"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, and was long a staple of the band's live performances. On the live album Exit...Stage Left, the song features an extended acoustic guitar introduction titled "Broon's Bane."
"The Trees" | ||||
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Single by Rush | ||||
from the album Hemispheres | ||||
B-side | "Circumstances" | |||
Released |
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Genre | Progressive rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 4:42 | |||
Label | Anthem | |||
Songwriter(s) | Neil Peart, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson | |||
Producer(s) | Rush & Terry Brown | |||
Rush singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"The Trees" on YouTube | ||||
Rolling Stone readers voted the song number 8 on the list of the 10 best Rush songs.[1]
Live365 ranked it the tenth best Rush song.[2]
Classic Rock readers voted "The Trees" the band's 11th best song.[3]
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."[4]
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."[5][6]
Authority control |
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