Απ' όλες τις επεξηγήσεις των στίχων του "the trees" του Peart που συμπαθούσε την όχι και τόσο συμπαθητική Ayn Rand, νομίζω ότι προτιμώ αυτό το twist! :-)Steve from Morpeth, United Kingdom"Without reading every single comment above, as it would be too time consuming, I get the general impression that the argument might be between the Canadians and the Americans, or could be a tale about class inequality or just a quaint story about trees. Whatever the intention when writing the words, sometimes an artist gets back more than what he/she bargained for. History is riddled with profound, unmeaning insights into the human condition or history or philosophy where the author will deny this or that inference but, that don't get them off the hook as people like to read into things despite the original intention. Re The Trees.....I was listening to Hemispheres in 1982 when my dad, and industrial worker and natural socialist, picked up the sleeve and began reading the words. His only fleeting comment was about this song. He said, "Ah, the Canadian Maples and the English Oak's! This is the story of the Canadian independance struggle." I was coming toward a political understanding myself at the time and got what he said immediately. I read the words again myself and took them a stage further. Not only was this a struggle for independance, where the Maples wanted their equal rights, (The Candian bourgoisie wanted to rule themsleves against British Imperialist domination) to see off the rule of the British/English Crown, but that the decisive struggle would only be settled when the working class comes on to the scene of history and brings about a socialist revolution (Hatchet, axe and saw, i.e. Labor/Labour in the UK). I though this was geneius. Not only did the song recognise the struggle between equaly greedy national sections of the ruling class, but that the only real unifying and progressive force would be the working class. If anyone doubts the message, if there is one of course, then I would refer them to the writings of Leon Trotsky and Lenin, who both talked about the inability of the capitalists to carry out the national democratic revolution in the modern era and that only the working class had the ability to settle the colonial revolution for good. Of course history has moved on and these colonian disputes, in the main have been settled, but the process of class struggle is far from over. The capitalists in the UK and Canada are playing a reactionary role in their own back yards, but they are completely bound to one another and complete against one another via the global economy. It is only the working class which has the force of numbers and their position within production in every country which can settle the argument, as suggested in the song, once and for all. Yes indeed, The Trees will all be kept equal with "Hatchet, Axe and Saw!". Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to loss but your Trees!"Παίξτο!https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc