Love this song. The comments above are pretty much dead on with respect to the song's environmentalist themes. I think one additional dimension to the human-trees dynamic is that trees (and other species) don't even comprehend us because they're utterly alien to us. Just as we humans can't fathom how (or if) they think or dream, they can't understand or care about our ideas, values, etc.
I've always liked that the bridge of the song is about the bridge of a guitar or other stringed instrument: "Change the strings and the notes slide/Change the bridge and the strings shift down/Shift the notes and the bridge sings". A connection between these lines and the verses first made sense to me after I tried to adjust the intonation on my guitar -- a procedure that includes making adjustments to the height and angle of its bridge. Unlike tuning the guitar, in which you focus on the pitch of each string individually, intonation affects all strings at once. A small mistake to correct one string can put ALL strings out of adjustment; shift the bridge to bring one string into proper position and you may put the others out of whack. Everything's interrelated, like tundra snows, the African sea, icicles and sulphur springs.
Love this song. The comments above are pretty much dead on with respect to the song's environmentalist themes. I think one additional dimension to the human-trees dynamic is that trees (and other species) don't even comprehend us because they're utterly alien to us. Just as we humans can't fathom how (or if) they think or dream, they can't understand or care about our ideas, values, etc.
I've always liked that the bridge of the song is about the bridge of a guitar or other stringed instrument: "Change the strings and the notes slide/Change the bridge and the strings shift down/Shift the notes and the bridge sings". A connection between these lines and the verses first made sense to me after I tried to adjust the intonation on my guitar -- a procedure that includes making adjustments to the height and angle of its bridge. Unlike tuning the guitar, in which you focus on the pitch of each string individually, intonation affects all strings at once. A small mistake to correct one string can put ALL strings out of adjustment; shift the bridge to bring one string into proper position and you may put the others out of whack. Everything's interrelated, like tundra snows, the African sea, icicles and sulphur springs.