Background
Often the way my songs start is with a single spontaneous line or word substitution that pops into my head without any effort. Lots of Dust started with one line – "What if Langford had less dust?". The two Starlight songs started when I realized that Starlight sounds a lot like "Litebrite". But I also have a large list of eminently parodiable songs that I occasionally go through to see if I can find any inspiration.
Although I've touched on deforestation in a few of my previous parodies, I've always planned to write an entire focused song about it – I was just waiting for the right inspiration. I finally found it, but it wasn't my usual process. This time, instead of coming up with a line or word substitution, I tried to think of songs about trees.
The Canadian prog-rock trio Rush is my favourite band, so the first song that came to my mind was the aptly titled "The Trees". It's a playful song about two factions of trees who are struggling for forest supremacy – you could attempt to read a deeper message into the song, but that would be incorrect, as Neil Peart wrote it in about five minutes with no hidden meanings in mind. I've listened to the song hundreds of times and know it very well, but I thought that I would just put the lyrics down in a document and see if I could transform it into a song about protecting trees from logging.
An hour later, I had a completed song! It's the shortest amount of time I've taken to complete a song. Still a little longer than five minutes, but we can't all be Neil Peart.
Lyrics
There is unrest in old forests There's a struggle for the trees For the choppers want more chopping And folks strongly disagree The trouble with the choppers And they're quite convinced they're right They say that folks are just big softies And then chop everything in sight But the folks can't help from feeling Like they're always getting played And they wonder why the choppers Keep on sharpening their blades There is trouble in our forests And the creatures are all dead As the choppers scream, "Economy"! And folks just shake their heads [Interlude] So the choppers keep on chopping And create a treeless blight "These folks are just too needy Making a profit is our right!" To preserve our old growth forests We must pass provincial laws And protect the trees that we cull From matches, Drax, and saws