I like trees. Trees give us oxygen, they give us fuel for fires to keep us warm when it’s cold, to cook our food, and to heat water for coffee and tea. Trees give up material with which to build our houses and outbuildings. And the great thing about trees is that they are a renewable resource. When we use them, we can plant more.
I grew up in a house that was heated primarily with wood. From time to time, I’ve been known to tweak the environ-loonies who live in big cities by pointing out that in my life, I have cut down or helped to cut down hundreds of trees. What I don’t tell them is that, between maintaining the woods on the Old Man’s land and various volunteer habitat work I’ve done, I’ve planted or helped plant thousands of trees.
That’s more than you’ll see most soft-handed urban climate scolds doing. But, as I’m continually pointing out, nobody cares about the environment more than those of us who live out in it. We’re just more practical about things.
Back to music. We’ve had Friday music posts now about deserts, jungles, and the ocean, so this week, let’s look into some songs about trees and forests. So, without further ado:
The Beatles, Norwegian Wood (1965): OK, this isn’t really about trees. The title refers to a fake wood product used to make cheap furniture. Even so, this Beatles tune sort of stands out as the first rock song to use an Indian instrument, the sitar, which George Harrison struggled to figure out.
Harrison was new to the sitar and took many takes to get it right. He bought the instrument, which he described as "crummy," and taught himself to play. It was David Crosby of The Byrds who introduced Harrison to the sitar shortly after the folk musician Shawn Phillips had shown him the basic steps. A few months later, Harrison studied the instrument with the Indian musician Ravi Shankar, who helped Harrison explore Eastern music and religion.
Read More: Start Your Weekend Right With Some Great Songs About the Ocean
Derek and the Dominos, Thorn Tree in the Garden (1970): Eric Clapton did some great guitar work on this tune. But it was Bobby Whitlock who wrote the song, intended as an intentionally hurtful metaphor to a housemate who had killed Bobby’s dog, comparing him to a thorn tree. He later said:
Led Zeppelin, Misty Mountain Hop (1971): The Misty Mountains referred to in this song are in Wales, and there are reports that the area was the inspiration for some of the landscapes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series. Jimmy Page reportedly wrote the song while the band was staying at Headley Grange, a country mansion with a recording studio; Page, or so the story goes, wrote this song overnight while the rest of the band was asleep.Fleetwood Mac, Bare Trees (1972): From the 1972 pre-Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham Fleetwood Mac album of the same name, this song was inspired by a poet who lived near where the band was staying while working on this album. She was known as “Mrs. Scarrot,” and the line that inspired this song read "God bless our prefect, perfect grey day with trees so bare – so bare."I was thinking about a snake in the grass and some other ideas, and I thought, 'He's the thorn tree in my garden.' I had this beautiful garden built in my consciousness where I was safe and secure with my little dog and my cat, and there's this thorn tree - that would be the guy who had my little dog put away. I wrote the song, and it just came out of me. I hadn't even put it on paper, and I went out of my bedroom and knocked on his door. I said, 'Come here, I want to play you something.' We sat down at the table in the kitchen, and I played him that song. He said, 'Wow, Bobby, that's beautiful.' I said, 'You're the thorn tree. There's going to come a day when I have the opportunity to record this song, and the whole world will know about it. You'll know what you did to me for the rest of your life.
Read More: Start Your Weekend Right With 7 Great Songs From the Desert
Van Morrison, Redwood Tree (1972): While writing this song, Van Morrison was supposedly living in a rural area near San Francisco, where redwood trees were common. Van Morrison was supposedly inspired by the huge, ancient trees. That’s easy enough to understand; I’ve seen the great redwoods myself, and yes, they are rather inspiring, in that one has to walk up and touch them to make sure something that big is actually real.
Jethro Tull, Songs From the Wood (1977): From the album of the same name, written by Ian Anderson, this tune was inspired by English folk stories and fantastic tales. It’s a neat song from Tull’s folk rock days, evoking images of the deep English woods (yes, I know, Anderson is Scottish, but still) and the people that lived in them.Rush, The Trees (1978): Lots of people try to read things into Rush songs, but this is one where you should instead listen to Rush’s drummer, Neil Peart, who remains the greatest drummer ever:I could run this whole series again, at some point, with country music. If you’d like to see that, let me know; as always, the comments are all yours.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.
