Howard Who?

The Showtime show Weeds begins every new show with a protest song called “Little Boxes.” The song is about how people are placed on the assembly belt of univeristy education, vocational complacency, raising children in cookie-cutter homes, etc. Accompanying the song are images of the little boxes (tract housing) and their denizens dressed identically going through the motions of morning coffee, jogging in the park, going to school, and driving to work. And as the New Yorker’s TV critic Nancy Franklin pointed out it is condescending.

It’s actually a similar scene from Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands that turns suburban life into caricature. The scene remains amusing because it serves to contrast the overwhelming sameness with the infamous “other”…namely a person with scissors for hands. In Weeds, the other is drug-dealing.

While last season the show began with songwriter Melvina Reynolds’ rendition of the her music, this season featured a revolving door of musicians covering it. You can hear Elvis Costello’s version among others on the Weeds website. For whatever reason, Death Cab’s version isn’t up.

Recently Christopher O’Riley did a live cover of Little Boxes as well. You may remember him from his covers of Elliott Smith and Radiohead. Here he gives Little Boxes more than just piano arrangement; it is harmonically vivid and aside from the melody, unidentifiable. Found it on his website here and reposted below.

Little Boxes (mp3) - Melvina Reynolds Buy

Little Boxes (mp3) - Christopher O’Riley

(edit)

If you guys haven’t been there yet, My Old Kentucky Blog has a cover songs project. Little Boxes is featured with Elvis Costello’s and Death Cab’s versions. Pretty awesome.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 at 12:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Pop Music, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.