Little Boxes: il Sogno Americano in scatola

La canzone Little Boxes, scritta da Malvina Reynolds nel 1962 e portata al successo dal mitico Pete Seeger nel 1963, è una satira politica sullo sviluppo dei suburbs e sul conformismo che questi luoghi simboleggiano nella cultura americana. Nelle "scatolette" tutte uguali e fatte di materiale scadente, ticky-tacky, abitano persone con vite tutte uguali. Per tanti, e non solo americani, il Sogno Americano è proprio questo. 
Reynolds, popolare cantautrice e attivista politica di San Francisco, scrisse questa canzone mentre passava in macchina per le zone residenziali vicino a Daly City, a sud della città.
Qui sopra trovate un video con la versione cantata da Pete Seeger.Qui sotto il testo.Buon ascolto.
(E per restare in tema suburbia, lettura consigliata: Revolutionary Road, di Richard Yates. Bello anche il film, di Sam Mendes, con una strepitosa Kate Winslet.)
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
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.

Robert Isaacs. "Ticky Tacky Houses in Daly City," 1968. Courtesy Metropolis Magazine.

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 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.
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.