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SkirtDude

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sapphire
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Post by sapphire »

The Kingston Trio also recorded it.

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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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was written in 1962 that lampoons the development of suburbia and what many consider its bourgeois conformist values.

Isn't that what we are fighting in this forum? The conformity of the "Man in the gray Flannel Suit", "The Corporation Man"?
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Post by ChristopherJ »

I've got a couple of songs by the Kingston Trio on my computer. I can remember them from when I was very young. 'Tom Dooley' is one - it was a big hit in the UK - and 'Where have all the flowers gone is the other'.

I'll stop now before I take this thread right off track . . . :wink:
It's never too late to have a happy childhood . . .
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Post by crfriend »

I've got a couple of songs by the Kingston Trio on my computer. I can remember them from when I was very young. 'Tom Dooley' is one [...]
Good group the Kingston Trio. I'll have to admit to my favourite being the "Merry Minuet". It's as relevant today as it was the day it was recorded.
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Post by Bob »

There's some interesting stuff on the song here: http://anglosphere.com/weblog/archives/000179.html. Nothing is unbaised, of course.

According to the article, the political context of the song was one in which the US was choosing between building massive government (rental) housing for returning GIs, or having the private sector build massive new suburban (owernship) subdivisions, spurred on by the GI bill. The Communist Party USA supported the public housing, but ultimately the society went for the GI bill. Two thirds of Americans today own their own home, and I suppose that most feel this is preferable to living in public housing.

In any case, what I find interesting is that the main alternative to the new Levittowns and Daly Cities being considered at the time was massive cookie-cutter government-owned apartment blocks --- ones that would all "look the same." So I think the song fails to meet its intended goal, since the same critique could be levied against the alternative it was advocating as well.

Moreover, houses all looking alike is not at all unique to suburbia. I live in a home that's just like my neighbors' home in the city, as well. And how do you tell one block of New York brownstones from the next?

The alternative to houses all looking the same is houses all custom-built. That would be prohibitively expensive for the average person, and I think rather burgeois --- somewhat antithetical to the Leftist values being promoted. In times of rapid home construction (such as the 1950's), one would expect that houses would be more the same than times of slower growth. Mass production leads to affordability, which leads to prosperity for the average Joe.

Along those lines is a quote from the above article:
"Little Boxes"... marks the Left's shift from critiqueing the market economy for producing too little, to critiqueing it for producing too much -- substituting an aesthetic critique for an economic one.
So in the end... yes, it's an interesting song and well done. But I think it's full of self contradictions, and ultimately fails to make its point, although reading about the history is fascinating to me.
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Post by Sarongman »

I know this thread has gone right off line but=== Nina and Frederic also recorded it.
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Post by sapphire »

My own response to "Little Boxes" was that it was a commentary on the rampany conformity of the 1950s and 1960s.

My parents bought a little box in 1953 for $3,000, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen and living room and one car garage on a lot 60 ft by 100ft. It was a cape style house and they added a dormer and two bedrooms around 1959. It wsa a comfy home.

But what struck me was not so much that houses looked the same ,but people and their roles looked the same. All of husbands worked. Many took the Long Island Rail Road into NYC. All of the wives stayed at home. All of the people who bought clothing and most of those who made their own, looked the same. With the exception of three families in the neighborhood, everyone was Roman Catholic. Television shows reinforced this sameness.

We have an overriding sameness holding us down now. Sameness is not necessarily bad, just when it is overdone. THat sameness was tested in the social movements of the 1950s and 1960s and reflected in the clothing of the 1960s and 1970s. THe conformity was elasticized a bit.

Now, people of this forum are working to stretch that conformity to include more acceptable choices in men's clothing.

Skirt on Brothers! Skirt on! A steady diet of trousers is so tickky tacky.
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Post by ChristopherJ »

How's the Communist Party of the USA doing these days?

Doesn't make the news much. :wink:
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Post by Bob »

sapphire,

Thanks! One reason I love art so much is it can be seen and applied in so many ways, from so many different viewpoints.
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Post by SkirtDude »

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sapphire
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Post by sapphire »

Actually, both types of housing were built post WWII: the private sector "starter homes" and the government built apartment complexes.

We have one of those government built complexes not far from here which has turned into "the projects" for poor residents.

To read the story of the history of this project and its history of violence follow this link:

http://www.worcestermag.com/archives/20 ... cover.html
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