The Trees (Rush song)

Last updated

"The Trees"
The Treesrush.jpg
Single by Rush
from the album Hemispheres
B-side "Circumstances"
Released
  • January 1979 (US) [1]
Genre
Length4:42
Label Anthem
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Rush singles chronology
"Cinderella Man"
(1977)
"The Trees"
(1979)
"Circumstances"
(1978)
Music video
"The Trees" on YouTube

"The Trees" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, from its 1978 album Hemispheres . The song is also featured on many of Rush's compilation albums. On the live album Exit...Stage Left , the song features an extended acoustic guitar introduction titled "Broon's Bane."

Contents

Rolling Stone readers voted the song number 8 on the list of the 10 best Rush songs. [2]

Live365 ranked it the tenth best Rush song. [3]

Classic Rock readers voted "The Trees" the band's 11th best song. [4]

Lyrics

The lyrics relate a short story about a conflict between maple and oak trees in a forest. The maple trees want more sunlight, but the oak trees are too tall. In the end, "the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw." [5]

Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart was asked in the April/May 1980 issue of the magazine Modern Drummer if there was a message in the lyrics, to which he replied, "No. It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees carrying on like fools. I thought, 'What if trees acted like people?' So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote it that way. I think that's the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement." [6] [7] However, in his 2007 book Roadshow: Landscape With Drums. A Concert Tour by Motorcycle, Peart clarified that the song was "a parable about collectivism".

In November 2023 Geddy Lee pondered that the song was "a comment on forced equality", and that "may have also been a little naive in [his] original intent. [...] There were a few things we sang about in our early twenties that seemed very important. But as time has gone on, you ameliorate those views because life has told you it’s not so simple. [...] You learn a lot about how much of life has lived in the gray areas as opposed to the black and white areas". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geddy Lee</span> Canadian musician (born 1953)

Geddy Lee Weinrib is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the rock group Rush. Lee joined the band in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson, replacing original bassist and frontman Jeff Jones. Lee's solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Peart</span> Canadian and American drummer (1952–2020)

Neil Ellwood Peart was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname 'The Professor', derived from the Gilligan's Island character of the same name. His drumming was renowned for its technical proficiency and his live performances for their exacting nature and stamina. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at the age of thirty, making him the youngest person ever so honoured.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rush (band)</span> Canadian rock band

Rush was a Canadian rock band that primarily comprised Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson (guitar) and Neil Peart. The band formed in Toronto in 1968 with Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and bassist and vocalist Jeff Jones, whom Lee immediately replaced. After Lee joined, the band went through several line-up changes before arriving at its classic power trio line-up with the addition of Peart in July 1974, who replaced Rutsey four months after the release of their self-titled debut album; this line-up was kept intact for the remainder of the band's career.

<i>Signals</i> (Rush album) 1982 studio album by Rush

Signals is the ninth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 9, 1982 by Anthem Records. After the release of their previous album, Moving Pictures, the band started to prepare material for a follow-up during soundchecks on their 1981 concert tour and during the mixing of their subsequent live album Exit...Stage Left. Signals demonstrates the group's continuing use of synthesizers, sequencers, and other electronic instrumentation. It is the last album produced by their longtime associate Terry Brown, who had worked with them since 1974.

<i>Hemispheres</i> (Rush album) Album by Canadian rock band Rush

Hemispheres is the sixth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on October 24, 1978 by Anthem Records. It reached No. 14 in Canada and the UK, and No. 47 in the US. The album was a steady seller in the group's catalogue, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling one million copies 15 years later.

<i>Fly by Night</i> (album) 1975 studio album by Rush

Fly by Night is the second studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released on February 14, 1975, by Mercury Records. It was the first Rush album to showcase elements of progressive rock for which the band has become known. It was also the first to feature lyricist and drummer Neil Peart, who replaced original drummer John Rutsey the previous summer just prior to the band's first North American tour. Peart took over as Rush's primary lyricist, and the abundance of fantastical and philosophical themes in his compositions contrasted greatly with the simpler hard rock of the band's debut album.

<i>Moving Pictures</i> (Rush album) 1981 studio album by Rush

Moving Pictures is the eighth studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on February 12, 1981, by Anthem Records. After touring to support their previous album, Permanent Waves (1980), the band started to write and record new material in August 1980 with longtime co-producer Terry Brown. They continued to write songs with a more radio-friendly sound, featuring tighter and shorter song structures compared to their earlier albums.

