The World of Music; 10; E. Y. Harburg: Lyrics for Musical Theatre

The following program is from N-E-T, the National Educational Television Network. Welcome to the world of music. I'm Martin Gould. Ever since some enterprising colonists converted a British lampoon of the ragged continental army into America's first song hit Yankee Doodle, popular music has been one of the country's most dynamic art forms. The whole history of our nation unfolds in its popular songs. The prideful determination of revolutionary America lives on, for example, in the sturdy hymns and marching tunes of William Billings. The words of music of Stephen Foster recall plantation days in the old South. The raucous parody lyrics of the doughboys in 1917 echo the terrible ironies of that water end-to-award. It was though in the 1920s, 30s and 40s that American popular music really came of age.

Melodists like Kern and Rogers and Allen, created tunes that will be sung as long as there are people to sing. And the lyric voice of the land spoke with equal eloquence through the inspired verses of such masters as Oscar Hammerstein, Ira Gershwin and Larry Hart. Our guest today is another of these great poet mistrels. A man whose verses have truly touched every heart in America. His name is E.Y. Harberg and most folks call him Yip. All too often a lyric writer is completely overshadowed by the composer with whom he works. Harberg, though, has avoided the pitfall by the simple expedient of writing unforgettable lyrics over the rainbow, April and Paris, Howard thinks in glaucom more, write us the reign, all these are his and hundreds more. And all have that very special twinkle, a lot depth of humanity,

which is the unmistakable hallmark of a Harberg verse. We are delighted to be able to visit E.Y. Harberg at his home where he is entertaining some of his friends. God made the world in six days flat. On the 70s said, I'll rest. So we let the thing into orbit, swim, spin to give it a dry run test. A billion years went by, then he took a look at the whirling blob. His spirit's fell as he shrugged, oh well. It was only a six-day job. But could we sort of talk about musical a little bit? I mean, lyrics and music and all the things that you're associated with. Martin, I'd rather talk about the numer item. Why is that? Is there really, is it tough you to write lyrics? Lyrics, I think of that, toughest medium.

Well, what do you feel a song should have here? I come from a long line, probably one of the last of a tribe of troubadours who believes that a song should communicate an important feeling and an important wisdom. And it should do it enchantingly. It should do it with melody, with construction, with architecture. Those songs, it takes a lot of training to do those songs. But those are the kind of songs we like to hear. Yes, they like to hear. Could we hear one of them? I don't like to write them because these are a little more difficult to write. Yes. I love to play them for you. Well, you know, you've done, of course, you have a rainbow. Complex. You have a rainbow, round your lyric. That's nice.

The... You're in it. You're in it. You're going to be on the left side of the public. But I think it would be sort of nice to start out with a rainbow sort. Which rainbow do you like? Well, I don't know. Well, I don't know. In Burton Lane. Now, which do you like? I like them all, except how I do the opera. All over the rainbow has been done so many times by better voices. What do you say, Jude? Jude is my alter ego. This is Judy Rubin. Hello. She not only accompanies me at the piano. She gives me stimulation, inspiration, and criticism. Wow. Let's do... Let's do... Look to the rainbow from Phinean's rainbow. And as you know, a song is out of a sure situation, so on. And this was an Irishman who had come to find a rainbow where else in America because we have a monopoly on rainbows. And so this little Irish girl sings. On the day I was born, said to me father, said he.

I've an elegant legacy waiting for he. Tis a rhyme for your live, and a song for your heart. To sing it whenever the world was apart. Look, look to the rainbow. Follow it all over the hill and stream. Look, look to the rainbow. Follow the fellow who follows a dream. So I bundled me high, and I rolled the world free. To the east with a mark to the west with the sea.

I searched all the earth. I scanned all the skies till I found it at last. In me, on true love's eyes. Look, look to the rainbow. Follow it all over the hill and stream. Look to the rainbow. Follow the fellow who follows a dream. Follow the fellow, follow the fellow. Follow that fellow who follows a dream. That's a nice rainbow.

