Today I’m sharing a You Tube video for the first time – fingers crossed it works!
The original song – satirizing conformist middle class attitudes and the development of suburban housing estates – was written by folk singer/songwriter and political activist, Malvina Reynolds, in 1962. Her friend and fellow activist, Pete Seeger, recorded it the following year.
I was only eleven at the time it became an international hit but I remember it clearly as being catchy and appealing, with apparently child-like lyrics and an insistent tick-tock rhythm.
Even then I was beginning to sense the sinister implications of ‘going along with the herd’, of adopting conventional attitudes and aspirations, without question. Maybe that’s why I have always thought ‘outside the box’?
Fifty years after it was written, the irony behind the lyrics is as incisive as it was when they were penned. Perhaps even more so – which is why I have chosen it today.
I discovered this version – by the amazingly talented Canadian Indie band, Walk Off The Earth – this morning. The video is stunningly clever and ultimately chilling.
Enjoy!
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