OZ WEEK – Over the Rainbow

Good thing they left it…”Over The Rainbow”  won an Oscar that year, and would of course live on as one of the most popular songs in film history.

Whether you loved the film from your first viewing, or were emotionally-scarred by the witch and her flying monkeys, you probably didn’t look at the film as political commentary. But lyricist Yip Harburg pointed the songs, and this one in particular, in support of FDR’s New Deal.

Later, as Dorothy and her crew approach the Emerald City, (sorry, spoiler alert) we hear “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.” According to Yarburg,”it heralds not only the four principals’ escape from the woods and an evil spell but, on another level, the end of the Depression”

Sound Beat is produced at the Belfer Audio Archive, Syracuse University Library.

I’m Brett Barry.