Well, how would you rank the popular song of today? I assume that's very high. The key word is rank. Oh, I shouldn't have given that to you. You're a straight man. You're a straight man. Well, sometimes I wonder too. Well, the other thing is this, I think the key word too is this. That the children now say, this is all illusion. And the elder generation were victims of illusions. They were Pollyanna's prettyifying everything. So now we are living with disillusioned. But I agree that you cannot live with illusion all the time, but neither can you live with disillusioned completely. And in fact, we tried to get, I tried to get that particular philosophy into only a paper moon, if you remember. Yeah.

Carefully thought out to say, I'm facing reality, and I know life is tragic, but at the same time. Oh, it's only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea. But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me. Yes, it's only a cotton sky, hanging over a nylon tree. But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me. Without your smile, it's a hunky-time prey. Without your love. It's a melody play 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. Without your smile, it's a hunky-time prey. Alright. Without your love. It's a melody play in a penny arcade. It's a Barnum and Bailey world. Only as it can be. But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me. Is that song communicate that? Oh, it certainly does. It certainly does, yes. And of course, interestingly enough, this song has really come around the bend a number of times, hasn't it? In very successful revivals.

It's been used in the by-of-five motion pictures. It's Harold Arlen's song. And Harold Arlen writes, as you know, the other thing, but sensitive, beautiful, and top-notch-created things. I agree. And I'm very lucky to. A lyric write is always lucky when he has the right composer. Because without him, I mean, that lyric just tangs in the end. And the other way around, too. Yep. You know, I'd like to ask you a question, even as a professional person. I think we are not only professionals and performers or composers, but we're listeners. We're also part of the audience in a sense. Are you writing these kinds of songs today? People like you writing anything, really. I'm waiting for a next show to come on. Because the few people who write the good songs cannot have their songs sold anymore in single records.

They've got to appeal to the teenager. The teenager controls the buying market, or let's say 40% of the buying market. Well, so that amateurs or anybody can write a song. You're not hearing songs written by people who've had the training who've gone through the school, how to architecture and to fit and to, like Garland and Lane and Kern and Rogers and Grayshwin and some of the better lyric writers. You know, talking about words and what they symbolize and how they tell about people or supposed to tell about people in a human condition. I think it's interesting to find a song that ends up in a psychiatric textbook. This is a song from a famous song from a famous show.

From Broadway that worked its way into a book called Psychology of Interpersonal Relations by Professor Fritz Heider. And I quote from the book. The tendency is for people to like a person with whom he has contact through interaction or proximity. A popular song echoes this relation in its refrain when I'm not near the girl I love, the girl I love. I love the girl I'm here. Yep, along with my misquoting it. Does that sound familiar? Not only sounds familiar, but I'm very glad that Fritz Heider thought about making it a universal thing instead of a known biographical one.

And this is by Burton Lane from Finneon's Rainbow. Oh, my heart is beating wildly. And it's all because you're here. When I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm here. Everything that flutters by me is a flame that must be at. When I can't bundle the hand I'm fond of, I bundle the hand at hand. My heart's in a pickle. It's constantly fickle and not too particular I fear. When I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near.

What, if they're tall or tender? What, if they're small or slender? Long as they've got that gender I surrender. Always I can't refuse them. Always my feet per se. As long as they've got a bosom, I wooze them. I'm an essay, a confession. And I hope I'm not below them. And too I cling to the kiss that's close, as I'm more and more immortal. I am more and more with things. When I'm not facing the face that I fancy,

I fancy the face I face. I share and I'm caring, but Susan, I'm choosing. I'm faithful to who's in his hair. But when I'm not near the girl I love, I love the girl I'm near. I'll be enjoyed that. You know, Hollywood is very often maligned because they produce supposedly inferior pictures. But every now and then, Hollywood does produce a real masterpiece, a classic. And it did when it made a picture called a Wizard of Oz. This has so many wonderful elements

and one of the great musical scores with, of course, the lyrics by Mr. Hallberg. This is a perennial now. It's shown every year on television networks. It's become a family must around holiday season. Yep, how does it feel to be a classic? It feels as if I've outstayed my welcome here. This is one of the few rare times in a lifetime of writing that Harold Allen and I really had a chance at a book that had meaning, had profundity and fantasy and where everybody surrounding the project was in communion with it. That very rarely happens in the theater. Usually everything is geared for some commercial project. And here they wanted a prestige picture.

