am one of the last of a small tribe of troubadours, who still believe that life is a beautiful and exciting journey with a purpose and grace which are well worth singing about.
- As quoted in "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", by Scott Jacobs, in The Week Behind (23 September 2009).
Rhymes for the Irreverent (1965)
editThe moment you take wing.
But not, my friend, for breaking
While there's another spring.
- No matter how much I probe and prod,
I cannot quite believe in God;
But oh, I hope to God that He
Unswervingly believes in me.- "Agnostic".
And only God who makes the tree
Also makes the fools like me.But only fools like me, you see,
Can make a God, who makes a tree.- "Atheist".
My heart is like the willow
That bends, but never breaks.
It sighs when summer jilts her,
It sings when April wakes.So you, who come a-smiling
With summer in your eyes,
Think not that your beguiling
Will take me by surprise.My heart's prepared for aching
The moment you take wing.
But not, my friend, for breaking
While there's another spring.- "Irreverent Heart"
Quotes about Harburg
edit- The first thing we’re looking at here is an expression really of Yip’s philosophy and background, which he brings to writing lyrics for the songs. And what it says here is that songs have always been man’s anodyne against tyranny and terror. The artist is on the side of Humanity.
- Ernie Harburg, Yip's son, interviewed in "A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz" at Democracy Now! (25 November 2004).
External links
edit- Biography of Harburg from USPS
- Extended audio/print interview with Ernie Harburg, Yip's son and biographer
- The Yip Harburg Foundation
- Yip Harburg on IMDb
- E. Y. Harburg papers (first installment) and E. Y. Harburg papers (second installment) in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection of The New York Public Library for the Peforming Arts.
- "A Tribute to Yip Harburg: The Man Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz" at Democracy Now (25 November 2004)
- "Yip Harburg: Secular Songwriter" by Dan Barker in Freethought Today Vol. 22, No. 3 (April 2005)
- "The Atheist Lyricist Who Put the Rainbow in the Wizard of Oz" at Freedom From Religion Foundation (26 January 2008) (mp3 Podcast) (includes Harburg singing his song "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?", at 16 minutes into the podcast)