Malvina Reynolds is not a name to feature much in musical history. She died in America some 36 years ago, and her brand of political folk is rarely accorded a great deal of air time.
I thought of Malvina a couple weeks ago, when much was said of the passing of the great Pete Seeger, who sang from a similar hymn sheet, musically and politically. I hope Malvina’s descendants qualify for royalties, for when Seeger’s greatest hits were faded in and out of obituaries, it was one of her songs that echoed down the years.
Little Boxes was Malvina’s 1962 tribute to the characterless housing of middle income California. Pete Seeger recorded the song the following year, and it was one of the more challenging offerings on 60s radio.
It also got Malvina Reynolds an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, as the accredited inventor of the modernist building material known as “ticky tacky”, of which all homes were made.
But Ms Reynolds penned another catchy tune in 1962, which was a far bigger hit at the time, particularly in the cover version by The Searchers. It could have been the soundtrack to the English winter of 2014, with even richer royalties coming her way.
What Have They Done to the Rain? was a ballad of its time, a protest song about nuclear testing. Understandably, given the subject matter, it was more popular on this side of the Atlantic than in the States.
“They”, is popular music, is almost always a sinister pronoun, signifying the people who get in the way, or mess things up. “They say we’re young and we don’t know…” “They don’t know…or care…about us…” Malvina’s “they” is more ominous still. They are the ones who might upset the apple-cart for all of us.
So, as you head into the storms this morning, try singing along with The Searchers.
The grass is gone, the boy disappears,
And rain keeps falling like helpless tears,
And what have they done to the rain ?
Mess with the atmosphere, sang Malvina, and you mess with the rain. And as it continues to tumble down, I find myself humming it rather often.
* Dr Chris Upton has a drip in his office at Newman University Birmingham. Or perhaps that should be a second drip.
