1/24/23: The Trees (Live)

Happy New Year Of The Trees! Here's a song about cutting them down.

There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled,
As the maples scream, "Oppression"
And the oaks just shake their heads.

Did you know there are four different new year celebrations on the Jewish calendar? We have the start of the year, Rosh Hashanah; the new year of the months, the first of Nisan; the new year of the animals, the first of Elul; and the new year of the trees, Tu B’Shevat, which starts tonight.

In practice, Tu B’Shevat is like Jewish Earth Day. It’s a time to focus on planting, nurturing, and appreciating the trees that keep us fed, cool, and safe. You eat a special dinner, maybe plant some saplings, and basically just embrace your inner tree hugger.

So it’s the opposite of the vibe of “The Trees,” which is a parable about polarization, structural inequality, and communal problem solving. (Harder to make a special dinner out of that.)

I’m featuring “The Trees” for the two arborial holidays on our calendar, Tu B’Shevat and Arbor Day. (Spoilers for April, I guess.) Today, we look at one of the many live versions of the song—and, whew, there really are many!

• The “Live at Pinkpop” version off Hemispheres’s 40th anniversary release might be the earliest rendition available on an album, beyond the original studio version.

• The “Live in Canada” version off Exit Stage… Left has an oddly rushed quality, just ever-so-slightly off in tempo and coherence, almost as if Rush were a cover band for its own material.

• Different Stages features a version from 1997 that has a much more relaxed and playful vibe — and the nature sounds at the ending lead right into the beginning of “Xanadu.”

• The Moving Pictures 40th anniversary release showcases Rush’s world-class technicality, with effortlessly precise finger-picking and percussion. Geddy is obviously very comfortable with the lyrics, sing-speaking his way through them in a way almost reminiscent of William Shatner tackling “Rocket Man.”

Ultimately, though, my favorite live version is the one off the Permanent Waves 40th anniversary re-release. Recorded in Manchester, it features a lovely classical guitar interlude and, for some reason, Geddy speaking with an ever-so-faint British accent, like a Canadian Madonna.

Also, in honor of Tu B’Shevat, let me share one of my favorite non-music related Substacks:

The Weekly Anthropocene

, which highlights positive climate stories and successes each week. There have been lots of good trees-related wins lately, from regrowth of fire-scarred redwoods to slowing in Amazonian deforestation to AI-powered agriculture bots and drones that pick apples. I look forward to reading it every week!