Raman and Mossbauer spectroscopy were used to study the high temperature superconducting perovskite. A Raman peak at 636 cm^(-1) is obverved in the orthorhombic superconducting YBa2Cu3O7 but not in the tetragonal semiconducting YBa2Cu3O6 compound. Mossbauer results on the Fe-doped Y-Ba-Cu-O compound show that Fe can be either in a 4-coordination site and/or a S-coordination site. The relative amount of the S-coordination site increases as the total amonunt of Fe increases. Detailed results are discussed in terms of the crystal structure of the compounds.