Ira's influence on George was most strongly felt through their give and take when working on a song. While George said (in a radio interview in 1932) that generally the music came first and then Ira began work on the lyrics, he admitted that after some initial work by Ira they began to go back and forth and work out things together. See also Deena Rosenberg's book (it's a treasure!) mentioned in a posting on the General section of the Fanpage for Dec. 8.