Little Boxes

"Little Boxes" is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962 that lampoons the development of suburbia and what many consider its bourgeois conformist values. It is best known through Pete Seeger's performance of the song.

"Little Boxes" refers to the areas of Daly City, California built in the post-war era by Henry Doelger, particularly the neighborhood of Westlake. Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Malvina Reynolds, explains:

:"My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Honda where she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When "Time Magazine" (I think, maybe "Newsweek") wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn’t find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered.” [ [http://music.homegrownseries.com/?p=5 "Malvina Reynolds"] , "Weeds: Artist Spotlight" (website), 2007. Accessed 2007-10-16.]

The same images and overall sentiment of Reynolds's song had already been expressed forty-four years earlier by the Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni in her poem "Cuadrados y ángulos". The poem describes row after row of square houses in Buenos Aires, in which live people who "ya tienen el alma cuadrada" ("already have square souls").

The song's best-known performance was that of Pete Seeger in 1963. The version of the song by the Womenfolk is the shortest single ever to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 at 1:03 minutes long. The first Spanish version of the song, called "Cajitas," was written by the Spaniard songwriter [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Celdrán Adolfo Celdrán] was published in 1969 and had several successive reissues. Another Spanish version of the song, "Las Casitas del Barrio Alto," was written by the Chilean songwriter Victor Jara in 1971, depicting in a mocking way the over-Europeanized and bourgeois lifestyle of the residents of the "Barrio Alto" in Santiago de Chile. A French version was also performed with the title "Petites boîtes" by Graeme Allwright. Other artists who have covered the song include Regina Spektor, Rise Against, Devendra Banhart, Phosphorescent, Man Man and The Decemberists who expanded the song by several verses.

The term "ticky tacky" became a catch-phrase during the 1960s as a result of the song, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873851,00.html "Tacky into the Wind"] , "Time," February 28, 1964.] and the word "tacky" came to refer to anything that was garishly unattractive or tasteless in appearance. Tom Lehrer described "Little Boxes" as "the most sanctimonious song ever written," [http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjkmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxODI0OTYmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3 "A little song that had big ideas"] by Tim Norris, "Herald News," August 16, 2007.] a description that some people believed was negative.

Use in "Weeds"

The song is featured in the Showtime television series "Weeds". The first season used Reynolds's own recording as the theme song. In the second and third seasons, different artists performed "Little Boxes" in the introduction sequence of each episode. The almost thirty artists included Linkin Park, Regina Spektor, The Decemberists, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice, Tim DeLaughter, Mark Gunnery of Riot Folk, Randy Newman, Billy Bob Thornton, The Shins, Death Cab for Cutie, Mates Of State, Persephone's Bees, Man Man, Joan Baez, Ozomatli, Rise Against, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle who did a French version, distinctly Québécois by its accent. Reynolds's version was used again for the finale of the second and third seasons. Pete Seeger's version was also used at the end of the season three finale. Starting with the second episode of the fourth season, "Little Boxes" was no longer used.

For a complete list of artists who have recorded this song for the show, see opening music of "Weeds".

Other references

The song was quoted in a Tony Campolo sermon, "The Kingdom Of Ticky-Tack," that decried the de-emphasis of spiritual values. The song was performed by Keith Carradine in the movie "The Californians" in 2005. It is also the signature tune of BBC radio comedy "Robin and Wendy's Wet Weekends."

A book about Westlake, "Little Boxes: The Architecture of a Classic Midcentury Suburb," is named for the song. ["Little Boxes: The Architecture of a Classic Midcentury Suburb" by Rob Keil, Daly City, CA: Advection Media, 2006. ISBN 0977923649.] .

The song is also used by the Italian journalist Gianluca Nicoletti as the opening song for his radio show "Melog," on air daily on the Italian national network Radio24 (Italy) since the 9th of January 2006.

References

Artist -Planet P Project, Album - Levittown, Song - The New Frontier

External links

* [http://www.wku.edu/%7Esmithch/MALVINA/mr094.htm List of recordings]
* [http://www.sho.com/site/weeds/music.do "Weeds" versions]
* [http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2006/11/americas_most_p.html "America's Most Perfect Ticky-Tacky Suburb"] , "Telstar Logistics" (blog), November 07, 2006.
* [http://www.adolfoceldran.com Adolfo Celdrán]
* [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Celdr%C3%A1n Adolfo Celdrán en wikipedia castellano]