<i>Power Windows</i> (album) 1985 studio album by Rush

Power Windows is the eleventh studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released on October 11, 1985 in Canada by Anthem Records and on October 21, 1985 in the United States. After touring in support of their previous album, Grace Under Pressure (1984), the band took a break and reconvened in early 1985 to begin work on a follow-up. The material continued to display the band's exploration of synthesizer-oriented music, this time with the addition of sampling, electronic drums, a string section, and choir, with power being a running lyrical theme. Power Windows was recorded in Montserrat and England with Peter Collins as co-producer and Andy Richards on additional keyboards.

<i>Test for Echo</i> 1996 studio album by Rush

Test for Echo is the sixteenth studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush, released on September 10, 1996, by Anthem Records. It was the final Rush album to be co-produced by Peter Collins. The band supported the album with a world tour in 1996 and 1997, after which they went on a five-year hiatus following the deaths of drummer Neil Peart's daughter and wife, and would not record again until 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Sawyer (song)</span> 1981 song by Rush

"Tom Sawyer" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, originally released on their 1981 album Moving Pictures as its opener. The band's lead singer, bassist, and keyboardist, Geddy Lee, has referred to the track as the band's "defining piece ... from the early '80s".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limelight (Rush song)</span> Rush song

"Limelight" is a song by Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It first appeared on the 1981 album Moving Pictures. The song's lyrics were written by Neil Peart with music written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. "Limelight" expresses Peart's discomfort with Rush's success and the resulting attention from the public. The song paraphrases the opening lines of the "All the world's a stage" speech from William Shakespeare's play As You Like It. The band had previously used the phrase for its 1976 live album. The lyrics also refer to "the camera eye", the title of the song that follows on the Moving Pictures album.

"Jacob's Ladder" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush. It was released on their 1980 album Permanent Waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subdivisions (song)</span> 1982 single by Rush

"Subdivisions" is a song by Canadian progressive rock group, Rush, released as the second single from their 1982 album Signals.

"The Analog Kid" is a song by the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. It was released as the second single from their 1982 album Signals and reached number 19 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

"A Passage to Bangkok" is a song by Canadian rock band Rush, released in March 1976 by Anthem Records. The song appears on the band's fourth studio album 2112 (1976). With the album's title track comprising the first half of the record, "A Passage to Bangkok" opens the second side of the album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roll the Bones (song)</span> 1992 single by Rush

"Roll the Bones" is a song by the Canadian rock band Rush. It was released as the second single from their 1991 album of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marathon (Rush song)</span> 1985 song by Rush

"Marathon" is the fourth track on Canadian rock band Rush's 1985 album Power Windows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Headlong Flight</span> 2012 single by Rush

"Headlong Flight" is the second single from Canadian rock band Rush's 19th studio album, Clockwork Angels. It was released to radio stations and for online preview on April 19, 2012, and became available digitally and on disk April 24, 2012. A lyrics video was also made available on YouTube. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Geddy Lee commented on the song:

'Headlong Flight' was one of those songs that was a joy to write and record from beginning to end. Alex [Lifeson] and I had blast jamming in my home studio one day before the second leg of the Time Machine tour, and I did not revisit that jam until a year later. Alex and I assembled the song to be an instrumental and its original title was 'Take That Lampshade Off Yo Head!,' but once we saw the lyrics Neil [Peart] had written, I knew that the spirit of the lyrics matched the instrumental perfectly and it was just a matter of making them fit and writing the melodies.

"Animate" is a song by Canadian progressive rock band Rush from their 1993 album Counterparts. The song reached number 35 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in 1994, staying on the charts for three weeks.

References

  1. Strong, Martin Charles (1995). The Great Rock Discography. Canongate Press. ISBN   9780862415419.
  2. Greene, Andy (4 March 2015). "Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Rush Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  3. "Top 10 Rush Songs". Live365.com. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  4. "The 50 greatest Rush songs ever | Louder". Loudersound.com. 11 June 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  5. Rush. "The Trees Lyrics". Rush.com. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  6. Iero, Cheech (April 1980). "Neil Peart". Modern Drummer. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  7. "The Trees by Rush Songfacts". Songfacts.com. 2 June 2004. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  8. Ivie, Devon (15 November 2023). "The Most Epic and Obsessive of Rush, According to Geddy Lee" . Retrieved 7 January 2024.