Source: malvinareynolds.com
“And the people in the houses
All went to the university
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same”
“Little Boxes” is an anti-conformist anthem composed by singer-songwriter and political activist Malvina Reynolds in 1962. The satirical tune critiques suburban housing development and middle-class conformity. It also popularized the term “ticky-tacky”. The song also received widespread attention when it was used as the theme song for the dark dramedy TV show Weeds. It was an appropriate theme for a show with delved into themes of conformity and consumerism.
Malvina’s daughter Nancy Schimmel explained the motivation behind the tune: “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.”
The tune was first recorded in 1963 by Reynolds’ friend influential folk singer and activist Pete Seeger (who was previously inducted into the Protest Music Hall of Fame). It became one of Seeger’s signature songs and his only solo tune to hit the US Billboard Hot 100 (#70).
The song went on to be recorded by several artists, including versions that were written in other languages. One notable example is in 1971, Chilean songwriter and activist (inducted in the Protest Music Hall of Fame) Victor Jara composed the Spanish version “Las Casitas del Barrio Alto” which mocked the bourgeois lifestyle of the residents of “Barrio Alto”, a high-class neighborhood in Santiago de Chile.
Reynolds recorded her version in 1967 and it appeared on her album Malvina Reynolds Sings the Truth.