malvina reynolds is one of those obscure folk singers who knew and worked with pete seeger and earl robinson, married a communist, received her doctorate from uc berkeley, had her songs covered by everyone from joan baez to billy bob thornton, and yet somehow remains obscure.
i discovered reynolds recently as i was watching a television show called weeds, which streams for no extra charge on netflix if you happened to be a subscriber. the song that plays over the show's intro is hers-it's called 'little boxes.' the musical folks at weeds have subsequently, (seemingly,) commissioned many modern artists to cover the song for use in that same intro slot but as is often the case, the covers do not measure up. listening to reynolds, it is somehow obvious she wrote the song. you can hear that she owns it.
don't you just love her vocal style? for my part, i am featuring her on my annual xmas cd so if you happen to be on that illustrious list of friends or family who takes home one of these prized possessions every year, you will hear malvina in the track #1 slot singing 'little boxes,' a song about the bourgeois conformist values so prevalent in suburbia.
oh, i also wanted to mention that growing up my mom used to use a phrase of reynold's, "ticky-tacky," quite often. the oxford english dictionary credits reynolds with inventing the term used to describe anything shoddy or of poor workmanship. who knew?! (i can't wait for the biopic.)
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