I was thinking about a Rush track today. The Trees. I’ve not heard the rock yodelling of Geddy Lee in a yonk, but I used to love it as a teen. Anyway, I’m not so fond of this track. Not because it fails to rock, but because of the subject to which I believe it alludes. Allow me to elucidate;
“There is trouble in the forest, unrest amongst the trees,
For the maples want more sunlight, and the oaks ignore their pleas"
…”So the maples formed a union and demanded equal rights”
…”Now there’s no more oak oppression, for they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe and saw.”
A clear cut polemic against the unions and the scourge of socialism then. If there was such a thing as a meritocracy, or one that could survive more than one generation without nepotism and the special favour that wealth and power bestows, then maybe that would be a fair analogy, Mr Lee.
Anywho, it struck me today, perhaps there is more to it than that.
The maple is a symbol of Canada, the oak a symbol of Britain.
Could this be Mr Lee’s acknowledgement of the native superiority of we Brits, and a call to his countrymen to fight to remain part of the Empire?
I think so.
Buck.
(PS The above entry was to wind-up my Canadian chum on Twitter. She didn’t over-react. *sigh*)