Song of the Day 2/11: Pete Seeger, “Little Boxes”
H/t El Somnambulo, who wanted to know if this song was inspired by Levittown, the early suburban development whose 750-square-foot houses would qualify as “tiny homes” today.
First off, El Som, no, Burl Ives never sang it. You’re thinking of the version by Pete Seeger, who had his only charting record with the tune – it reached No. 70 on the Hot 100 in January 1964. It was written by friend and fellow folkie Malvina Reynolds, who was inspired not by Levittown but the sight of Daly City, Calif., just south of San Francisco.
El Som is not alone in finding the song horrible. According to Christopher Hitchens, satirist Tom Lehrer described it as “the most sanctimonious song ever written.” I would add that it’s also smug and condescending about people who, in retrospect, don’t seem all that bad.
Let’s face it, this attack on middle-class conformity hasn’t aged all that well. Today we have “townhouses” – row homes in the suburbs – and big McMansions. They’re still made of ticky-tack but they don’t all look the same, and it strikes me as anything but an improvement.
As for doctors and lawyers and business executives, I’d trade them in a heartbeat for our bankers and tech bros and entrepreneurs who are all rugged individualists and all think just the same. Luckily for them, Malvina Reynolds and Pete Seeger aren’t around to see it.
TV fans may remember this tune was used as the theme of the Showtime stoner comedy series “Weeds” and played over the opening credits. Checking my memory, I found the following tidbit on IMDB:
“During the second and third seasons, the opening credits were again accompanied by the Malvina Reynolds song “Little Boxes”, but sung instead by a different individual or group each time. Artists who provided covers for openers included Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie, Engelbert Humperdinck, Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle (who sang the song in French), Regina Spektor, Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice, Randy Newman, Angélique Kidjo, Donovan, Billy Bob Thornton, The Shins, Joan Baez, The Decemberists, Linkin Park, and Rise Against.”