Talk:The Trees (Rush song)

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Economically conservative political message?

The lyrics of this song seem to be about the Marxist view of class warfare where the oaks are the rich and the maples are the poor, the overall message being about equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. Has the band ever confirmed this or have any papers or reviews or anything been written on the subject? Rush's 2112 doesn't seem very socially conservative as it seems fairly anti-religious but this song seems economically conservative.

Hmmm... lets not go there lol, the article has a note about the song which directs to [1] where the claim is that it was from a cartoon where trees were fighting.

Realistically the song is about the struggle between Oaks (British national tree) and Maples (Canadian national tree). The song also goes into detail such as how the Oaks were oppressing the Maples (denying them sunlight) "the maples scream oppression and the oaks just shake their heads", "so the Maples formed a union and demanded equal rights" - it seems pretty clear to me what it was about.

As usual, songs are open to personal interpretation though - Dr Chaosdruid suggests you listen to it at least five times every day, twice before bed, for a good nights rest lol Chaosdruid (talk) 22:20, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Removed form article April 2011

Hi

I had to remove some unsourced material. I have posted on the editors talk page asking for refs or a source.

The song itself is somewhat inaccurate in the way that it discusses the fight for sunlight between Oaks and Maples. In a true forest ecosystem, Maples are taller than Oaks, meaning that the Oak trees would be the repressed species not getting enough sunlight. This contradicts the song where Neil Peart says, "...For the Maples want more sunlight- and the Oaks ignore their Pleas."

Chaosdruid (talk) 22:29, 30 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]