They were a little frightened of it. It took a lot of going before they decided this and a lot of prodding. But once they went, they went all out. Here are three characters, a tin man who hasn't got a heart. A scarecrow who hasn't got a brain. A cowardly line who has no courage. Three of the essential things in life without them we perish. Everybody is looking for wisdom, knowledge. Everybody is looking for love, the heart. Everybody is looking for courage to face life courageously, not hysterically. And with these three basic things that the show starts off with these people seeking that. And little Dorothy is looking for a home, which is another basic. Without the soil, there is no soil. And then comes the search for these magnificent, basic things.

And they think a wizard will get it for them. It'll come from the outside. The wizard is a humble. And how true that is for everybody that we're all looking for somebody to give us these essential, be elementary, and basic things in living. And so the picture, I think, gives children who really think more clearly than grownups about the real moralities of life, the real values of life. Gives them something to cling to and to feel instinctively that this is good, that there is goodness there. And on top of that, when you make it enchanting by giving them melody and twinkle and rhyme, you've got to sit on the floor. And this is the basis of all good art. It's the basis of chaplain. Yes. Well, of course, this is such a rich score. It would be very hard, I think, for anybody to pick out a favorite song,

because they all have such stature and such wonderful appeal. But now, if you had a pick one now, which one would you pick if I said, you have to do a song from Wizard? I really couldn't pick, because I really love that whole score and I think, Arlen, do you have any favorites? I've got my alter ego here. Judy, what do you say? Which song? Brain. Brain. Always leave it to a female to want to brain instead of a heart. I said a scarecrow swinging on a pole to a black bird sitting on a fence Oh, the Lord gave me a sword but forgot to give me common sense. If I had an ounce of common sense, I could while away the hours

conferring with the flowers consulting with the rain and my head, I'd be scratching one month to watch a busy action if I only had a brain. I'd unravel every riddle for any individual, in trouble or in pain. With the thoughts I'd be thinking I could be another Lincoln if I only had a brain. Oh, I could tell you why the oceans near the shore. I could think of things I never thought before and then I'd sit and think so more. I would not be just enough in my head or full of stuff in my heart or full of pain.

And perhaps I deserve you and be even worthy of you if I only had a brain. Yeah. Yep. Of course this is a song that is a comment on something that's happening today and you've written a number of songs that have had to do with events and with conditions, social conditions and to use the word classic again I'll make you a monument before this is through. Yeah, I'm just getting to feel like a legend. But to use that word again, of course you wrote some years back a classic, truly classic song called Brother Can You Spare a Dying, which for many people for certain generations, mine, ours.

To this day when I hear it, it evokes the bitterness and the point of seeing the tragedy of those depressing years. Would you do it for us? If you want to be thrown into us, spill us. You want to be that sad? Yes, why not? You mean because automation is under horizon? They used to tell me I was building a dream and so I followed them up when there was Earth to plough or guns to bear. I was always there right on a job they used to tell me I was building a dream with peace and glory ahead Why should I be standing in line

just waiting for bread? Once I built a railroad, made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a railroad, now it's done. Can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, to the sun, rake and rivet, and lie. Once I built that tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once in khaki suits, gee, we look swell. Full of that, Yankee doodledum,

half a million boots, went slogging through hell. I was the kid who with a drawn said, don't you remember? They called me out. It was out all the time. Say don't you remember? I'm your pal. Buddy, can you spare a dime? Brother, can you spare a dime? A classic of American pop in the music, the music is by Jay Gorny. We're deeply grateful to your Paul Berg for telling us about his songs and singing some of them today.

His most capable accompanist was Judy Rubin. Now, how best to sum up the accomplishments of the man called Yip? Well, let me read you a passage from a book called The Artist in Society by Barrow's Dunham. Quote, Mr. Harvard's gift, for speaking sensibly and beautifully to a large public, is my idea of the right relation between those who create and those who enjoy. For this, you need what here you have. A sweetness and skill in the creator and incorrupt humanity in the enjoyer and administrators who sing the happy conjunction will let nature take its course. Or perhaps it will be simpler to borrow a phrase from Yip himself. Let's just say that the lyrics of E. Y. Harberg are something sort of grandish and leave it a thought.

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