Poetry Wednesday 01/07/09: Malvina Reynolds

Malvina Reynolds (born as Malvina Milder on August 23, 1900, died March 17, 1978) was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, probably best known for writing the song “Little Boxes”.

Born in San Francisco to two Jewish immigrants and socialist opponents of World War I, Malvina Milder married William Reynolds, a carpenter, in 1934 and had one child, Nancy, in 1935. She had earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and later went on to earn her doctorate there, finishing her dissertation in 1938.

Though she played violin in a dance band in her twenties, she began her songwriting career late in life. She was in her late 40s when she met Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger, and other folk singers and songwriters. She returned to school at UC Berkeley, where she studied music theory. She went on to write several popular songs, including “Little Boxes”, “What have They Done to the Rain”, recorded by The Searchers and Joan Baez (about nuclear fallout), “It Isn’t Nice” (a civil rights anthem), “Turn Around” (about children growing up, later sung by Harry Belafonte), and “There’s a Bottom Below” (about being depressed). Reynolds was also a noted composer of children’s songs, including “Magic Penny” and “Morningtown Ride”, a top 5 UK single (December 66) recorded by The Seekers.

Three collections of her music are available on compact disc. The Smithsonian Folkways label released Another County Heard From (Folkways 02524) and Ear to the Ground (Smithsonian Folkways 40124), and the Omni Recording Corporation in Australia issued Malvina Reynolds (Omni 112.)

A film biography, Love It Like a Fool, was made a few years before she died in 1978.

Reynolds’ most famous song, “Little Boxes” (made famous by Pete Seeger), has enjoyed renewed popularity by being featured in Showtime’s TV series, Weeds. “Little Boxes” was inspired visually by the houses of Daly City, California. “Little Boxes” written 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.

“Malvina Reynolds was one of the great songwriters of the 20th Century.” –Pete Seeger

Little Boxes
by Malvina Reynolds

Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of tickytacky
Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same
There’s a green one and a pink one and a blue one and a yellow one
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses all went to the university
Where they were put in boxes and they came out all the same,
And there’s doctors and there’s lawyers, and business executives
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf course and drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children and the children go to school
And the children go to summer camp and then to the university
Where they are put in boxes and they come out all the same.

And the boys go into business and marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky and they all look just the same.

[mp3j track=”littleboxes.mp3″]

“Turn Around” was used in the 1960 commercial for Eastman Kodak. All it takes is a camera !

Turn Around
by Malvina Reynolds

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you’re two,
Turn around and you’re four,
Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of my door.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of my door.

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Little dirndls and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you’re tiny,
Turn around and you’re grown,
Turn around and you’re a young wife with babes of your own.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you’re a young wife with babes of your own.

The Original 1960 Eastman Kodak Ad
“Turn Around”
Sung by Harry Belafonte

What Have They Done to the Rain?

Words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1962 as “Rain Song” then in 1964 as “What Have They Done to the Rain” by Schroder Music Company, renewed 1990. a.k.a. “Rain Song” and “Just a Little Rain.”

People now think of this as a song about acid rain, but it was originally written as part of a campaign to stop aboveground nuclear testing, which was putting strontium-90 in the air, where it was washed down by the rain, got into the soil and thence to the grass, which was eaten by cows. When children drank the cows’ milk the strontium-90, chemically similar to calcium but radioactive, was deposited in their bones. Mothers saved their children’s baby teeth and sent them in to be tested by scientists who indeed found elevated levels of strontium-90 in their teeth.

A year after this song was written, President Kennedy signed the treaty against aboveground testing.

What Have They Done To The Rain ?

by Malvina Reynolds
Just a little rain falling all around,
The grass lifts its head to the heavenly sound,
Just a little rain, just a little rain,
What have they done to the rain?

Just a little boy standing in the rain,
The gentle rain that falls for years.
And the grass is gone,
The boy disappears,
And rain keeps falling like helpless tears,
And what have they done to the rain?

Just a little breeze out of the sky,
The leaves pat their hands as the breeze blows by,
Just a little breeze with some smoke in its eye,
What have they done to the rain?

What Have They Done To The Rain ?
by Malvina Reynolds
Performed by Joan Baez

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