Quote:
Originally Posted by Lisnaholic
And this is the first song I ever heard from Pete Seeger; it was quite a hit for him in England. A model of clarity, it shows PS´s philosophy of delivering gentle, accessible but thought-provoking songs to his audience.I always assumed he wrote it, but it turns out to´ve been by someone called Malvina Reynolds:
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Malvina was a bit of an anomaly in the folk music world of the 50s and 60s, in that she was a white-haired, grandmotherly type when she broke on the scene. She wrote "Little Boxes" in 1962 when she was 62 years old.
The song first appeared within a year or so on a single by a group called The Womenfolk. At 1:03, it was the shortest song to ever make the American
Billboard Hot 100.
British readers (and perhaps some in the US) will be familiar with two other songs written by Malvina Reynolds that had chart success: "Morningtown Ride" by The Seekers, and "What Have They Done to the Rain" by The Searchers.
The latter, a sad but beautiful lament depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war, gets my vote as the first true folk-rock song, predating The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" by nearly half a year.