Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Little Boxes - Laatikkoon, laatikkoon


Brita Koivunen and Eino Virtanen were both popular as solo singers in the 50's and at the start of 60's, but they also recorded several successful songs together as a duo called Brita & Eikka. This "Laatikkoon. laatikkoon" (Into the box, into the box) was on their sole album "Brita & Eikka" released in 1966. They were absolutely not part of the protest song movement of the time, but this song has pretty sharp lyrics provided by Pertsa Reponen (yes, him again). For some reason this song has been credited to Eino Virtanen, but he did only the arrangement and the original was written and performed by American folk legend Malvina Reynolds in 1962 It became a small chart hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963. The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes. It refers to suburban housing as "little boxes", all made out of "ticky-tacky", and which all look just the same. The "ticky-tacky" is a reference to the material of inferior quality (but designed to simulate better quality material) used in the construction of houses. Brita & Eikka probably got their inspiration from the version of their Danish counterparts Nina & Frederik, who were quite popular in Europe and in Finland at the time.

Here's the triplet:

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