Customer Reviews

Rhymes for the Irreverent

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Harburg was arguably the 20th century American musical theatre's preeminent lyrical elf. Yet he was a sprite with purpose, motivated as much by anger as joy and possessed of a social vision that matched his peerless gifts for whimsy. Not even Ira Gershwin can quite compete with Harburg at his most felicitous. (Could anyone but Yip have written, "But I could show my prowess/Be a lion, not a mow-ess" for Bert Lahr?) This little gem of a book is one of two Harburg compiled before his death. The other, "At This Point in Rhyme," is the more overtly political of the two, published as it was in the Watergate era, and is just as wonderful. Until that great come-and-get-it day when Robert Kimball gives us "The Complete Lyrics of Yip Harburg," this will do nicely as an appetizer.

I've been searching for this book forever, and was glad to find it. The rhymes are clever and pointed, and, unfortunately, still timely. I first heard some of them on a Chad Mitchell Trio album. This is the man who wrote the lyrics for the songs from the Wizard of Oz, among others.